The exhibition, titled 'A Passionate Eye', hopes to highlight the role played by art collectors in enriching the country's public museums.
For the first time in its history, the National Museum in New Delhi is showcasing a private collection of textiles, paintings and sculptors donated by art collector CL Bharany.
The exhibition, titled 'A Passionate Eye', hopes to highlight the role played by collectors like Mr Bharany in enriching the country's public museums. Mr Bharany has contributed an exquisite selection of items from his collection to the museum in memory of his father RK Bharany.
This special exhibition has close to a hundred items that have been acquired by Mr Bharany and his father over the years from across the country.
Dr Giles Tillotson, one of the exhibition curators, said, "We must acknowledge that there is a limit to the extent to what the government can do and what institutions alone can do to develop such collections." The purpose of this temporary exhibit is to acknowledge and encourage people like Mr Bharany to contribute to Indian Art.
When NDTV spoke to Mr Bharany, he said he had inherited the passion for collecting a variety of art from his late father who did business in whatever pleased his eyes and went on to establish the treasure-trove of 'The House of Bharany's' which has become a paradise for every art lover over the years. At 87, Mr Bharany is equally passionate about art and still invests in whatever holds aesthetic value for him.
Even the exhibit at the National Museum is not done in the classic style of grouping objects chronologically. The display reflects his style of collecting which at best can be described as eclectic.
Mrinalini Venkateshwaran, co-curator of 'A Passionate Eye' sums it up, "The pedigree that most of us associate or rather give objects that are of a certain age or from a certain place, he doesn't do that...what he is focused on is its aesthetic quality and we wanted to reflected his style of collection in the display."