The Art of Appreciation

Punam Chopra, who owns a tax consultant firm Diwan P N Chopra Company, has grown up in a house that resembles a museum. ‘‘We have quite a few Ram Kumars and Krishen Khannas at home. Earlier, we preferred buying instinctively. But now with prices rocketting, I want to know why a certain painting is good and why another isn’t,’’ she says.

It is no longer enough to trust one’s instinct when it comes to modern art. Especially with the entry of auction houses and the corporatisation of the art market. As Bhayana points out, ‘‘The market tells you what everyone likes. It makes a collective decision.’’ So, one can understand when Anjali, a school teacher, says, ‘‘I want to know what to appreciate and how to appreciate.’’

The auction house Bowrings has begun to hold lectures around the time of its auctions, along the lines of international houses like Christie’s and Sotheby’s. ‘‘We recently got an expert from UK to give a lecture on carpets in Mumbai a few days before our carpet auction. People were curious about the history of carpets, the significance of designs etc,’’ says Patrick Bowring, head of the house. Scholarship sure has its role to play in the art mart.

It is for this reason that ex-actor Pooja Bedi-Ebrahim has signed up for a 12-session-long art course at Anupa Mehta’s Art Club in Mumbai. ‘‘I don’t understand art the way my mother did,’’ says the lissome Bedi. She relates how she was intimidated by the crows in Anjolie Ela Menon’s paintings until the artist told her during an interaction that the crow was her friend, someone who kept her company when she was alone. ‘‘It changed my perspective on her work,’’ she smiles, sitting in a hall in the Oberoi, where the classes are being held.

Then there is the highly reputed year-long course organised by Dr Rashmi Poddar at the Bombay University which has had people like writer Vikram Chandra, socialite Nisha Jamwal and art critic Ranjit Hoskote queuing up for it in the past. The new found desire for ‘instant art knowledge’ is also fuelled by the need to depend less on interior decorators and art dealers. It is the reason why Kusum Ansal, Deepika Jindal and Seema Jajodia organised short art courses at the FICCI’s Ladies Organisation (FLO) and at the Jindal Art Centre respectively.

‘‘My friends and I get carried away by what dealers tell us or what is in fashion,’’ explains Seema Jajodia, of the Jindal industrial family. ‘‘I remember buying a red abstract painting because I was into the colour at the time but it was time I looked for more.’’ It was this need which prompted Jajodia to organise an art course for her friends along with her sister-in-law Deepika Jindal.

Adds Shalu Jindal, wife of steel magnate, Naveen Jindal, and another sister-in-law of Jajodia, ‘‘I have two homes to do up, one in Delhi and the other in Raigarh. And I don’t want anyone telling me what I should hang on my walls.’’

Kusum Ansal, wife of real estate developer, Sushil Ansal, admits to preferring classical art to modern art. ‘‘We belong to the old culture and art emphasises our values. Modern art is for the noveau-riche,’’ she says dismissively. But there is a desire to learn about modern art nonetheless, one that propelled her to organise a two-day course for women enterprenuers during her tenure as FLO president.

‘‘We participated in a mock auction. We were taught how to bid and how much to bid. But most importantly, we did the course because we didn’t want to be cheated,’’ admits Ansal. She likes ‘‘Rajasthani paintings’’ and has works by Anu Naik, Anjana Kutiala and Satish Gupta. ‘‘Now they tell me that these artists are no longer in fashion,’’ she sighs.

Even the Young Presidents Organisation (YPO), an exclusive club of high-profile CEOs has frequent sessions on art. Says Pooja Sood, of Khoj, an organisation which promotes art in new mediums, who recently held a lecture for YPO members, ‘‘Most of them know about conventional mediums like oil. But they want to know more about installation art — whether it was simply a trend or if it had something to it.’’

Art courses, it seems, are also here to fill the need of being able to make an intelligent conversation as well as for investing in the right artists. But perhaps it is important to remember the old adage: Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, it’s time to open them.