For those who have seen it, Death of a Pope is arguably the best painting of F N Souza’s career — but you can decide for yourself now, with the 1962 work on view by appointment only at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sanghralaya where the efforts of collector Jehangir Nicholson to dedicate his 800-odd works to the nation have finally found a home in a 4,500 sq ft wing in his name, to be managed by a foundation that has liquidated his assets to manage the collection.
All this, alas, a decade after Nicholson’s death. The collector struggled in his lifetime to find an appropriate place to set up a museum to house his collection, but art and culture is a low state priority, so Nicholson’s extensive collection of modernists all the way down to more recent contemporaries had to wait to find a permanent home — in this case, an endowment that will enrich the museum’s own collection that has been largely supported by the Tatas. It is interesting that the Jehangir Nicholson Gallery at the museum should have opened when another “bequest” — that of Jamshed Bhabha — is going under the hammer in a bid to raise funds for the National Centre of Performing Arts. Interestingly, part of the Nicholson collection too hung at the NCPA — the collector’s attempt even then to allow the public access to some of his paintings.
These are stray examples of endowments, foundations or bequests enriching our existing museums, which could do with such infusions — the National Gallery of Modern Art, for instance, can hardly lay claim to any good Souzas, though it does other modernists (such as M F Husain or Tyeb Mehta) credit. The Amrita Sher-Gils at NGMA owe much to the artist’s family, whose attempt to place it in the national collection has proved rewarding to art-lovers, scholars and students who would have otherwise been denied access to her works.
In recent years, the practice of private museums seems to have acquired some steam, but there is a strange ennui among government institutions when it comes to accepting either collections or corporate funds — in the absence of a policy, this is left to the discretion of the Ministry of Culture — which mars the confidence of those who might want to make a contribution. For however flawed their personal vision might be, art collectors enjoy the pick of the crop because they are immune from the stocktaking-like agenda of most art bodies (which follow a tender-like process that must take into account price+artist’s school+ geographical representation). It is this that makes the Nicholson collection so commendable — besides the Souzas, Husains and Gaitondes, there are works by women artists such as Nasreen Mohammedi and Anjolie Ela Menon, and includes the then emerging lights Anju Dodiya and Jitish Kallat. While the collection is weighed in favour of Bombay-based artists, Nicholson must be credited with an eye that chose works that would have an existence beyond just their present.
For now, the collection at the Sanghralaya has a shelf-life of 15 years, beyond which it might have to be re-negotiated, or re-financed, by when more foundations might come out to pledge funds to manage such endowments. However, it is only when those who have deep pockets but buy art only as something to put on their own walls, whether as individuals or as companies, start putting out their collections for public consumption, that we will have a culture of bequests. The Times of India Group, or the house of Tatas, or ITC might want to consider the path shown by Nicholson — who would have thought that a lonely widower’s affair with collecting art would become the social event of the season when the gallery opened to throngs of the city’s culturati this week!
Kishore Singh is a Delhi-based writer and art critic. These views are personal and do not reflect those of the organisation with which he is associated