Robin Williams, who committed suicide this week, may not go down in history as a major patron of art - he once joined a group of donors to secure a loan of Polish artist Magdalena Abakanowicz's work for display at Grant Park, Chicago - but the late Lauren Bacall collected Henry Moore's sculptures somewhat more assiduously. Other Hollywood A-listers have been more ambitious. Madonna has a pricey collection of works by Frida Kahlo, Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, portraitist Tamara de Lempicka, and pop darling Damien Hirst. Movie mogul David Geffen has a top-billed collection, reputedly Hollywood's most expensive, including works by artists Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock. Steve Martin (collects Pablo Picasso, Jeff de Kooning, Georgia O' Keefe, Cy Twombly and Roy Lichtenstein), Jack Nicholson (supports the popular Jack Vettriano), Steven Spielberg and George Lucas are among the biggies who collect art seriously.
We know that Jennifer Aniston collects art, as does Tobey Maguire. The Paris Photo show this year, held close to Paramount, drew Brad Pitt (big on the anonymous Banksy), Jodie Foster, Orlando Bloom, Jamie Lee Curtis, Gwyneth Paltrow and Demi Moore. Filmmaker Sofia Coppola is known to have bought works by Tracey Emin, Elizabeth Peyton and William Eggleston. Leonardo DiCaprio, who sketched Kate Winslett in the nude for his role in Titanic, is a real-life art collector who frequents art fairs and auctions, hoping to pass unnoticed among the crowds, though publicly he has been part of LACMA'a Art + Film Gala where, in 2013, he helped set sales records for 13 artists and raised $38 million for charity in one night alone. Among his favourites are Basquiat, Urs Fischer, and presumably Takashi Murakami for whose unfinished work he once famously paid $700,000.
Now turn to Bollywood. Name one actor, or director who collects art. We know the stars hang works by well-known artists on their walls. Whether the Bachchans or Shah Rukh Khan, Anil Kapoor or Shilpa Shetty - their homes have featured enough times in celebrity glossies to allow us a glimpse into their lives. But collect? Now, that's a different ball game altogether, and not one where you'll find Bollywood seriously involved. The indifference cuts across generations. We know as little about artists Dev Anand or Dilip Kumar might have preferred over others as we do of, say, Deepika Padukone of Priyanka Chopra's taste in art. As actors, they've spoken out for musicians, dancers, other entertainers; they've supported fashion designers; but where art is concerned, they have kept an inexplicably low profile. Is it because they don't understand it enough, or are too absorbed in a narcissistic world to even consider a creative process beyond their own. The least they could do is empathise - their lives, like those of the artists, are essentially lonely ones. Yet, can you name one Bollywood actor who is publicly a friend with any artist?
Which makes Bal Chhabada's story even more fascinating. Chhabada went to Hollywood to train in the 1950s, returned to Mumbai to make a ruinous disaster called Do Raha, and went on to play a peripheral role in Bollywood. In the film, however, he had used works by M F Husain, who soon became a friend. Through him, he ended up meeting the Progressives, opened a wonderful galley called Gallery 59, created a salon for the nation's most talented artists, and went on to become a painter himself. He was neither prolific nor as well known as his peers, but Chhabada's respect for art and artists deserves a film of its own. Today, his works pop up at auctions and command at least respectable prices. Salman Khan has much to measure up to.
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
We know that Jennifer Aniston collects art, as does Tobey Maguire. The Paris Photo show this year, held close to Paramount, drew Brad Pitt (big on the anonymous Banksy), Jodie Foster, Orlando Bloom, Jamie Lee Curtis, Gwyneth Paltrow and Demi Moore. Filmmaker Sofia Coppola is known to have bought works by Tracey Emin, Elizabeth Peyton and William Eggleston. Leonardo DiCaprio, who sketched Kate Winslett in the nude for his role in Titanic, is a real-life art collector who frequents art fairs and auctions, hoping to pass unnoticed among the crowds, though publicly he has been part of LACMA'a Art + Film Gala where, in 2013, he helped set sales records for 13 artists and raised $38 million for charity in one night alone. Among his favourites are Basquiat, Urs Fischer, and presumably Takashi Murakami for whose unfinished work he once famously paid $700,000.
Now turn to Bollywood. Name one actor, or director who collects art. We know the stars hang works by well-known artists on their walls. Whether the Bachchans or Shah Rukh Khan, Anil Kapoor or Shilpa Shetty - their homes have featured enough times in celebrity glossies to allow us a glimpse into their lives. But collect? Now, that's a different ball game altogether, and not one where you'll find Bollywood seriously involved. The indifference cuts across generations. We know as little about artists Dev Anand or Dilip Kumar might have preferred over others as we do of, say, Deepika Padukone of Priyanka Chopra's taste in art. As actors, they've spoken out for musicians, dancers, other entertainers; they've supported fashion designers; but where art is concerned, they have kept an inexplicably low profile. Is it because they don't understand it enough, or are too absorbed in a narcissistic world to even consider a creative process beyond their own. The least they could do is empathise - their lives, like those of the artists, are essentially lonely ones. Yet, can you name one Bollywood actor who is publicly a friend with any artist?
Which makes Bal Chhabada's story even more fascinating. Chhabada went to Hollywood to train in the 1950s, returned to Mumbai to make a ruinous disaster called Do Raha, and went on to play a peripheral role in Bollywood. In the film, however, he had used works by M F Husain, who soon became a friend. Through him, he ended up meeting the Progressives, opened a wonderful galley called Gallery 59, created a salon for the nation's most talented artists, and went on to become a painter himself. He was neither prolific nor as well known as his peers, but Chhabada's respect for art and artists deserves a film of its own. Today, his works pop up at auctions and command at least respectable prices. Salman Khan has much to measure up to.
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