From polymers to paintings

For the 15 artists who traversed the old silk route in China over a fortnight last month, it was a once-in-a life-time opportunity to soak in ideas and influences of an ancient civilisation.

For the sponsor, Rakesh Agrawal, managing director of Vadodara-based Lanxess ABS Ltd, a polymer resins joint venture, travelling down the road was a step closer to achieving a long-cherished goal: collecting works for his future art centre and museum.

Agrawal's proposed 30-acre Uttarayan Art Centre, on the banks of Mahi, 20 km from Vadodara, is an entrepreneurial venture to be run by his family members under a Foundation.

"I've always been passionate about art," says Agrawal. "My dream was to set up a public museum with state-of-the-art facilities."

Currently, Agrawal is collecting works for the centre. "In five years, I hope to collect 5,000 works," he says. He already owns 1,000 paintings. At least 50 works will be generated from the China trip.

That explains why artists such as Sudarshan Shetty, Shibu Natesan and PR Daroj were taken to China's 4th century BC Buddhist caves of Kuche, to Dunhuang, and to cities such as Xian and Kashgar. Others at the camp were S Radhakrishan, Anjolie Ela Menon, Rini Dhumal, Manjit Bawa, Jatin Das and Paresh Maity.

The centre will have studios for digital art, painting and ceramics, and a large foundry for sculptors to work in. The campus will also have 10 air-conditioned cottages where Indian and international artists could stay and work.

Agrawal is tightlipped about the investments in the project. "It will cost few crores of rupees," is all he says.

Two years ago, Agrawal was instrumental in setting up the 6,200 sq ft Lanxess ABS Art Gallery (earlier known as the Bayer ABS gallery) at the 10-storeyed Bayer glass tower in Vadodara. He controls 19 per cent stake in the gallery business, the rest being with the company.

Agrawal, who studied chemical engineering in the US and set up a styrenics polymer manufacturing plant in 1978, was not always an art buff. He started buying art only in 1995.

In1997, the Bayer group acquired a 51 per cent stake in his company ABS Industries. Last week, the company underwent a name change (it was earlier called Bayer ABS Ltd) as part of the global restructuring at Bayer's.

Of the 1,000 works he's acquired in the last 10 years, Agrawal has not sold a single one. His collection includes works of Baroda's famed poet-painter Bhupen Khakhar, Raja Ravi Verma, Akbar Padamsee, M F Husain and Nandalal Bose among others.

"I hold two exhibitions of my personal collection at the Bayer's gallery every year," he says. Two years ago, Bayer had taken Shamshad Husain and Suhas Roy to Egypt.

"We have lined up a programme to take artists to old civilisations every two years," says Agrawal who sponsored the China trip in his personal capacity.