Nitin Bhayana: The art of hospitality

BUSINESS CLASS/ Hotels can make serious gains by investing in art

The Grand Hyatt, which opened recently in Mumbai, is the latest to join the club of sophisticated hotels that take their art seriously.

The hotel has commissioned some of Mumbai's finest artists "" Atul Dodiya, Anju Dodiya, Nalini Malani, Jitish Kallat, Prabhakar Kolte and Reena Saini, to name a few, to make large, mostly three-dimensional, works to adorn its public spaces.

Several hotel chains across India have collected and commissioned art for their properties in the past. However, most hotels are now realising, that their indulgence in better interior design has reaped huge profits with the recent rise in art prices.

The Taj group was undoubtedly the pioneer in collecting art. Elisabeth Kerkar tirelessly bought some of the finest pieces by leading artists during the 70s and 80s to enrich these properties. But the extent of the collection is not known well enough to the public.

All of us might be familiar with the Rakesh Shreshta outside the Nalanda bookstore, or the seductive S H Raza in the old lobby of the Mumbai Taj. The fact that equally important works hang in the offices, suites and the rooms of the Taj properties is virtually unknown.

The recently renovated reception of the old wing of the same property comes alive with a stunning Husain, a Ram Kumar and even a Gaitonde, which the hotel recently found buried under heaps of paintings in its dusty store rooms. The Taj has since grown wiser and has had its collection both documented and appraised.

Delhi's answer to Taj Mumbai is not the group's sister properties in the capital, but the ITC-owned Maurya Sheraton. As far as commissions go, this property is undoubtedly the big daddy among them all. But here again, the art treasure is much bigger than meets the eye.

Apart from the riveting Krishen Khanna ceiling, the Husain stained-glass windows and Meera Mukherjee's sculpture at Nandiya Gardens, the real masterpieces hang in the lift lobbies.

Works by almost all the Progressives welcome the hotel guests on each floor. Maurya's art might be impossible to value but it certainly amounts to a sum that will be sufficient to set up a hotel in a mini metro.

Taking a cue from these hospitality chains, hotelier Priya Paul, too, has done a fine job in bringing a more avant garde flavour to her minimal properties. Her Park Hotel in Bangalore has a delightful strawberry pink Jitish Kallat diptych outside the "I BAR". The suites have A Balasubramanian hologram prints that go well with Conran Partners' design of the hotel.

Art in hotels is, surprisingly, one area where the government too has done a decent job. Visionaries like S K Misra changed the texture of the tourism industry in the 80s. Misra brought along his friend Husain to embellish the ITDC hotels like the erstwhile Kanishka.

The Ashok Hotel is no exception. It has the largest collection of J Swaminathan's bird and tree paintings under one roof. Last week, a painting similar to the dozens hanging in the hotel's corridors, sold at the Saffron art auction for Rs 20 lakh.

The Grand Hyatt has done a marvelous job in seeking the help of designer Rajeev Sethi to come up with a wish list of artists for making works for the hotel. Like other hotels, the works will ultimately blend into our lives and living without them would become unthinkable.

After all, what would The Oberoi lobby in Delhi look like without the Amarnath Sehgal sculptures. What if all the colonial art was taken off the corridors of The Imperial ? Other hoteliers should take note that apart from enriching public life, there are serious gains to be made by investing in serious art.

The Taj Mumbai's collection, valued recently, is rumoured to be in excess of Rs 50 crore. It will now be positioned in the balance sheet as an asset and not find place in the inventory of decorative objects. Indeed, there's a lot be said about the art of hospitality.