Something old, something new

Gallerist Shalini Gupta's house is an eclectic mix of contemporary art and memorabilia.

Shalini Gupta, the brain behind Tasveer, India's first gallery dedicated to photography, is at heart a collector. And this is reflected in every corner of her home in New Delhi.

We are escorted into a small study that, like almost every other room in the house, reflects both her design sensibility and the love for collecting she shares with her husband Vivek.

The room proudly houses 11 radios from the 1950s; two fans from the same era flank this collection, while on the wall above is an ultra-modern sculpture by Anita Dube. Two hands, a sculpture by Balasubramanium, grace the other wall, while yet another sculpture, this one by Subodh Gupta, is placed on the floor. There are also two paintings, one each by Bharti Kher and Hema Upadhya, while the attached bathroom has photographs by Raghu Rai. And all this in just one room.

"My husband and I have been collecting art for over 15 years now. Vivek started the collection as he was very passionate about it and then I also started enjoying it," recalls Gupta.

"Actually, my husband is passionate about collecting all of this," she says, indicating the radios, the bicycle models, old film posters, tribal art, labels, photographs that predate the gallery and, of course, the formidable art and sculpture collection that the couple has built up over the years. "The entire house", says Gupta, "is a blend of the old and the new."

The formal living room is an amalgam of art works in different mediums and from different ages. Gupta points out, with the practised ease of a collector the various artists in the room.

An easily recognisable sculpture by G Ravinder Reddy sits on a corner table. A scroll by Neelima Sheikh hangs prominently on one side of the room and a hemp installation by Mrinalini Mukherjee faces another part of the seating area.

On a wall, right at the entrance, hang portraits of the Gupta family shot by the famous photographer Dayanita Singh. Says Gupta, "We are offering this service from our Tasveer photographers, to have them come and shoot your family portraits. It's so much nicer to have a creative photographer come and shoot the family."

Recounting the time when Dayanita Singh came to take their family portrait, Gupta says, "She told us that please don't have any fights before and during the shoot as the body language completely changes in the picture."

A painting by Jitish Kallat and an old brass lamp placed on a coffee table are some of the other elements of the room. And it doesn't end there. The room also has works by the following artists: Anju Dodiya, Prabhakar Barve, M F Husain, Jogen Chowdhury, Jamini Roy, Surendran Nair and so on. There is also a table by Anjum Singh in a very contemporary design.

In another room, there are works by Rekha Rodwittiya, Mithu Sen, Sheila Makhijani, Zakir Husain, Arpita Singh, Natraj Sharma, Prajakta Potnis, a sculpture by Sojwal Sawant, four old fans and two Nandi bulls in bright blue and bright red atop a large cabinet. Laughs Gupta while recalling how her two daughters, one aged 13 and the other 10, reacted to the two bulls, "My younger daughter told me that the house was getting spookier and spookier and how we had the most weird stuff here."

In the TV room, there are all kinds of bicycle models, some of which are hung on a wall. Says Gupta, "This is the room where I just chill out. My husband is very fond of these cycles. Now, friends and family pick them up when they are travelling and gift them to him. So there is a nice collection."

Gupta's collection is so vast that it isn't possible to put all of it on display at the same time. She and her husband also have a collection of carpets done by prominent artists like S H Raza, Arpita Singh and so on. There is also an absolutely stunning collection of tribal art by one of the most prominent practitioners of it, Janghad Singh Shyam, that has been stored till Gupta can find the space to showcase it.

The sheer volume and scale of all that the Guptas have collected over the years means that they are now contemplating calling in professionals to help catalogue it.

Says Gupta, "We have started getting the paintings and sculptures catalogued. It's an ongoing process. But it needs to be done, otherwise you tend to forget what all there is since it is not in front of you."

And forgetting such a collection would be a real pity.