Anupam Poddar took over the reins of his mother’s collection of modern art in 2000 when he began adding to the collection works by India’s younger generation of artists; artists with a vision he felt he could relate to. The extensive collection was initiated by his mother, Lekha Poddar in the 1970s, originally with works by the Progressive Artists’ Group and others who were active during that period.

Poddar began with works by Delhi-based artists such as Bharti Kher and Subodh Gupta. Having just moved into a large farmhouse outside of Delhi, the Poddar family acquired more art for their new home. Over the last six years they have been following cutting-edge developments taking place across India. Slowly overcoming inhibitions in terms of subject matter/content and the question of space for the proper display of installation and new media art, they have been expanding their collection purposefully.

Their collection of Indian art remains essentially a family collection and is now considered to be one of the largest in the world, with over 2000 works that include commissions and folk art. The collection will be made accessible to the public with the opening of the Devi Art Foundation this year.

The talk was held at Bloomberg on 10 September 2007. This is part of AAA's South Asia talk series focusing on contemporary art in South Asia, sponsored by Christie’s and Bloomberg.

Video by Bloomberg.