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17/1/2007

Private / Corporate IV

Daimler Contemporary, Berlin

The Lekha and Anupam Poddar Collection
in dialogue with the DaimlerChrysler Collection

Private/Corporate IV is the fourth in a series of exhibitions, which was initiated in 2002, and in which the DaimlerChrysler Collection presents itself in a dialogue with an international private collection once a year. Since 2002, cooperation has always revolved around a focusing on what is characteristic for both the private collector invited and the development of the DaimlerChrysler Collection: conceptual trends and international contemporary positions of “reduced art" (dialogue with Paul Maenz, Berlin, 2002), minimal and post-minimal art (dialogue with Ileana Sonnabend, New York, 2003), German positions in the borderland of abstraction, figuration and minimalism (dialogue with Heliod Spiekermann, Dusseldorf, 2005). Anupam Poddar (*1974), the dialogue partner for Private/Corporate IV, ranks among the most significant art collectors in India. The extensive collection was initiated by his mother, Lekha Poddar. The rather small number of significant private collections in India have one thing in common, namely that they have concentrated exclusively on national art to date. Against this background, the collection of Anupam Poddar differs in that it reflects a cross- discipline interest, comprising pictures, objects, sculptures, installations, photography and video art, while at the same time integrating selected representatives of Indian folk art. Poddar comes from a family of industrialists who own, among other things, the Sirpur Paper Mills in the south of India. Poddar himself runs the award-winning Devi Garh hotel in Rajasthan. The exhibition comprises over 60 works by some 30 artists, most of them from India, from the collections of Anupam Poddar and DaimlerChrysler.

At the time of writing the collection holds about 2100 works, including some commissions. Ceramics has been largely excluded as a field, but about 800 works of ethnic or folk art (tribal art) figure in the core collection. The collection grows weekly, with additions in the fields of contemporary art and folk art. In future selections from the collection, presented thematically, are also to be accessible to the public in an exhibition venue specially created in New Delhi. Anupam Poddar runs a ‘boutique hotel’ called Devi Garh outside Udaipur in Rajasthan, which he established with his mother in the year 2000. They have just been voted ‘Hotel with Best Ambience and De'cor in all Asia’ by Conde Nast Traveler and put on the Gold List for 2006.

Our co-operation with Anupam Poddar started with a two-week visit to Bombay and New Delhi, arranged by the Bombay-based gallery owner Ranjana Steinrucke. This provided an opportunity not just to get to know the contemporary Indian art scene, but also to visit about twenty important private collections. While the focus varied considerably in individual cases, we still met only Indian exponents of narrative, figurative art, in many cases showing explicitly political commitment. This also applies to the Poddar Collection, though it also convinced us with the breadth of its interest and an extraordinarily active collecting policy that is not averse to risk. So in this case the challenge lay in interrogating the DaimlerChrysler Collection, which concentrates on the abstract avant-garde in the 20 century to the present day, in order to find works in it that could trigger a meaningful and exciting dialogue with the Poddar Collection.

As a response to this questions, it seemed an attractive idea to show a large commissioned work by David Salle in public for the first time that otherwise hangs permanently at DaimlerChrysler Financial Services in Berlin. Poster painting for the Indian film industry has regularly provided a key stimulus for Salle’s highly allusive painting since the 1980s. Other links emerged with critically and politically motivated positions in the DaimlerChrysler Collection: K.R.H. Sonderborg, his pupil Tobias Hauser, then artists like Buetti, Herold und Jaar. As well as this, we are also presenting for the first time a group of large paintings addressing contemporary self-awareness with particularly masculine or feminine characteristics by the Georgian-born painter Tamara K.E., who lives in Dusseldorf. This constellation is complemented by new DaimlerChrysler Collections acquisitions in the field of contemporary Indian art.

From the Poddar Collection: Jyothi Basu, Sheba Chhachhi, Krishanaraj Chonat, Atul Dodiya, Anita Dube, Probir Gupta, Shilpa Gupta, Subodh Gupta, N.S. Harsha, Anant Joshi, Bharti Kher, Pushpamala N., T.S. Nagarajan, Jagannath Panda, Ravinder Reddy, T.V. Santosh, Mithu Sen, Dayanita Singh (alle IND).

From the Collection DaimlerChrysler: Daniele Buetti (CH), Tobias Hauser (D), Georg Herold (D), Alfredo Jaar (Chile), Sonia Khurana (IND), Justin Ponmany (IND), David Salle (USA), Dayanita Singh (IND), K.R.H. Sonderborg (D), Tamara K.E. (GUS)

Image: Subodh Gupta, Vilas, 2000. C-Print, Vaseline, Chair. Collection Lekha and Anupam Poddar

18 Jan 11 a.m.
Press talk with Dr. Renate Wiehager and Anupam Poddar
Introduction in the year's programme
Presentation of the new publication Minimalism and After

Opening, thursday, January 18, 2007, 7 pm

DaimlerChrysler Contemporary
Alte Potsdamer Strasse 5 - Berlin
Opening hours: daily 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.

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