Painting Freedom: A Collector's Perspective

Event Description

A exhibition walk-through with collector, Nirmalya Kumar.

The journey of Indian artists from Calcutta to define Indian modern art during the first quarter of the 20th century and how one happened to build a museum quality collection.

Join collector, Nirmalya Kumar on a walk-through of Painting Freedom: Indian Modernism and its Three Rebels.

Sessions at 13:30 & 14:30 in Gallery 11

Drop-in session, no tickets needed.

Nirmalya Kumar is a passionate supporter of Indian art. Previously a patron of The British Museum, he has also served on the South Asian Acquisition Committee for Tate Modern. Over three decades, his collection of Bengal School, 1900-1950, has focused on Jamini Roy (considered to be the father of Indian modern art), Hemen Mazumdar (primary exponent of academic realism in Indian art) and Rabindranath Tagore (Nobel laureate 1913).

Nirmalya frequently lends works to exhibitions. In 2014, BBC Radio 4 aired a 30 minute documentary on his London collection entitled “From Bengal to Baker Street”. In 2015, the Museo Delle Culture in Lugano Switzerland curated a Jamini Roy exhibition with 65 works from his collection. In 2019, Singapore Management University hosted Hemen Mazumdar: The Last Romantic based on 36 works from his Singapore collection. For his contributions to South Asian art, the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) awarded Nirmalya an honorary fellowship in 2012.

In his professional life, Nirmalya is Lee Kong Chian Professor of Marketing at Singapore Management University and Distinguished Fellow at INSEAD Emerging Markets Institute. Prior to this, heading strategy as Member-Group Executive Council at Tata Sons, he reported to Cyrus Mistry, the Chairman for the $100 billion Tata group. Professor Kumar previously taught at Columbia University, Harvard Business School, IMD (Switzerland), London Business School, and Northwestern University (Kellogg School of Management). He has also appeared on the 50 Best B-School professors in the world and 50 most influential Business School professors.

Back to What's On