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Anita Choudhrie walks into a ground floor reception room of her Belgravia home looking

immaculate and pared down – no elaborate make-up, no bells and whistles, just simple elegance

and poised demeanour.

This stylised elegance is echoed in the interior, the way the artworks are displayed, the colours...

She is the originator of the family’s passion for art in the sense that she started collecting first

and then inspired her husband, children and thaeir own families to the extent that each of them

has developed an individual taste and a sub-collection of sorts. Certainly, they are all active in

the Stellar International Art Foundation that comprises the collection.

B Beyond met her for a conversation.

BB: What does art collecting mean to you?

AC: Art collecting is a passion - it comes from within. It

is not something that you can cultivate or acquire and

it certainly is not business motivated.

I’ve always been very interested in the arts and in

creativity.

BB: Are you an artist?

AC: I’m not an artist but I think I have an eye for

interiors, decors, fabrics, colours – an aptitude for

putting things together.

I decorated this house myself – it reflects my taste and I

am happy with it.

Collecting is a life-long passion of mine and I am

thrilled that I have been able to transmit it to my entire

family – my husband, my sons and my daughters-in-

law. It’s interesting to observe their awareness of the

art world and how that evolves. They read up on things,

they go to exhibitions and they make acquisitions. I’ve

never sat down with them and attempted to lecture

them on the subject – rather, art collecting has become

a lifestyle and a passion for all of us and I love that. It

probably started with my giving art works as gifts.Mrs. Anita Choudhrie with one of M F Husain’s Chinese Horse paintings, London

M F Husain, ‘Untitled (Horse and Tiger)’

Photograph by Charles Shearn

Anita Choudhrie

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The first painting we ever bought was at the Barbican Centre about

30 years ago. They used to have young artists exhibitions every year

with people coming from all over the world to exhibit. It was a work

by an Italian artist, called Ottavio that we still have at our home in

India.

My style of collecting has evolved since. I now try to collect as much

as possible of a single artist, rather than buy random works. Even if

I have an appreciation for something, I would not necessarily buy it

for this reason alone. Before starting to acquire the works of a new

artist, I would research their background, look at everything they

have produced and take some time before I consider collecting them.

Over the last 35 years I have collected a lot of MF Husain,

Paresh Maity, Jayasri Burman and some of them have even been

commissioned to create 10, 12, 15 paintings to go with a story. MF

Husain’s last few years of works were purchased by our foundation.

He did draw us the cover of his book idea – a book we published

posthumously to celebrate him and his body of work.

He taught us a great deal about collecting: researching, outsourcing

and acquiring pieces of the same period. He was man who liked few

people and respected even fewer. As an artist, he preferred not to

have to break up the body of his work and was looking for a collector

he both respected and appreciated to become the custodian of his

legacy. We also acquired his Ramayana series.

MF Husain had a very clear vision and a sharp business mind. He

was not a typical artist, divorced from reality – rather, he had a keen

awareness of the value of his works and sold them accordingly (he

did, after all, have a large family to support). This did not, however,

detract from the value of his work or from the charisma of his

personality.

We created our foundation in 2008, just for the collection, with

selected works being put on display regularly. We just took part in

the Art Masters in St Moritz where we showed some 100 odd pieces,

mostly by MF Husain from his 1950s period.

St Moritz has been organising an art show every August for the past 7

years and we have been sponsoring them for the last 5.

BB: When did you start collecting?

AC: I started collecting about 35 years ago. It’s not something that

my family cultivated, it was my own thing. I’d go and admire works

at fairs but buying is very much a matter of personal choice. I like

to follow a particular period. For example, with European artists I

focus on the Art Deco period, as well as the ‘modern period’, i.e. from

about 1936 to 1950/60. That’s my special interest and what I would

buy. We have some amazing Russian artists whose works we bought

from a gallery and I have some icons, which I love and keep at home

in India. Mrs. Anita Choudhrie with a triptych by Paresh Maity in the family office, London.

Photograph by Charles Shearn

Bhanu Choudhrie, Mrs. Anita Choudhrie, Simrin Choudhrie, Kishore Singh, Mrs. Sharmila Tagore and Mr. Sudhir Choudhrie at the book launch of M F Husain: The Journey of a Legend at Nira Alpina, Silvaplana.

Photograph by St.Moritz Art Masters/fotoswiss.com/cattaneo

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BB: How large do you envisage the collection to grow?

AC: I don’t think it will ever stop growing

because my children, who enjoy arts a lot,

are going to take over and will continue to

acquire works.

BB: Do you have anyone advising you in terms of purchases? The perception out there is that major art collectors always have an advisory committee. But the majority of people I meet know exactly what they like. Let’s say that an artist decides that his works would fit in well with your collection, how would they go about approaching you?

AC: It would be by way of introduction. As

you know, the art market is huge, but there

probably aren’t a lot of very good artists to

fit serious collectors’ specific requirements.

There are a lot of mediocre and poor artists

who manage to sell but good artists do not

need to pander to, or impress collectors –

their work speaks for itself.

BB: Would you pluck someone from complete obscurity if you liked them well enough?

AC: I am not terribly keen on contemporary

art. I think the method contemporary

artists use for applying paint on canvas

is completely different to how it was

traditionally done. A lot of it is photographic.

I enjoy looking at beautiful things and would

walk into a fair, show or exhibition – I try

to go to most in this part of the world – but

I think the majority of works out there are

to enjoy rather than to buy to add to the

collection. Amongst the contemporary artists

whose works I appreciate and enjoy greatly

are Botero and Britto. A friend introduced me

to them and now, I would go and see them

and would buy something if I like it very

much.

I don’t buy on an impulse, ever. I don’t want

to just fill up my walls with artwork. If

you just look at art from an interior design

perspective, you have to see what looks good

in terms of space, colour schemes or how the

works fit in with the overall interior of your

home. But I don’t treat art so frivolously. I

think of art as a subject you have to study. If

you’re going to invest time, effort and a lot of

money into it, why would you go and pick up

something at random, on an impulse?

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Guillaume Alix (CEO Cartier Suisse), Käthy Dobers (Cartier St.Moritz), Rupert Simoner (Director Kempinski neu Kempinski Wien at the Bollywood Gala Night Kempinski Grand Hôtel de Bains, St. Moritz.

M.K.Lokesh (Ambassador of India to Switzerland), Kaethy Dobers (Cartier St.Moritz) with Swiss Ambassador to India Dr. Linus von Castelberg at the Mercedes Benz Opening Night Event at the Posthaus Lounge St. Moritz

StMoritz Art Masters 2014

Anita and Sudhir Choudhrieat the St.Moritz Art Masters 2014

Mercedes Benz Opening Night, the Posthaus Lounge.

Domino Ettlin, Daniel Schoener, Max Wiener, Matthias Brunner at the Bollywood Gala Night Kempinski Grand Hôtel Des Bains, St. Moritz

Photography by St.Moritz Art Masters/fotoswiss.com/cattaneo

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BB: Do your children share your taste?

AC: I believe they do most of the time. If it’s something

they don’t perhaps like, they would still appreciate the

fact that I do and would not say anything.

Similarly, I respect and appreciate their taste. When they

bought Warhol’s Mao’s, for example, I thought ‘that’s

nice’. It is not something I would buy, but I appreciate

it on their walls. They are developing their own tastes. I

admire the fact that they have the confidence to make

their own choices.

BB: Will you ever have a permanent home for the collection?

AC: I hope so – both here in the UK and in India. But it will

take another 2 or 3 years before we begin to pursue this.

BB: What, according to you, is the definition of art today?

AC: I think art critics are largely responsible for

distorting the perception of what art is today. I believe

there should be boundaries between true art and

pretentious works that parade as art. This would also

give artists a better chance for recognition, more space

and better opportunities to exhibit their works. There

needs to be a proper definition and limitation of what

art is. Art traditionally has always been paint and

canvas, paint and paper, which is where most of the

hard work and creativity come into play. Creativity that

is in the mind is just the manifestation of an idea.

For example, I have two panels that are incredibly

intricate and must have taken the artist 5-6 months

each to work on. When you put that under the same roof

at a fair or an exhibition, alongside some contemporary

works, you would appreciate my point.…….

BB: What else do you do apart from collecting art?

AC: My foremost “project” in life is being a wife and a

mother - and now a grandmother. I adore my family -

they come first and before anything else. I also do some

philanthropy work, which takes me over at times.

I have a personal philanthropy project both in the UK

and in India that is hugely important to me. It started

with me becoming a patron for a disability school in

India which is beautifully run by a lady with whom it is

a real privilege to work. She acquired a small piece of

land with a government grant on which she erected a

tent for 5 disabled children. She went on to develop her

own educational system that has been so successful

that other countries and governments are now asking

her to share it with them. She’s just been invited by the

Mauritian government to help them establish a similar

school for physically challenged children. There are

now about 500 children in the original school and she

teaches them occupational works and skills that serve

them well in life, as opposed to simply giving them a

diploma. The school celebrated its 25th anniversary and

I am helping them raise funds to set up a new one.

I registered a charity in the UK 8 years ago, a foundation

called Path to Success, which supports them, as well as a

new charity I adopt every other year. B

STELLAR INTERNATIONAL ART FOUNDATION was established in 2008 and took as its basis the private collection of the Choudhrie family.

Currently the Foundation comprises over 600 works by an array of Indian and Western Contemporary artists ranging from painting to sculpture.

The collection began in the 1970s when the Choudhrie family began to purchase works of art. This led to intimate relationships with some of India’s most important contemporary artists including M F Husain, Paresh Maity and Jayasri Burman.

At the point the Foundation was created, the collection changed direction to focus on Western and American Contemporary Art, selecting important works by the most important contemporary artists working today.

The Foundation seeks to promote artists within the collection through international exhibition, loans, publications and events.

Stellar International Art FoundationMossfon building, Second Floor, East 54th Street, Panama, Republic of Panama

Mrs. Anita Choudhrie with a painting by M F Husain, London

M F Husain, “Untitled (Ganesh Chaturthi)"

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Photography by St.Moritz Art Masters/fotoswiss.com/cattaneo

Trishna Dance Group performing at the Cartier and Stellar International Art Foundation co-sponsored gala, Kempinski Grand Hôtel Des Bains, St. Moritz

Rupak Kuklarni accompanied by Shrirang Mirajkar at the Cartier and Stellar International Art Foundation co-sponsored gala, Kempinski Grand Hôtel Des Bains, St. Moritz

Press Conference at the Posthaus Lounge, St.Moritz Art Masters 2014.

Reiner Opoku, (Founder / Artistic Director) speaks at the St.Moritz Art Masters 2014 Press Conference.