Page 26 - The MoMA/ Guggenheim issue of World of Art magazine (2001)

THE COLLECTION IS mY ArTWorK
An Interview with ranbir singh

by Christopher Chambers

ranbir Singh is based out of New York and Brussels. He has a financial and investment background focusing primarily on technology
ventures; first in food production and later in the computer field and Internet startups. He was raised in India and attended
college in canada. His first encounter with Western art was a Toulouse lautrec that hung in the Kapurthala Palace, a former
maharaja’s palace that was converted into the grade school that mr. Singh attended while still a small child in India, launching
his lifelong fascination. He presently has between two hundred fifty and three hundred works of art in his collection.

CHRISTOPHER CHAMBERS: When did you start collecting art? r.S.: I like to come to artists at an early stage. early work by most
rANBIr SINGH: I started collecting when I was nineteen. artists is amongst the strongest body of work they will ever produce.
CC: What was the first significant work of art that you purchased? And It is also the time when you really have to trust your intuition and take
do you remember how much it cost? risks, a leap of faith - the very same thing that a young artist is doing
rS: The first significant thing was a Jasper Johns screenprint, which I and struggling with. I am drawn to a fresh way of looking at something.
bought for $500 in 1978. When I look at Albert oehlin’s work that I have, I like the casual way it
CC: Do you have any idea what it is worth today? is done. But he is at the edge, and the casualness belies the moment
rS: oh, perhaps $2,000, $3,000, something like that. Together with that I when you realize he has taken you beyond the big cats in abstract
had bought rauschenberg, lichtenstein, you know, that whole group of painting. donald Baechler makes great art that looks unsettlingly
Americans. I couldn’t afford to buy paintings because they were already simple and complex. His images stay with you. donald is one of the
very expensive and I was a student. I remember (the British artist) top American painters today. erik Parker’s paintings have the feel of
Francis Bacon at that point was already $50,000 for a small head. So I music and outsider art yet their slice of history is so inventively insider
looked at other mediums, which I could afford. I built up a very fine print that they are full of light and alchemy. John currin, les rogers and
collection. Then around 1986 I sold it to start buying original artworks. George condo are iconoclastic painters whose paintings you want to
The collection was sold probably two years too early, two years later dive into. I greatly admire rosemarie Trockel’s woolworks from the mid
some of the prints I had were going for $100,000 or more. 1980’s. The sensual warmth and coolness of these work is amazing and
CC: What is your most recent purchase? they just take you higher each time you are in their presence. Jonathan
rS: The most recent things would be erik Parker’s ‘Ain’t All Good’ that meese’s paintings, like Albert oehlen’s, are top and ten years too early.
I acquired in Tokyo and an Andy Warhol ‘ladies & Gentleman’ painting late Warhol is overlooked and is great.
which I acquired in New York. CC: Do you have relationships with any museums?
CC: Are you comfortable saying what you paid for them? rS: Not really, no. Perhaps one day I would like to investigate giving
rS: I think erik’s prices are, like, around fifteen thousand and the Andy a part of my collection to a museum in India. many artists have been
Warhol was five or six times that. to India and taken a lot from it. But no one has given back to public
CC: And you have several works by museums in India. I think perhaps following some notion of a bridge
Erik Parker and Andy Warhol? between art in the east and art over here, I’d like to bring some of this
rS: Yes, I have about seven or eight contemporary art back into a museum in India.
works by each of them. CC: Your collection is largely Western art. Do you pay attention to what’s
CC: What motivates you in the happening in the arts in India today?
acquisition of fine art? rS: I do but, perhaps, not as deeply. There are a couple of very good
rS: There is something in your people over there that I’m looking at and some of them are going to
nervous system that sort of connects have major shows in europe. Bhupen Khakhar is one of these artists.
and it just gets you going. The He will have a show at the reina Sofia this year. I am an admirer of
collection is my artwork. I want Bhupen’s work. However, the Indian market for someone like Bhupen
to have a collection that is as is so big that there is almost nothing to acquire.
individual as Picasso’s, rousseaus CC: Leo Koenig Gallery had a show of Les Rogers’ work from your
or duchamp’s, Picabias. I don’t really collection. How did that come about and were the works for sale?
care what the art world trends or rS: les rodgers is a young artist whose work I was shown by leo last
tastes of the times are. Sometimes year. I greatly liked the work and, quite soon, had acquired several
you connect to the deep and at paintings, some very large. Some weeks later leo called saying he
ABOVE:ERIK PARKER other times to the shallow. It’s had an idea to show the works I had acquired and whether I would
I.C.YA’LL, 2000 MIxED MEDIA ON CANVAs, 24” x 32”
a whole combination of things. mind. The idea that many people would view the works by les got
I am attracted to things I don’t me going. So, leo organized the exhibition entitled ‘les rogers From
completely get right now - yet ten the collection of ranbir Singh’. It was a great show and les’s works
or twenty years later you’re still looked top. The writer and filmmaker, Glenn o’Brien, saw the works and
living with them and they’re right wrote a fascinating essay for the catalog. None of these works were
there, like a great love, looking for sale. We are working towards another similar exhibition of works
more top than ever. by ouattara Watts from my collection. ouattara was born in the Ivory
CC: You buy artworks mostly coast and lives in New York and makes great paintings. None of these,
through dealers. Why don’t you as well, will be for sale.
buy at auction? CC: What direction do you think the international art market is going in
r.S.: mostly because I’m afraid of financially now?
raising my hand too many times. rS: The market seems quite stable at this point for great works. I think
Also it is rare to find great emerging there could be some downward bias to the general art market due to
ABOVE:LEs ROGERs artists’ works at auction. the economy, but you have a lot of fiscal and monetary stimulus coming
PANTHER, 2000 OIL AND ACRYLIC ON CANVAs 84” x 132”
CC: What is the thrust of your through, low interest rates, tax cuts, and once these things start hitting,
collecting activities? you’re probably going to see the market continue in a good way.
24 WORLD of ART cHrISToPHer cHAmBerS IS A FreelANce
crITIc ANd ArTIST BASed IN NeW YorK