Suneet Chopra was a sort man. The late art critic and senior chief of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) was at all times accessible and heat, and at any art opening, he would give younger, upcoming artists the identical consideration as a Jatin Das or Jogen Chowdhury. One of the various causes Chopra wrote about art was to bridge the hole between art and the frequent man. Now, after his demise in 2023, his sister Nina Rao and niece Niraja Rao are persevering with his philosophy of constructing connections.
Chopra, whose innings as an art critic lasted for nearly 5 a long time, was an art collector, too. Nina and Niraja have donated his assortment of 200 work, sculptures, writings, and different private memorabilia to the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) — an autonomous physique underneath the Ministry of Culture that acts as a useful resource centre for Indian art types.
Suneet Chopra
“Suneet had asked me to donate the collection to the government so that anyone could come and see it. He wanted his collection to be studied by future scholars,” says Nina, a former journalist and reader on the Delhi University. His solely request: “Just don’t break my collection.”
Works by Sarla Chandra and Somnath Hore
An eclectic assemblage
IGNCA exhibited 100 works not too long ago, in a present titled Suneet Chopra: The Critic & His Art. It featured a cross-section of artists, kinds and types — from upcoming to established, abstracts to figuratives, conventional to fashionable and up to date. “He bought the works of Subodh Gupta and Neeraj Goswami at the beginning of their careers, so you can see the evolution of their style by looking at these pieces,” says Nina, who is 2 years his senior and initiated Chopra into the world of art criticism. “He bought an artwork if he saw value in it, if it resonated with him, and not because of a name. One month before he passed away, he bought a work by West Bengal-based senior artist Samir Aich. It’s an abstract piece that hints at the collapse of Indian society and system.”
Suneet Chopra: The Critic & His Art on the IGNCA
The curation additionally featured girls artists resembling Shobha Broota, Arpana Caur and others. Caur’s work Goddess Penelope, with its three eyes, takes inspiration from Greek mythology; artist and author Okay.G. Subramanyan’s work depicts two barking canines; and a portray by Ramkinkar Baij, thought-about India’s first fashionable sculptor, depicts Radha and Krishna.
The Ramkinkar Baij portray
The oldest work within the assortment are by unknown English painters, which Chopra had purchased whereas learning in England within the 60s. “M.F. Husain used to do wedding invitations, and he had gifted him [Chopra] one of those. The collection has that as well,” says Nina. “Suneet lived a frugal life, and saved his money to buy these works. I had not seen all of them, and while working with IGNCA, I was pleasantly surprised.”
Suneet Chopra’s assortment could be considered on the IGNCA, New Delhi, by appointment.
The Bengaluru-based journalist writes on art, tradition, well being and social welfare.
Published – May 22, 2025 06:37 pm IST
