For your eyes

Collectors Varsha and Dinesh Thacker are putting a segment of their vast collection of art on display at a grand evening at the Coomaraswamy Hall,in the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj museum complex. The US Consul General Paul Flomsbee lit the inaugural lamp as collectors Akshay and Vijaypath Singhania,Avi Kama and Malti Jain were given special tours of the art works by the Thackers.

The last time we visited a Thacker exhibition,portraits made in India by Company School Artists and the one-time dean of the Sir J J School of Art were put on display. This time round,the exhibition is of rare paintings from different continents by international genre artists who painted in the 19th and 20th century. From lavish still-life to detailed studies of fine horses and fair women,the collection is a nostalgic trip into the past. “I think this kind of art can be passed on from one generation to the next. We have to tell people that there is more to art than just the Contemporaries,” says Dinesh,a proud inheritor. “We like to share our art beyond the dining room,” says Varsha.

Bummer Many of the paintings were rare and exquisite but one would have liked to see them lit better.