What it takes to be a gallerist

Commitment, love for the creative, tears, good friends and warm relationships, Kalpana Shah will say. As her Worli gallery completes 20 years, she goes right back to the time of its opening, when her guest of honour didn't show up.

During the Mumbai riots of 1992, there was a long canvas spread across the entrances of the open-air gymkhanas at Marine Drive, where MF Husain was painting the embroiled scenery as it happened—expressing his anguish at the ongoing turmoil," recalls Kalpana Shah, gallery director, Tao. "My friend Sangeeta Jindal rang me and suggested we go see him in action. Once there, when she saw how moved I was to see the great master immersed in work, she suggested I open an art gallery. As a conventional housewife raising her child and taking care of the home, I had no idea if this would work."

Shah's sea-facing gallery at Worli, completes 20 years, its iconic glass façade over time having showcased works that even passersby could view, unknowingly giving the public an introduction and glimpse into the latest in art. While her entrepreneur husband Pankaj Shah, and his team handled administrative responsibilities, Kalpana sharpened her creative vision. She remembers him telling his staff about her, "Bhabhi knows nothing about administration, she's creative. You will have to be particular about the finances to keep this ship afloat!"

An undated archival image of Kalpana Shah with the late Akbar Padamsee

Eight years, another baby and several conversations later, Tao was born in 2000. Within the first year, she held Ashatanayak, a show featuring Akbar Padamsee, Bal Chhabda, Krishen Khanna, MF Husain, Ram Kumar, SH Raza, Tyeb Mehta and VS Gaitonde. All eight legends insisted that Shah curate the show. She ended up featuring a juxtaposition of one work from the beginning of their careers with a recent masterpiece.

"My journey has been a sentimental one," Kalpana thinks. "I get goosebumps when I hear a good story, and I love to tell one, too. The gallery was meant to be opened by Raza, and on the day, he got stuck in Paris! He called me to say, 'Funny story—I was fitting my luggage in the overhead cabin and pulled a muscle in my upper arm. The airplane staff thought I was suffering a heart attack, offloaded me and rushed me to a hospital!' I began crying over the phone. We had been discussing this opening for five years," she says.

At Tokyo Imprints in 2002 sharing a laugh with Bal Chhabda and Krishen Khanna

But Raza had a solution. He put her in touch with Jehangir Nicholson and Bal Chhabda, who would take his place. "Jehangir was adorable," she says of the late passionate collector. "At the age of 85, he arrived at the gallery, driving himself to the venue. Bal was Raza's best friend. His home was the go-to [pad] whenever he was in Mumbai, calling it his Seventh Heaven. I called him weeping, and he laughed, happy to step in for Raza."

Over the years, as Shah and prominent Indian artists formed a tight friendship, Kalpana began to dip into their early struggle and hardships. She tells us of how they would share a single cup of tea between themselves and had to rely on friends for a roof over their heads. Raza had overcome displacement during the Partition, when he and his family had chosen to stay on in India.

At the show, The Eternal Enchantress of Devdas in 2002, with MF Husain

"Life at Tao has been unique and chequered with memories. As the gallery grew, so did my children, who have always been surrounded by conversations about art," says Shah, who is now assisted by daughter Sanjana. The daughter is living her dream. She confesses how as a little girl, she had once scratched out Kalpana's name on her business card, added her own, and distributed it. She says, "Art and culture has always been aspirational. It adds that certain je ne sais quoi to our mundane lives. But, why should that aspiration be reserved for the elite; art should be more inclusive. Especially with contemporary art that's being made now. It's our generation that's creating it, so it's our peers who should be accessing it."

To celebrate the milestone, mother and daughter have put together a show titled, A Tapestry of Time that launches on February 28. It will showcase the works of those who have been a part of the gallery's journey, including the younger lot, Ali Akbar Mehta, Atul Dodiya, Dhruvi Acharya and Smriti Dixit.

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