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Later, in London, I felt so much more comfortable around art. The scene there and in other countries really enriches one’s living environment. Then I asked myself, why not in India? If I am not an artist, how do I create that atmosphere?
Despite finding fame almost a decade ago, Neha Kirpal, 36, says she still hasn’t learnt how to pose for photographs. “I don’t have a stylist or a hair and makeup person to advise me,” she says. “The only thing I can do well is smile.” The disarming smile can turn politely firm when she has to face tough situations at work. Would resilience be her defining quality? “It comes from my sporting days; I used to play hockey at the national level and badminton at the state level,” she says. “Training for nearly ten hours a day gave me enormous energy and stamina that help me at work even today. But injury to my knees later put an end to that dream.” She pursued political science at Lady Shri Ram College in Delhi, worked in events, public relations and marketing before going to study at the University of Arts in London. Struck by the vibrant art scene there, on her return flight to Delhi, Kirpal scribbled a business plan on an air sickness bag and thus, the India Art Summit (later known as the India Art Fair) was born in 2008.
“I was always curious about art, being surrounded by it in some form or the other,” she says. “My grandfather was in the army and painted for fun. But fine art always felt alien and inaccessible, so I started to feel intimidated by it. Looking back, I think it came from how art was taught in school. Nothing kills creativity in a child faster than being asked to copy a vase in class! Later, in London, I felt so much more comfortable around art. The scene there and in other countries really enriches one’s living environment. Then I asked myself, why not in India? If I am not an artist, how do I create that atmosphere?” Kirpal then took a loan for her paper-scribbled business idea which, over the years, turned into the fourth most-attended art fair in the world with over a lakh people attending the last edition from over 30 countries. But some artists criticised the format of making it a ‘marketplace for art’. “Sometimes it is tough to show art in its truest form in terms of space and lighting,” she says. “That led to a degree of standardisation. I want the format to lend itself to the art, so we are working on that.”
She says she considers herself patriotic. “It comes from my sporting days. I wanted to make my country proud,” she says. “Having a larger purpose was important... We launched IAF the year the Lehman Brothers crashed. With blinkers on, we were blase about what we wanted to do. I would like to believe that passion and energy have a viral nature. People picked them up and I received tremendous support for the idea of making art accessible to the public, like buying a ticket to watch a film. I was shy and inexperienced but curious to connect.”
Did the fact that she’s not from the art world hinder her in any way? “I see it both as a strength and weakness,” she says. “Being an outsider meant starting from scratch, which is harder and longer, but in some ways, it is easier because you have no baggage or ego. To be an insider means you have a history and now you must change that history. My ‘art’ was to create an ecosystem for art. My personality is like that too—to help serve your purpose, be a platform.” What role does gender play in the Indian art context? “Compared to other countries, India’s art world is less male-dominated; we have patrons like Kiran Nadar and Sangita Jindal,” she says. “What we lack are creative entrepreneurs. I like to believe IAF started the trend of art-based startups.”
That said, she says that in many cases it was difficult to be taken seriously because of her gender. “A lot of my work is operational and logistics-based where there are more men, like in infrastructure, who don’t take a young woman seriously. When I had to meet big corporates, I took my male partners along. My business plan is to have an older and ‘wiser’ male partner,” she says with a laugh. “I don’t have any qualms taking a man’s help to get the job done or to be taken seriously. I am focused on my goal.”
What next? “In keeping with the inclusive spirit of art, we plan to make the upcoming edition of IAF completely accessible for the differently-abled,” she says. “For instance, we have tied up with the Delhi Art Gallery to offer a tactile experience through art tours for the blind. Next, we want to make India and South Asia accessible to the world and build an international audience for India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal.” Kirpal also wants her four-year-old daughter to develop an appreciation for art. “She goes to biennales, gallery openings… she’s been to 11 art fairs across the world,” she says. “No one ever took me. Art is part of her life, which will help her grow and develop her mind. At the last art fair, I got her to spot cows. She came back with a count of 27 cows in different paintings and installations!”
What does she think of censorship in the country, especially after 2009 when IAF was in the news for banning a controversial work by M.F. Husain? Will art go the cinema way, given that in the last edition, IAF had a special Pakistan pavilion? “Art and culture play a big role in ending conflict,” she says. “We will continue to have sections representing artists from the South Asian region. In 2009, we couldn’t exhibit his work, even though we wanted to, because of lack of government support. Now, every year we exhibit the work of Husain as well as other controversial painters. If you censor an art fair, what’s left?”
