Anjolie Ela Menon’s art collection comprises such names venerated by lovers of Indian art as Souza, Husain, Jamini Roy, Arpita Singh, K.S. Radhakrishnan and Manjit Bawa as well as many other younger sculptors and painters. She has steadily acquired works through friendly swaps or purchases over time. The artist also has a fondness for Russian and Greek religious icons, which have shaped her own perspective in terms of human expression and overall composition.
While exploring passion to collect, it would be interesting to consider an essay, titled ‘The Collector: Anjolie Ela Menon’ by Margot Cohen for The Wall Street Journal: Explaining how she started collecting religious icons, she mentions in an elaborate interview: “In 1961-62, while studying in France, I did chase Romanesque frescoes as well as paintings all over Europe. A friend and I even hitchhiked to Barcelona, all the way from Paris, and stayed in a convent for a long time. So I was very influenced by icons. With whatever I saved, I managed to buy six Greek icons.”
Among her collection of Indian works, the one that are particularly special to her include ‘Crucifixion’ by Jamini Roy. She reveals: “I love that work. After collecting early Christian art and icons, this seemed to be a modern equivalent of what my passion was. It was extremely rare.
“He did a lot of things related to Indian mythology, but not that many Christian subjects. Jamini Roy (1887-1972) was the first Indian artist who really rejected the colonial hegemony at the time and the colonial academia that the artists were being subjected to. He returned to Indian folk art for his inspiration,” she told The WSJ .
When asked about works by younger artists, she replies: “I’ve quite a big collection of their work, because I was often mentoring young artists and I would go to their first show. I am delighted that one of them, Binoy Varghese (born 1966), is now doing extremely well.
Her precious advice to collectors comes from the mistake she made: that of buying several small works (of a single artist) instead of concentrating on one major work. “My advice is to go for the big one, the important one, the one you like,” she says.
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