Man Ray, The Maharaja and His Wife, c. 1927 © Man Ray 2015 Trust / ADAGP, Paris, 2019; Photo © Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Guy Carrard
Manik Bagh in the west-central Indian city of Indore was not your typical Mughal palace. Filled with chrome surfaces and glossy synthetic leather chairs, it served not only as a home to Yashwant Holkar II, the 14th Maharajah of Indore, but also as a repository for one of the worlds most important private collections of Modern decorative arts and furniture. Displaying around 500 of these pieces, Modern Maharajah: Patron of the 1930s at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris will celebrate the prince whose singular taste led him to become the only significant Indian collector of Modernist design in the interwar period.
Le Corbusier, Charlotte Perriand and Pierre Jeanneret, Reclining chaise longue, model B306, manufactured by Thonet c. 1931 © Adagp, Paris, 2019; © F.L.C./ Adagp, Paris, 2019; Photo © Sothebys / Art Digital Studio
Although many maharajas travelled around Europe in the 20th century, they generally bought “pieces made according to a more traditional taste, inspired by European styles from the 17th or 18th centuries,” say the exhibitions curators Raphaëlle Billé and Louise Curtis. What differentiated Holkars taste was largely the close relationships he forged with Western European art advisors in his early 20s. Chief among them was the German architect Eckart Muthesius, who worked with the Maharaja to design Manik Bagh.
Holkars home was filled with exceptional examples of Modern design, such as abstract geometric rugs by the French painter and weaver Ivan Da Silva Bruhns and a Transat lounge chair by the Irish architect and designer Eileen Gray. Tailor made to Holkars taste, they symbolise a fusion of Western and Indian aesthetics that flips the dynamics of the typical colonial relationship. “The West has always been inspired by the East,” says Olivier Gabet, the museums director. “But [the Maharaja] was one of the very few to do the inverse.”
Man Ray, Le maharajah et la maharani dIndore, vers 1927-1930 © Man Ray 2015 Trust / ADAGP, Paris, 2019 Photo : Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Guy Carrard
Though less developed, Holkar also had a collection of fine art, which contained three versions from Constantin Brancusis Bird in Space series alongside an unrealised plan by the Romanian sculptor for a meditation temple. A number Read More – Source
