Pheroza Godrej: “The two Cs - conservation and curatorship - are what I am focusing on”

Phiroze Shroff, Pheroza Shroff, Cyrus Shroff and Mitha Shroff in front of a painting by B. Prabha at Cymroza Art Gallery, 1971.

Pheroza Godrej could not take up a career in medicine - much to her parents’ disappointment. “I went to the science class to dissect the poor thing. I just smelt the ether and I passed out!” she laughs.

After that, Godrej, then a painter in her early 20s, had her family’s full support when she opened the Cymroza Art Gallery in October 1971.

The gallerist, collector, philanthropist, patron, art historian, and policy-maker is now celebrating 50 golden years of the gallery with Cymroza@50 spread across three exhibitions at Cymroza, Pundole’s and Chatterjee & Lal in Mumbai.

Thematically, the exhibitions are designed to complement each other. The Cymroza Chronicles places rare works and archival ephemera on display at Cymroza, providing an insight into the gallery’s formative years and exhibition history as well as Godrej’s personal journey with art.

Pheroza Godrej

At Pundole’s, Ranjit Hoskote has curated a major survey exhibition, Mapping the Lost Spectrum, incorporating highlights from the collection of Jamshyd and Pheroza Godrej.

And at Chatterjee & Lal, Nancy Adajania has curated The Unpaved, Crusty, Earthy Road, the first retrospective of the important fiber artist Nelly Sethna, championed by Godrej.

In an interview, Godrej retraced the heady days after she opened the gallery all those years ago. Edited excerpts:

The Artists Centre existed before Jehangir Art Gallery, and it was quite affordable. Then, of course, Jehangir Art Gallery came up and became really iconic. The most expensive was the Taj Art Gallery, which was a space allotted to art in the heritage wing of The Taj Mahal Palace. There was also the wonderful Chetana where Akbar Padamsee had his first show. I have also exhibited there.

It was rare but I never looked at myself as a rarity. I just looked at myself as a young person who wanted to exhibit what we were painting. Once you left art school and once you had participated in the annual exhibition, where do you go or where does your career go? You could either get into advertising or teach art in a school or become a full-time professional painter. Where do you exhibit your work and if you don’t get the opportunity, what do you do? It gave me the idea that we can have a small exhibition space throughout the year where people of my age group, my background, and my thinking can exhibit. And why restrict ourselves to Bombay? It can be a place where artists can come from other parts of the country and exhibit as well.

I think if you are focused, have the courage of your conviction, and passionately believe in what you are doing, you will overcome all odds. Honestly, I used to drag artists and critics from one end of the city to take them to shows, offer them a cup of tea and that’s how people started coming. The mindset started changing and it changed quite rapidly. What we did essentially was to maintain the quality of work. Not only the potential buyer but even the art critic realised that there is value in what I was trying to do. The gallery was a nurturing ground for many artists.

On display at Pundole's, as part of Cymroza@50.

This project actually started five years ago. I needed to know the condition of all the artwork, the historical background of the artwork, how the medium has fared over the last 50 years, and to make a very systematic presentation of the entire collection. For my team, I wanted to pick and choose people who were sensitive to what I was trying to express and that is how people such as Ranjit Hoskote, Nancy Adajania and Mortimer Chatterjee came into the picture.

Well, age is not on my side any more (smiles) but I am very enthusiastic. I think conservation and research are very important. I would continue encouraging other art collectors to conserve their artwork. Another area of interest is the practice of curators. How do we develop good curatorial practice in the next generation? I want to encourage people who are good at art history and art criticism to look at curatorship in a broader sense of the term. So, the two Cs – conservation and curatorship are what I am focusing on.

Tapestry by Nelly Sethna (at Chatterjee & Lall)