Mysuru:  A lecture on Mysore Style Paintings was delivered by R.G. Singh, Secretary, Ramsons Kala Pratishtana, Mysuru at Kiran Nadar Museum of Art in Saket, Delhi, yesterday.

This lecture was delivered as part of the ongoing exhibition, ‘Amrutha Kalasha’ which features an exposition of about 200 paintings from the collections of Kuldeep Singh, a former Town Planner and an architect. The exhibition, which opened on Nov.13, will conclude on Dec.15.

Since 1973, Kuldeep Singh, now 80, has built up an extraordinary collection of over 380 paintings from early 19th and 20th Century from Thanjavur, Mysuru, Andhra and Kerala. It is believed that the collection may well be the largest in private hands.

Recalling his foray into the rarefied world of art collecting, Singh said, “About 50 years ago, I was travelling in Chennai, Tiruvananthapuram and Kochi. I was interested in architectural artefacts — doors, furniture and wooden sculpture. A friend asked me to get him two Tanjore paintings, but later didn’t like them. So they lay in front of me for two months. I was to return them to the dealer on my next trip South, but I forgot them. When I went to the dealer, I don’t know what overcame me but I asked to be shown more and here I am — the curiosity became a hobby and now it is an obsession.”

Earlier in November, Kuldeep Singh was in Mysuru to look at Ramsons Kala Pratishtana’s  collection of Mysore Style paintings. He also visited Bidaram Krishnappa Rama Mandira and several other Rama Mandiras in city which have a collection of Mysore Style paintings.

His visits to these Rama Mandiras was for a chapter about them in the special volume of the ‘Kuldeep Singh Collection’ being published by Marg Publications later next year.

The book is being written by art scholar Dr. Anna L. Dallapiccola with contributions from Kuldeep Singh, and for the same book a chapter on Mysore Style Paintings has been written by R.G. Singh.