The heady business of art parties

Cleopatra chats with Yayoi Kusama, who stands beside Raja Ravi Varma’s muse at Delhi’s Taj Mansingh—the opening scene of season 3 of the Netflix show Fabulous Lives vs Bollywood Wives is somewhat surreal until you realise it’s set at last year’s MASH Ball for which guests had been asked to dress like they had “stepped out of a painting". Parties hosted by wealthy collectors usually coincide with major art events, which include Delhi’s annual India Art Fair, the Kochi-Muziris Biennale and the newer Art Mumbai, which concluded recently. “The collectors, in some sense, have become the arbiters of space, a role which was held by the art critic earlier," says critic Meera Menezes, who has chronicled key moments and encounters at many art events, including parties held by Kiran Nadar Museum of Art’s chairperson Kiran Nadar. INFORMAL GALLERY “There are very few public spaces in India that exhibit contemporary art in all its glory," says Tarana Sawhney, who hosts a party every year to coincide with the India Art Fair. “A great art party is when it’s at somebody’s house and you see a curated private collection," says Foster, whose dream parties include those thrown by American collector Peggy Guggenheim, model Tina Chow and Chicago-based artist Theaster Gates.