Neville Tuli

Neville Tuli (born 24 April 1964) was educated as a film maker, economist & developmental theorist at London School of Economics & St Catherine's College, Oxford. He returned to India in 1993 after 25 years in the West. Sensing the need to understand the artistic and cultural systems at every level, he traveled across the country visiting hundred of cities, towns, villages and monuments, trying to grasp the relationship of various individuals and entities to artistic creativity. While the Indian fine arts, cinema and architectural heritage disciplines were explored anew, they found their place amid philosophy, literature and development economics, his previous fields of knowledge.

In 1995, he established HEART (The Tuli Foundation for Holistic Education & Art). A registered charitable society, it aimed to help build a quality-conscious infrastructure for the Indian fine arts. The process by which this could be established was unique, in the sense that it did not rely on government funding, corporate sponsorship or private donations.

In 1997, the first step towards this objective was the publication of The Flamed Mosaic: Indian Contemporary Painting,^[1] his book on the aesthetics and history of Modern & Contemporary Painting.

The second step was organizing The Intuitive-logic: A Festival of Indian Contemporary Painting ^[2] in Mumbai (1 March – 19 April 1997). The festival was structured mostly through the resources of HEART and the goodwill of art lovers, avoiding thereby the need for sponsorship. The intent was to increase the awareness and quality regarding the curating and documentation of international standard exhibitions.

The first international quality auction held in India was The Intuitive-logic II ^[3] in October and November 1997. Without a vibrant financial infrastructure for the arts, creating a credible educational base becomes difficult. In this context auctions are important in increasing awareness regarding the financial aspects of art. The auction established record prices for many artists including Raja Ravi Varma whose painting fetched Rs. 32 lacs, the highest price ever for a modern Indian painting. The catalogue also set new standards for documentation and design.

The belief that a redefined charity could take on the task of building an infrastructure however, received a set back. It was realized that a professional and financially independent establishment was needed to help build a merit-conscious & financially self-sufficient infrastructure for the arts in India, while placing creativity at the heart of this institution-building process.

With this background, Osian's was established by Neville Tuli in 2000, integrating the Creative, the Educational and Corporate Responsibilities in a radically new model. Osian's today is recognized as India's pioneering arts and cultural institution^{[citation needed]}. Simultaneously, Neville Tuli began building the Archive and permanent art collection. International quality Auctions have generated the finance which in turn has supported and subsidized the Centre for Archiving, Research & Development [C.A.R.D] which is occupied with documenting, preserving and researching our artistic and cinematic heritage.

The Osian's Archive is the world's most comprehensive textual and visual archive, collection and library.^{[citation needed]}

In 2004, with Osian's acquisition of Cinefan (The Festival of Asian & Arab Cinema) and Cinemaya (the first Journal in the world dedicated to Asian Cinema) the cinematic infrastructural base widened dramatically, complementing the vast archives.

References

1. ↑ Tuli, Neville, HEART & Mapin Publishing Pvt. Ltd., 1997, ISBN 81-85822-45-X
2. ↑ HEART (The Tuli Foundation for Holistic Education & Art), 1997
3. ↑ HEART & Mapin Publishing Pvt. Ltd., 1997, ISBN 81-85822-50-6

External links

• Osians Home page of the Osian's Group
• Lunch with Business Standard: Neville Tuli
• On Biren's Passing A piece by Neville Tuli on passing of artist Biren De published in TOI Crest