INDIA ON MANY CANVASES

FROM SOFT POWER to hard cash, high design to high finance, the upper echelons of the arts in India as elsewhere in the worldcrackle with the tension between material success and triumphs of imagination.

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This year's High & Mighty list of the most prominent personalities in the nation's arts scene covers the spectrum from patronage to performance. Heading the bill is the better half of one of the wealthiest couples on the planet, Nita Ambani, who has devoted herself to turning a good deal of that textiles-to-telecom fortune into a world-class venue for the visual and performing arts. A passion driven, no doubt, by her own background in classical dance. Others like the renowned vocalist T.M. Krishna have used their virtuosity and classical training as a powerful platform for social engagement and protest. Another marker of artistic achievement is the ability to traverse the boundaries of genre and geography as a number of the artists in this select group have done. Zakir Hussain, for example, long acknowledged as a national treasure by those who have witnessed the compelling rhythms of his taal, has also been a prominent global ambassador for India's musical traditions. Sabyasachi Mukherjee has performed a similar double act for Indian textiles and fashion, draping the well-heeled of the world, from big fat Indian weddings to the Met Gala. When it comes to reconciling the ironies of wealth and culture, of artha and art, however, we need look no further than Krishen Khanna, the grand old man of Indian modernism, whose storied career has charted a charming course from banking to painting.

1 NITA AMBANI, 60 Founder and Chairperson, Reliance Foundation

THE TORCHBEARER OF TRADITION