Art Storage at Saffornart

The Saffronart Team on Art Storage

Mumbai: It is hard to imagine anyone not wanting to be surrounded by beautiful things. As one collects, or one’s preferences for art change, which may be temporary or permanent, one is always in a dilemma as to what is to be done with the art not on display in one’s home or office and also this that there may be limited storage space in one’s home suitable to store art. A lot of it may be hugely valuable in monetary terms while the rest simply of huge sentimental value.

Cramming one’s art into the spare cupboard or storing them on top of one’s closet is definitely not the answer! Here is how Saffronart can help you.

Common Storage Racks

Saffronart’s state-of-the-art storage facility, the only specialised art storage facility in South Mumbai, allows you to store your art in a secure, controlled environment.

THE FACILITY

  • Convenient central location in Mumbai

    Private Rooms

  • Entire facility dedicated exclusively to fine art storage
  • Custom temperature and humidity control
  • Filtered, dust-free air and no exposure to UV radiation throughout the facility
  • Secured by 24-hour manned fire and security command centre
  • Advanced surveillance systems installed within the facility
  • Entire facility protected by early warning smoke and fire detection systems
  • Facility and contents covered by insurance

    The Viewing Room

STORAGE SERVICES

  • Computerized inventory management and unique product identification systems
  • Services include: Packing, unpacking and repacking, transportation
  • Condition reports and photo-documentation of all incoming works
  • Professionally trained staff with several years of experience in art handling and storage
  • Both common storage and exclusive private room storage available

All artworks are handled with discretion and sensitivity to client’s strict privacy requirements

Click here for more information on Saffronart Storage.

NIVIM Goa: Let us start from the beginning…

The Saffronart Team goes back to when it all began…

New York: The design concept of Nivim Goa is to allow the user to reconnect with nature (reason to come to Goa) and to preserve the beauty of the site and its surroundings (hence preserving the reason to be in Goa).

Site photos before construction

The luxury country house achieves these goals by creating a home that is built around the site’s natural topography with emphasis on local climate, materials and building typology. The house’s architecture takes advantage of the site’s slope, existing trees, views and orientation.

One of the first site meetings before any construction activity

Before construction, the site had 14 fully mature trees. The design of the house incorporates these trees that include two jackfruit trees, one mango tree, two tamarind trees and one telful tree. Two trees in particular are located bang at the center of the site and look like they have been there for 100’s of years. One of them rises up almost 15 meters, or 5 stories.

Anjali says, “These trees have been here way longer than we have, we could not even conceive of removing them…they are instead now an integral part of the house design and lend it a special character that is hard to replicate.” She adds, “The new owners of the house can even consider building a treehouse or a machan to further enjoy these large trees based on their specific requirements…” The new landscape design of the house adds other native fruiting and flowering plants to the site including chikoo, kokum, champa, etc.

For more about the design concept and inspirations, read Anjali’s newyork goa diaries!

* Please note that NIVIM Goa is currently under-construction and the images on this blog show the work-in-progress and not final finished product.

Ragamala Paintings: Poetry, Passion, Song

Elisabetta Marabotto of Saffronart on an exciting new exhibit at the Dulwich Picture Gallery.

London: There are 24 works on display from the collection of the Italian-born Claudio Moscatelli. The collector started his collection after realizing similarities and parallels between ancient Sienese paintings and Indian miniature paintings. He was also extremely intrigued by the main theme of Ragamala miniatures which is the relationship between the lover and the beloved, one which stands for the relationship between the human and divine.

Bhairava Raga, Pahari, Nurpur, c 1690, gouache on paper, 21 x 20.8 cm

Ragamala paintings are pages from a garland (mala) of visual melodies (ragas). On each page different musical modes or ragas are illustrated. Most of these paintings include the text of a short poem or a caption that describes the mood that the particular raga it represents and the mood it is supposed to evoke in the listener.

Click here to listen to an example of a raga represented by a Ragamala painting.

Lalita Ragaputra of Bhairava Raga, Pahari, Chamba, c1690-1700, gouache on paper, 21.5 x 15.5 cm

Ragamala miniatures flourished between the 15th and 19th centuries. This tradition seems to have begun when medieval musicians started associating each raga and mood with a deity and gave it a name to perhaps remember its melody. Afterwards poets and artists personified and transcribed these ragas in verbal and visual forms.

Kakubha Ragini of Megha Raga, Hyderabad, c 1760, gouache on paper, 30.6 x 19.9 cm

Londoners can consider themselves very lucky because this is the first British exhibition displaying only Ragamala paintings, and hence marks a rare opportunity to be immersed in this exclusive world.

More information and events related to the exhibition can be found on the Dulwich Picture Gallery website.