Nimai Chatterji was born in Calcutta (now Kolkata), British India (now India) in 1933, where he later studied Bengali literature. Chatterji immigrated to London, England in the mid-1950s in pursuit of further education and studied at the London School of Printing and Graphic Arts. During his time in London and travelling across Europe, as an interviewer for the BBC World Service, Chatterji corresponded with many international avant garde artists, eventually amassing the Chatterji Collection, now held at Tate archives, and which has become the most substantial archive relating to avant-garde art in Britain.
Collector of post-1945 avant-garde art, Nimai Chatterji was born as one of eight siblings in Calcutta (now Kolkata), British India (now India) on 30 November 1933. His father’s scholarly pursuits in Hindu philosophy set the course for the younger Chatterji’s cultural interests and he initially embarked upon an undergraduate study of Bengali literature at Charuchandra College (sometimes referred to as Presidency College) in his birthplace of Calcutta. He further deepened his literary scholarship by undertaking an MA in the same subject in Santiniketan, India. Early in the 1950s, Chatterji became involved with the experimental school established in 1901 in Santiniketan by Rabindranath Tagore, the renowned Bengali poet, philosopher, social reformer, artist, and musician. Amid its intellectually vibrant milieu, Chatterji met Joya Mukherjee, who became his wife in 1962. This period also marked the genesis of a lifelong friendship with the future Nobel laureate in economics, Amartya Sen.
In the mid-1950s, Chatterji immigrated to London to further his education with a degree in graphic design from the London School of Printing and Graphic Arts, currently known as the London College of Communication. Upon his arrival in the English capital, he began fruitful correspondences with pioneering avant-garde artists such as Joseph Beuys, Christo, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Raoul Hausmann, George Maciunas, Nam June Paik, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Ed Ruscha, and Ben Vautier, their letters forming the basis of a unique collection of documentary material and artist statements. From the 1960s until his professional retirement in 1993, Chatterji served as a broadcaster for the BBC World Service, using his half-hour programme, Shilpa Prangan (Arts Courtyard), as a conduit to cover a diverse range of art world topics. Because of his tenure at the BBC, Chatterji travelled widely across Europe and conducted interviews with noteworthy figures in culture. During his free time while travelling, he further expanded his collection by frequenting Belgian, French, and Italian markets and second-hand bookshops. Furthermore, while maintaining connections with both the UK and with Santiniketan, Chatterji assisted the Indian film director Satyajit Ray by facilitating communication with indigenous tribes in the Bengal region for the film Aranyer Din Ratri (Days and Nights in the Forest), which was released in 1970. Naseem Khan, a British journalist and cultural historian, described Chatterji as creating the ‘impression of inhibiting his own absurd universe that was full of examples of bizarre human behaviour that he took great pleasure in unearthing,’ (Khan quoted in Glew, 2011).
As a collector, Chatterji spotlighted avant-garde and literary movements which were active from 1945 to 1975, such as Fluxus, Situationism, Letterists, Concrete Poetry, happenings, and Arte Povera. His vast collection, which is now held in the Tate archive at Tate Britain, and which numbers tens of thousands of items, encompasses original letters, manuscripts, postcards, periodicals, catalogues, programmes, vinyl records, badges, art objects, lantern slides, photographs, audio-visual material, posters, and artists’ books, among other items. Chatterji's collection reflects his extensive network within neo-avant-garde worlds, showcasing a collecting and correspondence practice that promoted inclusivity and a global perspective. His love for letter writing is evident, with the collection now being the largest compilation of correspondences by renowned 20th-century authors. The archive includes letters from Bertrand Russell, Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, Henry Miller, Boris Pasternak, Jean Cocteau, Anna Akhmatova, and Martin Heidegger, among others. His long-term confidant, poet Sankha Ghosh, confirmed that the collector gathered more than 2,500 letters (Basu, 2011). Commenting on Chatterji’s collection, Tate’s archivist, Adrian Glew, commented: ‘His flat was stacked from floor to ceiling with the objects he had collected over the years. It is the most incredible collection, particularly valuable for the history of avant-garde art’ (Glew quoted in Basu, 2011). Chatterji also dedicated efforts to collecting documentation about Tagore, networking with artists who had met him. Consequently, he amassed approximately 1,000 letters, capturing a range of opinions. This subset of his collection now resides in the Bangiya Sahitya Parishat Library in Kolkata. Though Chatterji initially planned to publish a book about Tagore, this project, unfortunately, never came to fruition. However, Chatterji's Bātila jañjāla, jañjāla bātila (Discarded Rubbish) – a collection of humorous thoughts in poetry form – was published in Kolkata in 2010.
Chatterji and his wife lived in Golders Green, northwest London. After her death in 2007, he spent the last three years of his life in isolation, deeply affected by the loss, but leaving behind a legacy of a vibrant network of friends and colleagues. Nimai Chatterji died alone in his flat in Golders Green, London, England around 25 December 2010. The Tate archive acquired the collection in 2008 where it went through a two-year cataloguing process. In summer 2016 the Chatterji Collection featured in the new BP Spotlight Displays at Tate Britain. The Chatterji Collection, an impressive testament to international avant-garde activity, especially the Anglo-Indian connection, is currently the most substantial collection of avant-garde art in Britain.
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Nimai Chatterji]
Publications related to [Nimai Chatterji] in the Ben Uri Library