Delicate yet visually arresting, Hanut Singh's multi-layered jewellery designs are steeped in a timeless cosmopolitanism. Drawing inspiration from the divinity of the flora, the design maven's incredible body of work reconciles heritage with contemporary, the Indic with the European. Reigniting the Pietra Dura savoir-faire of the medieval Mughal and Rajput ateliers and crafting rarefied pieces sublimated with Art Deco and Art Nouveau influences, Hanut's designs celebrate an intriguing interplay of stones, crystals, gold and pearls. Transcending eras, cultures and geographical boundaries. Not surprisingly, when RR reached out to him for recommendations, he spoke passionately and at length about an array of museums and monuments he had visited recently. It's safe to deduce that his vast travels, observations and influences inform his work and design process.
He recommends five epochal exploratory experiences which offer the ultimate in the arts, encompassing artworks, artifacts, jewellery and architectural designs.
1. Musée d'Orsay, Paris
"The Water Lilies by Claude Monet at the Orangerie in Paris, affixed to the Musée d'Orsay, is possibly one of the most jaw-droppingly beautiful. The masterful six huge works by Claude Monet, which he gifted to the French state after the armistice of November 1918, are installed according to the plan he had designed, which is really vast. So, there are three rooms in this superbly circular-designed museum with natural light that comes in from the top. It is exhilarating, and just the scale of it is absolutely intoxicating.
It's Monet at his best when he started doing these water lily paintings, which he had been doing for 30 years, and then, as a gift to give to the French state, he did these beautiful monumental works, which are a testament to his brilliance. There are no borders, it's really evocative when you go close up, it's sort of everything melds into each other and when you stand away you can get the glimpses and when you see the brushstrokes and when you see how these huge massive canvases that span a rotunda of a room, so three in each room, just the scale of it is heady and for an art lover it's a must-visit."
2. Le Château de Versailles
The designer has just got back from Paris. He went there for a winter wonderland New Year holiday. "And so the second one is also French, which is a private visit to Versailles, which you as you can imagine, going privately into this insanely brilliant palace was very, very astounding just not only in its 3D decoration, surface texture decorations, not in the grandeur of those amazing gardens and because it was the winter, the gardens were all with frost. And there was a romanticism to it that was deeply, deeply moving, melancholic and moving.
And just the grandness and the scale of it were amazing. But then walking through the Hall of Mirrors was so powerful and so profound. And so, just if anyone likes interiors and decoration, etc., I mean, just the way they did that enfilade, which is basically a long line of rooms with the Hall of Mirrors and then entering Marie Antoinette's boudoir and her husband Louis XV's boudoir was just unbelievable. The textiles, the canopies, the beds, the mirrors, the art, the pomp, the circumstance, all of it. A private visit to Versailles is just one for the books," says he.
3. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
"Another one that is pretty epic is an early morning walkthrough at the Met when the Costume exhibition has just opened, and the curators take a select group of people for a walkthrough and discussion and talk through this incredible exhibition that they mount every single year. And so I've been very lucky to have two or three of these private walkthroughs, which are just that intoxicating because it's early morning, it's around 8.30 in the morning, the museum is closed except for this walkthrough, there's a breakfast and a chat and then a walkthrough and you have the Met to yourself, so you go through this very, very beautifully installed show which is not only glamorous but intellectually stimulating. The references are incredible for each show. So you have that, and then to escape into my favourite areas of the Met are the rooms of the Impressionist paintings, they've got the finest collection of Impressionist paintings, so just to be able to walk through quietly and absorb the brilliance of these rooms is magnificent and really a treat."
4. The Diamond Fund in Moscow
"The Diamond Fund in Moscow is jaw-dropping, literally. And me being a jewellery designer and being so intoxicated and being so in love with gemstones, just to see their collection of jewels, gemstones, Fabergé, I mean, the works. It is heart-stoppingly spectacular. I mean, the bounty and riches of minerals, gems, jewels, superbly, superbly displayed is really, again, one for the books. I mean, it is for any jewellery lover, any gem lover, anyone who's interested in nature and natural minerals. And just to see those diamonds, my God. The scale and the stone, the rubies, sapphires, emeralds. I mean, knowing that Russia had all these great, great mines as well, the emeralds. I mean, visiting the Diamond Fund in Mosco is really a very special thing to do for yourself."
5. The Taj Mahal, Agra
"And how can I not talk about the absolute impact of the Taj Mahal and the Mughal emperors and what they built and the mausoleum of all mausoleums. And as you walk into the walled area and you see the Taj looming up in front of you in absolute perfection, in scale, in size. in architecture and those domes and the minarets, the lattice work, the Jali, the Pietra Dura work. I mean, the Taj in Agra is absolutely one of the greatest. I mean, it is one of the greatest masterpieces of all masterpieces ever."