NEW DELHI—The Devi Art Foundation, India's first noncommercial, nonprofit space for contemporary art from the country and the subcontinent, will open on Saturday, the International Herald Tribune reports. Showing the collection of Anupam Poddar and his mother, Lekha, the new space in the Delhi suburb of Gurgaon will effectively be India's first museum of contemporary art.

The Poddars have been collecting art for the past 30 years. Anupam says that he was inspired by his mother, who began collecting modern and folk art decades ago; though his tastes in art proved different — he was drawn to the artists of his generation — his passion for collecting was the same.

The mother and son are known in the Indian art world for catching art trends before they happen. "While most collectors in India still 'buy with their ears,'" said Peter Nagy, a former New Yorker who now runs the Nature Morte gallery in New Delhi, "the Poddars have always listened to their hearts and brains and have never been afraid to be independent in their choices."

Anupam's first acquisition was a life-size pink fiberglass cow by Subodh Gupta in 1999. "It was quintessentially Indian but modern in its essence," he said. "That's what spoke to me."

Works from the Poddars' extensive collection — roughly 2,000 contemporary works plus an estimated 5,000 folk and tribal pieces — will form the basis of the exhibitions at Devi, which is housed in a 7,500-square-foot, two-floor space in an office tower. The first show, "Still Moving Image," features 25 artists working in photography and video.

The Devi fills a gap in a country where public displays of contemporary art are hard to find. India's government-run National Gallery of Modern Art rarely shows contemporary work. In a similar vein to Devi, a modern art museum designed by Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron is currently being built in Calcutta. Construction will start next year, with the museum scheduled to open in late 2013.

For now, the Poddars seem confident about their endeavor: "There is no commercial angle," said Lekha. "We don't have to be afraid."