National Gallery of Modern Art,

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

was opened to the public in 1996. It hosts various exhibitions and art collections of famous artists, sculptors and different civilizations. It is situated in the

Cowasji Jehangir Hall The Cowasji Jehangir Hall is a museum of modern art and was part of the The Institute of Science, Mumbai, Institute of Science prior to 1996. The hall was built in 1911 by George Wittet and funded by Cowasji Jehangir. It is located in Colaba are ...

, near

Regal Cinema The Regal Cinema is an Art deco movie theatre located at Colaba Causeway, in Mumbai, India. Built by Framji Sidhwa, the first film to be aired at the Regal was the Laurel and Hardy work '' The Devil's Brother'' in 1933. According to the '' ...

in Colaba.

History

The idea of a National art gallery was first mooted in 1949, and further developed by Prime Minister

Jawahar Lal Nehru Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (; ; ; 14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat— * * * * and author who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20 ...

and

Maulana Azad Abul Kalam Ghulam Muhiyuddin Ahmed bin Khairuddin Al-Hussaini Azad (; 11 November 1888 – 22 February 1958) was an Indian independence activist, Islamic theologian, writer and a senior leader of the Indian National Congress. Following Ind ...

, bureaucrats such as

Humayun Kabir Humayun Kabir (1906-1969) was an Indian educationist and politician. He was also a poet, essayist and novelist in the Bengali-language. He was also a renowned political thinker. He was educated at Exeter College, Oxford and graduated in 1931. ...

and the local art community. Vice-president Dr. S.Radhakrishnan formally inaugurated the NGMA in the presence of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and artists and art lovers of the city on 29 March 1954. The choice of

Jaipur House Jaipur House is the former residence of the Maharaja of Jaipur in the city of New Delhi, India. It is situated at the end of Rajpath, facing the India Gate. History It was designed by Charles Blomfield, after construction of Lutyens' Delhi, ...

, one of the premier edifices of Lutyens’ Delhi, signified the envisaged high profile of the institution. Designed by

Sir Arthur Blomfield Sir Arthur William Blomfield (6 March 182930 October 1899) was an English architect. He became president of the Architectural Association in 1861; a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1867 and vice-president of the RIBA in ...

, as a residence for the Maharaja of Jaipur, the butterfly-shaped building with a central dome was built in 1936. It was styled after a concept of the Central Hexagon visualised by

Sir Edwin Lutyens Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens ( ; 29 March 1869 – 1 January 1944) was an English architect known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era. He designed many English country houses, war memoria ...

. It was Lutyens, along with Herbert Baker, who visualized and gave shape to the new capital in

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

. Along with buildings designed for other princely potentates like Bikaner and Hyderabad, Jaipur House girded the India Gate circle. NGMA's inauguration was marked by an exhibition of sculptures. Prominent sculptors of the time including Debi Prasad Roy Chowdhury,

Ramkinkar Baij Ramkinkar Baij ( bn, রামকিঙ্কর বেইজ) (25 May 1906 – 2 August 1980) was an Indian sculptor and painter, one of the pioneers of modern Indian sculpture and a key figure of Contextual Modernism. Early life and ...

, Sankho Chaudhuri, Dhanraj Bhagat, Sarbari Roy Chowdhury and others had participated. The show was prepared by NGMA's first curator

Herman Goetz Herman may refer to: People * Herman (name), list of people with this name * Saint Herman (disambiguation) * Peter Noone (born 1947), known by the mononym Herman Places in the United States * Herman, Arkansas * Herman, Michigan * Herman, Minnes ...

. A noted German art historian, Goetz had earlier been responsible for setting up the Baroda Museum. The Gallery is run and administered as a subordinate office to the Department of Culture, Government of India, and showcases the changing art forms through the passage of the last hundred and fifty years starting from about 1857 in the field of

Visual art The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, design, crafts and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual art, and textile arts ...

and Plastic arts.

Collection

* A collection of

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

's worksNational Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai
''myguidemumbai.com''. Retrieved 4 September 2021 *

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

ian artifacts such as

mummies A mummy is a dead human or an animal whose soft tissues and organs have been preserved by either intentional or accidental exposure to chemicals, extreme cold, very low humidity, or lack of air, so that the recovered body does not decay furt ...

, statues, etc. Bibliography: Ella Datta, Treasures of National Gallery of Modern Art..MAPIN(Ahmedabad)

References

External links

NGMA Web site
{{Coord, 18.9258, 72.8313, type:landmark_region:IN, display=title Art museums and galleries in Mumbai Museums established in 1996 1996 establishments in Maharashtra The Victorian and Art Deco Ensemble of Mumbai de:National Gallery of Modern Art hi:राष्ट्रीय आधुनिक कला संग्रहालय he:הגלריה הלאומית לאמנות מודרנית (ניו דלהי)

History

Collection

See also

References

External links