National Gallery of Modern Art

Description

Constructed, 1936

The Maharaja of Jaipur’s Delhi residence was Jaipur House, located at the end of the Rajpath. The house was given to the state of Jaipur in exchange for land gained for the construction of Lutyens' Delhi. Built as the royal house of Bikaner by Charles Blomfield, this was the site for many meetings of the Chamber of Princes pre-Independence.

Converted, 1954

It now houses the National Gallery for Modern Art and aims to acquire and preserve works of art from 1857 onwards. The art collection of the NGMA is vast and established by the Ministry of Culture.. The 17,000 works within it testify to a rich and resplendent past even as they pay tribute to the present. Its treasures span miniature paintings to modernist interventions and contemporary expressions.

Renovation, 2009

Factoids

1953- In 1953 the Society organized the Second International Exhibition of Contemporary Art in its new building, which the national daily 'The Statesman' described as ‘no less than Venice Biennale.

1957- Hermann Goetz, a noted German art historian became its first curator and in time it added new facilities such as Art restoration services, an Art Reference Library, and a Documentation Centre.

1955- NGMA purchased M F Husain’s landmark 1955 work Zameen where the artist’s use of icons and symbols were articulated in a monumental sweep.

Related People

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Maharaja Man Singh II, Jaipur House is the former residence of the Maharaja of Jaipur in the city of New Delhi, India.

Edwin Lutyens, The Jaipur House was styled after a concept of the Central Hexagon was visualized by Sir Edwin Lutyens.

All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society, The first proposal for a National Art Gallery was made by a Delhi-based artists’ organization, the AIFACS, in 1938.

Related Sites

Hyderabad House

Bikaner House

Lutyens' Delhi

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