Ngma displays a new language
“I wanted a different language in creating counterpoints,” says Director-General, NGMA
Two years at the National Gallery of Modern Art in Delhi, the Director-General Adwaita Gadanayak has changed the language of displays in the presentation of art and sculpture. Amongst the display design dynamics that came to the fore were the installations created for Dhanraj Bhagat, Gandhi's Dandi, The Print Biennale, the South Indian show Dhvani se Shabd our Chinh and Bireshwar Sen. Amongst visitors to the National Gallery of Modern Art have been a great number of artists, students, and art lovers.
"I wanted a different language in creating counterpoints," says Adwaita Gadanayak who began with 'Itihaas' a celebration of sculptures collected over 63 years. In 'Itihaas', Gadanayak brought out wooden boxes that were used to store sculptures and created display pedestals from these boxes. It looked like a flashback in time because the boxes were rather large and rather queer looking but once the eyes got used to the dynamics of design one realised that it was the crudeness the rough-hewn look that Gadanayak wanted for the displays.
The next radical thing that happened was in creating new dialogues in the display for the South Indian Dhvani se Chinh show that had evocative rendering spaces within spaces and little multiple mounts for the sculptures of masters like Jankiram, Paniker, Muthaih Dakshinamoorthy and many more.
Curator and critic Uma Nair who wrote critical essays for 'Itihaas', 'Dhvani se Shabd our Chinh' as well as the Dhanraj Bhagat shows says the shows were new statements in the immersive power of space and art installations.
The brilliant artist, printmaker, and mentor Dattaraye Apte recalls the Bhagat show. "The retrospective exhibition of sculptures of Dhanraj Bhagat at NGMA was a historic one. His work reflects the continuation of Indian tradition without any sign of the Western stylistic influence of any artist or tradition. The Natraj is manifested in various liner forms and moods."
Another display by the team that has been liked by Nair was Himmat Shah's three works in the Chehre exhibition. The Himmat Shah works were historic in every way and looking at them was a statement in the spatial distribution of drawing attention to each head irrespective of angles. Most recently the Gandhi's Dandi installation of salt and the salt journey have also impressed her greatly.
Printmaker Kavita Nayyar who was part of the Print Biennale says: "After so many years of being in the practice, it was heartening to see the national body of Art, Lalit Kala Akademi opening its doors to host the International Print Biennale in collaboration with National Gallery Of Modern Art in Delhi. It was nice to see that in one of the galleries of NGMA a small corner was carved out to create a printmaking studio where all the tools, rollers and materials used in creating prints were on display to create awareness about this medium ."
Anandmoyi Banerjee the mentor and artist remember the Bireshwar Sen exhibition. "A treasure was mounted in Bireshwar Sen 's show at NGMA. Right from the display to the transcendental feel of the whole journey through the hundred of works was a great experience."
