Tag: exhibition

A Maharaja and his Art come to Town

~ millennialmatriarchs ~ Leave a comment

Like many of my fellow citizens, I am not a great fan of rajas, maharajas and their ilk. Nevertheless I love one Maharaja. The Air India Maharaja of course!

And the Maharaja has come to my neck of the woods (Bangalore), bringing with him a part of his famed art collection. Yes, the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) here is hosting close to 200 pieces from the Air India art collection for six months.

Air India’s was one of the largest corporate art collections in India, estimated to have been worth over Rs. 350 crores about eight years ago. The collection has been built over almost seven decades and comprises close to 4000 works. It spans across modern and contemporary paintings, folk art and miniatures, as well as sculptures, textiles, photographs and antique clocks.

The collection started in the 1940s, propelled by JRD Tata, who wanted all of Air India’s booking offices across the world to represent India. Bobby Kooka and Jal Cawasji were mainly responsible for selecting and buying the art pieces. They would not only buy paintings from established artists, they would also visit student exhibitions and pick up paintings. Many of these would be used to make calendars, post cards etc. There was another interesting way of acquiring paintings—the transportation service contract. In exchange for the works of artists, Air India would give them international air tickets! Many an artist, including MF Hussain found this offer irresistible!

There were specially commissioned art works too. For instance, in the days when smoking in the air was quite normal, the airline commissioned Salvador Dali to design a special ashtray to be given to first class passengers. This was in 1967. 500 limited edition pieces were made of an ashtray comprising a shell-shaped centre with a serpent twined around its perimeter, supported by two surrealist elephant-heads and a swan.  Dali asked for a baby elephant as payment, and got it too!

When the Tatas controlled Air India, the art works were carefully documented, displayed, stored and issued out from the Mumbai office to various domestic and international offices. After the merger with Indian Airlines in 2007 however, things went awry. The collection was moved to Delhi and there was no real ownership. There were scandals with one of Jatin Das’ works allegedly disappearing. Moreover, the works were not properly stored or cared for.

When Air India was re-privatized a few years ago, it was decided that the collection would go to the NGMA, where it could be taken care of professionally. A further decision was taken that the collection would not just stay in one location, but would travel across the country and to other countries as well.

It is as part of this that the collection has now come to Bangalore, where it is being displayed at the NGMA building which itself is a sight. Called the Manickyavelu Mansion, it belonged to Manickyavelu Mudaliar, a mining baron, who himself bought it from the Wadiyars of Mysore.  Mudaliar who came from a poor family made it big thanks to his forays into manganese and chrome mining. But the fortune did not last long and the mansion was taken over by the City Improvement Trust Board.  In 2000, it was leased out to the Ministry of Culture. So today the imposing mansion with grand rooms and a scale quite fitting to a national museum, set in serene green grounds with century old trees, is the Southern Headquarters of the NGMA.

So if you are in Bangalore, ensure you drop into the gallery to see the Air India exhibition. You will see works by Anjolie Ela Menon, B. Prabha, Arpana Caur, MF Hussain, Jatin Das and Raza, among others.

And one room is devoted to the Braille versions of these works. The paintings and the information about them are done in Braille and hopefully will be enjoyed by many.

A special exhibition indeed!

–Meena

FrogFest

~ millennialmatriarchs ~ 1 Comment

Over 35 years ago, when I spent two years living in Nairobi, my sister Seema, then a young zoology student came to visit. Among the souvenirs she picked up from the local market was a potholder made of cane that was shaped like a frog. After that trip, wherever she went, it was almost as if frogs were jumping out from everywhere, urging to be picked up! Frogs in all materials, shapes, sizes and poses. And so, Seema became a ‘frog collector’! It also made it easy for friends and family to find her a gift. Over the years, the frog artefact collection grew and grew till her house was bursting at the seams with frogs big and small. One day the thought came, how could this be shared with more people, and what would be the purpose of the sharing? Over a couple of years, and a combination of fortuitous circumstances, this idea metamorphosed into FrogFest.

FrogFest began as a brainchild of Seema’s old school friend Aditya Arya whose creative mind has always leapt way ahead of the average plodders and hoppers. Let’s do an exhibition called FrogArt, he said. With his vast experience in photography and exhibit design, he offered to curate the show. That done, it worked out that WWF offered to host the display. This was indeed serendipity! WWF was where Seema began her professional life as a volunteer (while still a college student). What better way to “give back” to an institution that was the first to nurture what became a lifelong passion (as well as vocation) for biodiversity and conservation!

Then came the challenge—how to use the frog artefacts to highlight the larger issues of amphibian conservation; how to creatively bridge the traditional gap between Art and Science? Seema invited me to join the team as co-curator, to apply my experience as an environmental educator. After six months of being steeped in all matters Batrachian (along the way we discovered that the study of frogs was known as Batrachology!) we were ready to launch FrogFest—Celebrating Frogs in Art and Nature.

As the name suggests, FrogFest focuses on the amazingly diverse interpretations of a single element of nature–the frog! It showcases Seema Bhatt’s personal collection of frog artefacts from over 40 countries, including a rendering of frogs in folk art, as well as contemporary art by young artists.

The display of the artefacts and art is supported by a series of panels that highlight the fascinating aspects of frogs, and the conservation significance of frogs in nature. Far from the dusty tomes of academic journals, the visual-rich and reader-friendly panels also offer a peep into the fascinating world of frogs in India and the important initiatives to conserve them.These have been supported and enriched with expert inputs from Dr S.D. Biju and Dr Gururaja, India’s foremost amphibian scientists.

 

The bridge between art and nature is further strengthened by the organisation and display of artefacts. For example, where the panel describes the role of colour in frogs in Nature, there is also a display of nearly a hundred frog artefacts, made from glass, ceramic, clay, stone and more, with vibrant colours, along with a ‘Frogtoid’ that reminds that while artists have let their imagination run riot, nature has bestowed frogs with a colour palette on which their very survival depends (attracting mates, warning predators).

 

With its brilliant interweaving of the facts and fun FrogFest offers a feast for the senses. It also provides food for thought by putting the spotlight on the Frog. At a time when the focus of wildlife conservation is primarily on charismatic ‘megafauna’, there is a dire need to reflect on the conservation of smaller, but equally significant fauna around us. While frogs may not always hit the headlines as the ‘Superstars’ of the grand epic of nature, they are no less fascinating, and indeed, no less important in the Web of Life.

FrogFest is on at WWF India, 172-B Lodi Road, New Delhi till the end of April 2018.

–Mamata