Museums that Never have been…

Abhijeet Tamhane

Is Mumbai too young to have its own Museum of Modern and Contemporary art? The 'Kipling' Bungalow at Sir J. J. School of Art being turned into a Museum of pre and post independence academic advances of art in India, is as yet a talk in the air. Hardly anybody, in the last two years, could have thought of the National Gallery of Modern Art (Mumbai Branch) to be responsive to the contemporary and recent advances of art from India. Contemporary artists from the city are finding museums elsewhere in the globe, but not here. While the situation has its odds and ends, these notes allure the museum(s) that never have been…

The hegemony of the District

There is a Lansdowne gallery in Lansdowne House on Lansdowne Road in Mumbai's 'Art District' Kala Ghoda that boasts itself as a 'new, eclectic venue to show art'. Given the fact that the Museum Gallery is booked till 2009 and the Jehangir Art Gallery till 2012, many "non-Art District galleries" would land their shows at Lansdowne. The NGMA (Mumbai branch) in the same district will continue to have its month-odd long shows sans any coordination with the Mumbai galleries. The aspirations of showcasing works for a longer period will have to wait for a venue in Mumbai, but galleries will find other galleries, they will make connections and will vie for a show in the Art District. In a city geographically linear with its southernmost tip the most busy, this will continue.

Mock Museum

Manasi Bhatt's 'Matress Factory works' can be seen this month at the Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke in Colaba. Her photographs of cinema and  toy-animation characters underlines ' exaggerated typecasting' on one hand and a novel way (after Cindy Sherman) to personalize the 'public perception'. What abounds at Bhatt's  show is the Museum-like setting! The red carpet, the golden frames and individual lights for the works, all insist on the need to mock down a museum. Her video, 'Man Walking'   animates these characters. The show would go on to problematize the notions of typecast, animated and so on… and one would wonder if s/he is being turned into a museum piece, in a reversal of gaze.

Days of History…

The Jehangir Art Gallery, since last seven years, has been working on a series of 'Masterstrokes' exhibition that does a commendable groundwork in locating the artists of yesteryears. We all might know Dhurandhar and S. L. Haldankar, but Mumbai of the 1920s and 1930s was bustling with energies that would mend themselves to academic traditions in art. What did these young artists of that time do as professionals? 'Masterstrokes' has provided some answers.
This month, since the 15th , 'Masterstrokes-VI' opens at Jehangir art Gallery with two educationists : V. R. Amberkar (1907- 1974) and G. D. Gondhalekar (1909-1980). While Amberkar is known as one of the pioneers of Faculty of Fine Art at MSU, Baroda; Gondhalekar had many feathers in his cap- the positions of 'Dean, sir J. J. School of Arts' (1953-59), and 'Art Director, The Times of India' (1959-64) . He then served as the Arts Editor of the 17-volume Marathi Encyclopedia (Vishwakosh) . Both Amberkar and Gondhalekar wrote pedagogical and informative articles on art, while Gondhalekar was acclaimed for his critical writings. Amberkar had a master's degree in English literature while Gondhalekar lived in   London for his studies at Slade School (Painting and Sculpture) and Central School of Arts and Crafts (Printmaking). Both served as antennae for educational change, change (or shape) the government's in the attitude toward art. 'Masterstrokes- VI' will display mostly paintings   and drawings, of which Amberkar's Opaque watercolour landscapes will interest today’s investor-collectors ('Amberkar used opaque much before S.H. Raza did", informed Suhas Bahulkar, a coordinator of the show and the series so far). The show will also have three heads by Gondhalekar and some of his prints.

The Masterstrokes series reminds one of the virtual absence of a Museum in Mumbai. Painters like Amberkar and Gondhalekar need better documentation and showcasing, the show will tell us, but Mumbai will continue its indulgence in the present, anyways!