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In transition: Collection building at the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi

Arnika Ahldag

Associate Curator at the Museum of Art and Photography in Bengaluru & PhD Candidate at the School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University. ORCID: 0000-0002-1369-0392. Email: arnika.ahldag@map-india.org

Volume 5, Number 1, 2021 I Full-Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/cjad.51.v5n104

Abstract

The National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) in New Delhi stores a collection of about 17,000 artworks dating back to 1850. After the establishment of the NGMA in 1954 on the behest of India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to adequately store his collection of paintings of the Indian modernist and his friend Amrita Shergil, the collection was built up over 60 years by successive directors and their personal likings and peers.

Keywords: exhibition history, colonialism, Indian art

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