Time to unfold again

RETRO ART

Kiran Nadar Museum of Art is all set to come up with some exclusive artwork of about 30 well-known artists, including legendary painter M F Husain that have not been displayed since the past four decades.

To be opened on January 23 by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and Cabinet Minister Kamal Nath at the museum in Saket, the exhibition – ‘Crossings: Time Unfolded part II' will display the exclusive work of artists like Manjit Bawa, Mrinalini Mukherjee, Nasreen Mohammedi, Ram Kumar and Ranbir Kaleka.

“The exhibition evolves from the permanent collection of the museum, also taking into account recent acquisitions made by them. Addressing the popularity of the first inaugural exhibition, ‘Time Unfolded II’ takes the conversations established between the modernists and the contemporaries further, evaluating post-independence pictorial traditions,” says owner of the museum Kiran Nadar.

The theme of the exhibition, curated by Roobina Karode, is a comeback of some exclusive artwork after four decades as some of them are being displayed for the first time since 1960. “Many artwork as well as juxtapositions will be exhibited in India for the first time in the exhibition such as Ranbir Kaleka’s ‘Crossings,’ Rina Banerjee’s ‘Burnt Fruit’ and Akbar Padamsee’s ‘Grey Nude’. These artworks will be exhibited for the first time since 1960,” Kiran says.

Title of the exhibition has been drawn from Ranbir Kaleka’s four-screen video projections on four painted canvases, which is being exhibited in India for the first time. “His artwork is metaphorically highlighting the transitions from painting to new media and hinting at the simultaneous residual images,” she adds. Each sub-section of the exhibition also aims at preparing the ground for future exhibitions at the museum. “The exhibition will unfold as a site of confluence and reference rather than a mere collection,” she adds.

Other artists whose works will be on display are Anish Kapoor, Arpana Caur, Atul Dodiya, Avinash Chandra, Bharti Kher, Bhupen Khakhar, Dayanita Singh, F N Souza, Ganesh Pyne, Gulammohammed Sheikh, Himmat Shah, H A Gade, Jeram Patel, Krishen Khanna, L N Tallur, Rameshwar Broota, Ranjani Shettar, Ravinder Reddy, Rashid Rana, Sadanandji  Bakre, S H Raza, Somnath Hore, Subodh Gupta, Sudhir Patwardhan, Sudarshan Shetty, Surendran Nair, Tyeb Mehta, Vivan Sundaram, V S Gaitonde and Zarina
Hashmi.