Treasures of National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi

This book takes the reader on an exciting visual adventure. It showcases modern masterpieces from the collection in the National Gallery of Modern Art, the premier institution for modern and contemporary Indian art, established in 1954 in Delhi. NGMA has a collection of 16,000 works of art that comprises paintings, drawings, sculptures, graphic prints and photographs from 1850 onwards. That the gallery’s gradual growth over the last fifty years has been marked by taste and discrimination is evident from its acquisition of a priceless collection of modern Indian art. The anonymous indigenous artists of the nineteenth century, the early oils of Raja Ravi Varma, the academic realists, Abanindranath Tagore and his poetic wash technique, the celebration of nature of the Shantiniketan masters led by Nandalal Bose, the dramatic language of Rabindranath Tagore, Amrita Sher-Gil and Jamini Roy, all these and more, offer a feast for the eyes. More recent artists are also well represented at the NGMA, which has paintings by M.F. Husain, Tyeb Mehta, Professor K.G. Subramanyan, A. Ramachandran, sculptures by Ramkinkar Baij, Meera Mukherjee, Piloo Pochkhanawala, photographs of former times by Lala Deen Dayal and contemporary treasures by Raghu Rai and other prominent artists. This lucidly written book has been so organized that it takes the reader through that flow as reflected through the NGMA collection, and surveys the collection from both historical and aesthetic poin