Window to our times

Neha Kirpal

One of Delhi’s oldest art galleries, the Gita Art Gallery has been relaunched as GAG Moderne. The 3,000 square feet space will also function as an interactive space where public can interact with creative talents.

“It is going to be a seamless merging of timelines for Indian art. Lovers of Indian art from across world can look forward to the grandest work of artists of yore finding expression on the same platform as the most promising talent for the future,” says Neha Talwar, director, GAG Moderne.

Showcasing the best of Indian art — from traditional and modern paintings, sculptures, installations — to the more contemporary — mixed media, conceptual art, video art and experimental art, the gallery restarted operations with a month-long exhibition of exquisite art works by the country’s most sought-after young masters such as Rameshwar Broota, Manu Parekh, Mona Rai, Manish Pushkale, Amitava Das, Kalicharan Gupta, Shobha Broota and Hem Raj. The show, Paradox of Silence, is a study of how deeply a work of art can affect the senses. NeAnGo Studio, which has launched the gallery, will be putting up an art installation for the show along with the works of 10 artists. This is part of a series of installation that the studio is doing on mosquitoes, first in the series of Machharnama — One Drop Paradox.

The Gita Art Gallery was established in 1964 by Kuljit Singh Butalia. A collector of rare Indian art, Butalia’s passion led him to not merely showcase but possess paintings of all kinds — be it abstract or semi-abstract form to combinations of these elements. The thousands of original works that he amassed would be regularly put up in exhibitions at The Oberoi’s in 1964.

At a time when the art business was a personalised affair, Butalia was intimately associated with India and the world’s most eclectic artists like MF Hussain, FN Souza and Manjit Bawa. Having started his journey at a time when art flourished in the Asian region but, perhaps, didn’t find as many lucrative deals as it does in the new millennium, he revolutionised modern and contemporary art in India. Since then, for more than five decades, the Gita Art Gallery has showcased some of the most unique and finest exhibitions of modern and contemporary art in the country. It has constantly promoted Indian art globally too.

“In its new avatar, GAG Moderne will stay true to this style of working with creative people and will give the support and encouragement required to nurture the artist,” remarked Butalia. The opening day of the gallery was attended by renowned names such as danseuse Shovana Narayan and artists such as GR Iranna, Sakti Burman, Gopi Gajwani, Kanchan Chander and Maya Burman to name a few.