NGMA Mumbai committee not disbanded, its term ended: Govt after Palekar''s ire

NEW DELHI: A day after the controversy around actor Amol Palekars speech being cut short at an event in the National Gallery of Modern Art branch of Mumbai, the Ministry of Culture said the NGMA committees in Mumbai, Bengaluru and Delhi had not been dissolved. Their terms had ended.

Actor Amol Palekar.

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, February 10

A day after the controversy around actor Amol Palekar’s speech being cut short at an event in the National Gallery of Modern Art branch of Mumbai, the Ministry of Culture said the NGMA committees in Mumbai, Bengaluru and Delhi had not been “dissolved”. Their terms had ended.

Participating at an event at NGMA Mumbai yesterday, Palekar had described as “disastrous” the Ministry’s decision to “disband the advisory committees of local artists at NGMA galleries in Mumbai and Bengaluru and to take control of the gallery affairs”.

“The Advisory Committees of NGMA Mumbai, Bengaluru and Delhi have not been dissolved. Their terms have ended recently — Mumbai and Bengaluru committee terms ended on November 15, 2018 and of Delhi on January 27, 2019. The committees are in the process of being reconstituted,” NGMA Director General Adwait Gadanayak said in a statement today.

Reacting to Palekar’s remarks that the retrospective on late artist Prabhakar Barwe “will be the last show decided by the committee of local artists”, NGMA said the recommendations of previous Advisory Committees (which are up to December 2019 for NGMA Mumbai) will be honoured and exhibitions of artists will happen as proposed.

The Ministry also clarified that the new advisory committee will take a decision relating to future exhibitions.

On permanent collections, NGMA DG said, “NGMA proposes to display its own collections, including artworks by great masters, initially over a two-year period. Some artists have expressed their apprehensions about availability of less space for temporary exhibitions and retrospectives. NGMA is deliberating on suggestions received from artists, and a final decision will be taken shortly in consultation with all stakeholders.”

Palekar had yesterday walked off the stage after Suhas Bahulkar, former chairman of NGMA Mumbai committee, and NGMA director Anita Rupavataram intervened and asked the actor to focus his speech on Barwe’s work.