The new and the timeless

Swati Rai

New Configurations, an exhibition that brings together works by modern and contemporary Indian masters, is representative of the diversity of Indian contemporary art. Here new acquisitions are displayed alongside vignettes from the permanent collection at the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art in Noida.

The exhibition features works by modernists such as Krishen Khanna’s Pieta (1988), Mrinalini Mukherjee’s Van Raja (1991-94) and KK Hebbar’s The Tile Factory, alongside Nalini Malani’s Ecstasy of Radha and works by Arpita Singh, Akbar Padamsee and Ram Kumar. It maps movements, times and conversations between key modernists.

Among the prominent works displayed at the gallery is A Ramachandran’s Anatomy Lesson (1971). In the artist’s imagination, the squalor he saw in the Kolkata of that decade was similar to that described in Dostoyevsky’s St Petersburg in Crime and Punishment. He applied the author’s idea of common participation in crime to a series of paintings and that is where this work comes from. Another significant work on the showcase is that by Mrinalini Mukherjee.

The exhibition encourages a renewed approach from its audience, fresh perspectives and new insights, reflecting on the creative breadth of India’s most significant modern and contemporary artists and their historical context.

Roobina Karode, director of Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, says, “The idea of displaying selected works from the permanent collection alongside newer additions is an opportunity for us to review and rethink the new configurations that emerge as we build upon the existing ones. Juxtaposing the two helps us in assessing the emerging patterns evolving from the museum’s collection, which, in turn, reflects the creative breadth of artists and the historical context of the art we collect. Essentially, this exhibition is a way of representing the complex diversity of Indian contemporary artistic practice.”