Delhi’s National Gallery for Modern Art (NGMA) preserves and presents contemporary Indian art from the last century and a half. Started in 1954, the premier gallery contains well over 10,000 works by artists who changed the artistic landscape of India.
Initially, the gallery used to be a smaller building, but post the 2009 renovation it has grown vastly in size. The redevelopment brought with it a new auditorium, a preview theatre, library, conservation laboratory (most vital), academic section, and the quintessential museum shop and café.
With the increase in size came an increase in ambition. The gallery regularly organises lectures, seminars, and conferences; they have created a space to obtain and preserve documents relating to works of modern art, and plan to develop a specialised library of multi-media (books, images, and audio) on India and art.
The gallery is roughly divided into two sections – Traditional Art and Modern Art – and houses some of India’s top artists from the last 150 years. It can be difficult figuring out what’s what at first, with your eyes being bombarded by artwork left, right and centre.
Galleries include collections of individuals and themes, such as works of Rabindranath Tagore, Amrita Sher-Gil, an entire gallery on Tanjore and Mysore traditions of painting, another gallery collection commissioned by the British East India Company, and Modern Art Sculptures, to name a few. We were particularly curious about the European Traveller Artists gallery that included gorgeous oil paintings on the Indian landscape, drawn by Europeans who visited India between the late 1700s and early 1800s. We also enjoyed the Photography gallery with some stunning images by Indian photographers from the past 80 years.
Timings: 11 AM - 6:30 PM (Tuesday to Friday) and 11 AM - 8:00 PM (Saturday and Sunday)
Khan Market is the nearest metro station.
