National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), Vasanth Nagar, is hosting Sanhita: A New Beginning, their ongoing art exhibition of the Air India art collection. The exhibition features over 180 artworks and sculptures; it celebrates the rich legacy of Air India, showcasing masterpieces by both Indian and international artists.
“This exhibition is a follow-up to the handover of the Air India collection to NGMA in 2022 and 2023. Now, with the collection fully integrated, this is the first major exhibition showcasing these works,” says Priyanka Mary Francis, the director of NGMA.
Many of these works were exhibited as masterpieces from well-known artists, both Indian as well as international, who gifted the works themselves. Recounting the significance of the artworks, Francis shares, “During the inauguration, art historian Yamini Telkar mentioned that many artists including MF Hussain and Salvador Dali, who were struggling to find funds to travel to different foreign locations for exhibitions, offered to give artworks from their collection to travel to those particular locations. So that is how some of these collections have come into Air India’s possession.”
When asked about what visitors can expect, Francis shares, “Dali’s famous Ashtray is under display; other than that, Anjali Ramayanan’s works on wooden frames and window frames, MF Hussain’s Horses, and many works of prominent artists like PP Shakti Burman, Manu Parekh, Jitish Kallat, and SG Vasudev, who is from Bengaluru.”
Initially, the exhibition was showcased in Mumbai as ‘Maharaja Collection’. “The name, curation, display, and conceptualisation of the exhibition except for the artworks, are different from the Mumbai exhibition,” says Subarno Patro, who curated the exhibition with Darshan Kumar. The title ‘Sanhita’, which translates to coming together or union, encapsulates the essence of the exhibition, as it binds together artworks from different periods of history. “The artist B Prabha, whose work is exhibited, was one of the first women Air India approached for the collection. She took the initiative to decorate the interior of Air India’s Boeing 747,” Patro shares. “The curation of the exhibition was different then. Now, after the merger is complete, the Bengaluru team has curated it differently,” Francis adds.
The inclusive features of the exhibition with braille make it unique. “We have opened a particular tactile section for the first time in the history of NGMA for people with disabilities, who can enjoy the artworks by touching them,” Francis says, further explaining, “This section has 15 of the famous artworks reproduced for touch. There are QR codes set up for disabled visitors to scan.”
The exhibition also caters to children. “We have also introduced some games for the children as part of this exhibition. Once they scan the QR code, they will get four different games and one quiz, which will increase their curiosity about the exhibition,” Francis says.
(The exhibition was commemorated on March 7 and is ongoing)