After shutting its doors for visitors amid the coronavirus outbreak, the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) has launched a virtual tour through which art enthusiasts can enjoy its repository of artefacts.

The decision was taken on the 66th Foundation Day of the gallery on March 29.

“The sculptures, paintings and prints in the visual tour is a step further to showcase the hidden treasures of our reserve collection,” NGMA director general Adwaita Gadanayak said.

National Gallery of Modern Art

The National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) in New Delhi is the premier institution of its kind in India. It is run and administered as a subordinate office of the ministry of culture. 

The NGMA has two branches — one in Mumbai and the other in Bengaluru. 

The gallery is a repository of the cultural ethos of the country and showcases the changing art forms through the passage of the last hundred and fifty years starting from about 1857 in the field of visual and plastic arts. 

The NGMA has the most significant collection of modern and contemporary art in the country today.

History of NGMA

The idea of a national art gallery was first mooted in 1949. Vice President Dr. S. Radhakrishnan formally inaugurated the NGMA in the presence of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and artists and art lovers in New Delhi on March 29, 1954. 

The choice of Jaipur House, one of the premier edifices of Lutyens’ Delhi, signified the envisaged high profile of the institution. 

Designed by architect Charles G. Blomfield and his brother Francis B. Blomfield, as a residence for the Maharaja of Jaipur, the butterfly-shaped building with a central dome was built in 1936. It was styled after a concept of the central hexagon visualised by Sir Edwin Lutyens. 

NGMA’s inauguration was marked by an exhibition of sculptures. All the prominent sculptors of the time like Debi Prasad Roy Chowdhury, Ramkinkar Baij, Sankho Chaudhuri, Dhanraj Bhagat, Sarbari Roy Chowdhury and others had participated.

Objectives of NGMA

* To acquire and preserve works of modern art from the 1850s onward.

* To organise, maintain and develop galleries for permanent display.

* To organise special exhibitions not only in its own premises but in other parts of the country and abroad.

* To develop an education and documentation centre in order to acquire, maintain and preserve documents relating to works of modern art.

* To develop a specialised library of books, periodicals, photographs and other audio visual materials.

* To organize lectures, seminars and conferences, and to encourage higher studies and research in the field of art history, art criticism, art appreciation, museology and the inter-relations on visual and performing arts.

The foremost responsibility of the NGMA is to ensure quality and to set and maintain standards of excellence. 

The NGMA helps people to look at the works of modern art with greater joy, understanding and knowledge and experiencing them as vital expressions of the human spirit.

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