A quick glance at the National Gallery of Modern Art** (NGMA) would suggest that it has been so called to denote it as a gallery dedicated to modern art. However, the name suggests an entirely different story altogether.
The museum is located in Delhi, India and was originally known as the National Gallery of Modern Art. Just like any other national gallery in any part of the world, this gallery also showcases works of art by different artists belonging to different periods.
By far, the most significant collection in this gallery is that of Italian Renaissance paintings. The collection includes Botticelli, Titian, Master of Murano and various other artists such as Raphael and Michelangelo.
These paintings are displayed on three separate floors of the building, including ground floor and first floor.*
The topmost floor houses works from the post-Renaissance period where one can see Mughal paintings as well as those by European masters such as Canaletto, Goya and El Greco.*
Each painting has been placed in a separate room which is enclosed by glass walls so that viewers can walk around them without disturbing them. The first thing that catches your eye when you enter one of these rooms is the light emanating out of it. It seems to push away all darkness
The Gallery was designed by Dame Sybil Thorndike, wife of the actor, Laurence Olivier. The building opened in May 1977, and has been visited by over 12 million people. The National Gallery of Scotland was the first public building built in Britain after the Second World War.
The gallery holds a collection of Western art from the 13th century to the present day. In the Middle Ages, Scottish art was dominated by figures such as Scoto, James and Alexander Murray. In the 20th century, there is an impressive collection of works by Scottish painters including Sir William MacTaggart and Sir George Harvey.
In 2014, three paintings were stolen from the gallery, including “Portrait of Edmond de Belamy”, and Rembrandt’s “A Lady and Gentleman in Black”. They were found abandoned in Edinburgh city centre on 23rd April. They were discovered by a passing doctor who stopped to investigate after seeing one of them poking out from under a hedge in Victoria Place. There were no arrests at that time.
In 2015, two men pled guilty to stealing five paintings worth over £10m from the gallery: Paul Gauguin’s “Woman in Blue in Front of a Fireplace”, Pablo Picasso’s “Harlequin Head”,
The new wing, the Sainsbury Wing, designed by architect Norman Foster, opened on 9 September 2000 and houses the collection of modern art. It also incorporates the Clore Gallery for Turner, a permanent exhibition of some of the works of J. M. W. Turner, a significant British artist of the late 18th century, who lived in Venice from 1797 to 1801. The first purpose-built galleries for temporary exhibitions were also opened in 2000, designed by Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates. These replaced temporary structures which had been presented in a series of dilapidated marquees since 1947.
The area between St Martin’s Place and Madingley Road is now a sunken garden known as the Sainsbury Court Exhibition Centre. The court is used for displaying sculptures and installations. A bust of Sir Robert Sainsbury at its centre looks towards the exhibition spaces or may be viewed from above on an elevated walkway.’
The National Gallery of Modern Art, India functioned from 1952 to 1954. It was the first modern art museum in India and was housed at the Jawaharlal Nehru International Stadium Complex, Mumbai. In 1954, with financial assistance from the Ford Foundation, it was shifted to its permanent location at Horniman Circle, Fort, Mumbai.
The collection is primarily of post-Impressionist and modern European masters collected by Neville Tuli and his son Adrian D’Souza until their imprisonment for fraud in 1971. The collection includes work by René Magritte, Pablo Picasso, Paul Delvaux, Paul Gauguin, Henri Matisse and Marc Chagall among others.
Photo: © 2014 Museum Associates/LACMA
In January 2014 LACMA acquired three works from the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) collection: René Magritte’s The Lovers (1938), Paul Delvaux’s L’Institutrice (1941), and Henri Matisse’s La Danse (1909). These paintings will join others from the NGMA in the new exhibition “Renaissance Masters from Paris: Works on Paper from the 1930s and 1940s.” The exhibition will open to the public on February 14
The National Gallery of Modern Art is one of the most popular tourist destinations in India and also one of the largest museums in the world. The museum was established in 1954 and is located in New Delhi, India. The Museum was inaugurated by Jawaharlal Nehru, the then Prime Minister of India, on January 24, 1955.
The museum houses a wide variety of paintings from various artists, both Indian and Foreign. It also has paintings from the Mughal era as well as some miniatures. The museum boasts to have one of the finest collections of works by renowned European painters like Vincent Van Gogh, Claude Monet and Pablo Picasso apart from other artists like Salvador Dali and Andy Warhol. Amongst the Indian Masters whose works are featured at the museum are Rabindranath Tagore, Nandalal Bose, Jamini Roy, Amrita Sher Gill among others.
The building is based on the design of the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence. The latter was designed by Michelangelo, and the National Gallery wanted a similar feel to the London version. However, the architects found that the only way to have ceilings that were high enough for Michelangelo’s desired dome, without having an impractically large building, was to make it rectangular rather than square.
The “National Gallery of Modern Art” was opened in the year 1947 and it is located in New Delhi, India. This gallery has around 5000 paintings, sculptures, drawings and other art forms of various artists of the world. The gallery has also been awarded a very prestigious award that is the Commonwealth Award for Best Museum. The National Gallery of Modern Art is considered one of the largest and most visited museums in India.
The National Gallery of Modern Art has a very beautiful and huge building that houses the artworks. There are around 1000 artworks that are on display in this museum. The museum has a large collection of art from Asian artists of provinces such as India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh. The National Gallery of Modern Art also focuses on contemporary European art as well as art from America and Africa.
Some of the famous artists whose works are displayed in the National Gallery of Modern Art are Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Paul Gauguin, Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh, Jackson Pollock and many more. These modern day masters have given their exceptional works to this museum which makes it even more special.*
