Report by Santanu Ganguly, New Delhi: To mark the occasion of the centenary of Indian cinema this year, Delhi Art Gallery is pleased to present the first showing of Photographer Nemai Ghosh Archive—Nemai Ghosh: Satyajit Ray and Beyond. The event will run till January 28, 2013 at Delhi Art Gallery, 11 Hauz Khas Village, New Delhi.
While justly associated primarily with photographing the films and the person of the auteur Satyajit Ray, the exhibition attempts to bring to light his lesser-known but equally extensive documentation of cinema, both mainstream Hindi cinema from Bombay as well as regional Bengali cinema. This exhibition brings together for the first time this rich body of work, as a tribute to the individual filmmakers, including Satyajit Ray, Indian cinema in its centennial year, as well as the power of the photograph to witness, record and tell stories.
Curated by Pramod Kumar KG, the exhibition presents several iconic and many never-before-seen images of actors, scenes, sets and locations during the filming of Satyajit Ray’s films as well as the filmmaker at work, taken over a twenty-five year period, as well as an array of images of regional films and actors.
The accompanying book on the exhibition has essays by Pramod Kumar KG, Sabeena Gadhioke and Jai Arjun Singh, beside a timeline of Nemai Ghosh’s career, as well as an array of images marking his tryst with cinema. These include the 250 specially selected images that form the focus of the exhibition, and are accompanied by detailed captions. All prints are on archival paper and are part of an edition of six each.
Through this celebration of Nemai Ghosh’s work with cinema, Delhi Art Gallery is pleased to showcase a section of this archive, an invaluable part of India’s cinematic and photographic history. Acquired in 2006, the nearly 1,20,000 images have been digitized and form part of Delhi Art Gallery’s extensive archives. This, its first exhibition that explores the medium of photography, adds to its ongoing engagement with exploring and documenting the reservoir of the history and richness of Indian art.
Photographer Nemai Ghosh has been the quintessential Satyajit Ray biographer through his decades-long close association with the master filmmaker. Over a lifetime of work, he has built up a vast and valuable photographic archive, now housed at Delhi Art Gallery.
Delhi Art Gallery was established in 1993, and has since grown to become a premier institution of art. It boasts of a distinctive and extensive collection of early-modern as well as modern and contemporary art, ranging from names such as Rabindranath Tagore and Nandalal Bose to FN Souza, MF Husain and SH Raza, from Avinash Chandra and GR Santhosh to Sohan Qadri and Gogi Saroj Pal, from Chittaprosad to Haren Das, among the over 400 artists in its inventory.
Delhi Art Gallery employs a large number of professionals to manage the affairs of the company. It consists of a Research and Documentation division that creates superior publications and provides support for its exhibitions. A Sales and Marketing team takes art to homes and offices through an interface program and manages and maintains art resources for companies and collectors whom it also advises on art purchases.
In the under two decades since it was established and as one of the largest repositories of Indian modern art anywhere in the world, Delhi Art Gallery has become distinguished for its focus on 20th century Indian art. Its collections provide a critical link for everyone from art-lovers, collectors and investors to academicians, scholars and researchers. It has traced, compiled, restored and archived entire collections. Documentation processes across various genres have resulted in some iconic exhibitions, known for their breadth of scale and depth of research. Extensive exhibition catalogues and books – part of its ongoing efforts on shedding new light on, of course, the well-established artists and their genres, but also on the lesser-known but equally talented painters and sculptors – is a measure of the seriousness of Delhi Art Gallery’s effort of concentrating not just on the names of Indian artists familiar to all art-lovers, but also those artists who deserve their space on the same firmament.
While justly associated primarily with photographing the films and the person of the auteur Satyajit Ray, the exhibition attempts to bring to light his lesser-known but equally extensive documentation of cinema, both mainstream Hindi cinema from Bombay as well as regional Bengali cinema. This exhibition brings together for the first time this rich body of work, as a tribute to the individual filmmakers, including Satyajit Ray, Indian cinema in its centennial year, as well as the power of the photograph to witness, record and tell stories.
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| Sharmila Tagore, Nemai Ghosh, Satyajit Ray |
The accompanying book on the exhibition has essays by Pramod Kumar KG, Sabeena Gadhioke and Jai Arjun Singh, beside a timeline of Nemai Ghosh’s career, as well as an array of images marking his tryst with cinema. These include the 250 specially selected images that form the focus of the exhibition, and are accompanied by detailed captions. All prints are on archival paper and are part of an edition of six each.
Through this celebration of Nemai Ghosh’s work with cinema, Delhi Art Gallery is pleased to showcase a section of this archive, an invaluable part of India’s cinematic and photographic history. Acquired in 2006, the nearly 1,20,000 images have been digitized and form part of Delhi Art Gallery’s extensive archives. This, its first exhibition that explores the medium of photography, adds to its ongoing engagement with exploring and documenting the reservoir of the history and richness of Indian art.
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| Ashish Anand, Sharmila Tagore, Kiran Nadar |
Delhi Art Gallery was established in 1993, and has since grown to become a premier institution of art. It boasts of a distinctive and extensive collection of early-modern as well as modern and contemporary art, ranging from names such as Rabindranath Tagore and Nandalal Bose to FN Souza, MF Husain and SH Raza, from Avinash Chandra and GR Santhosh to Sohan Qadri and Gogi Saroj Pal, from Chittaprosad to Haren Das, among the over 400 artists in its inventory.
Delhi Art Gallery employs a large number of professionals to manage the affairs of the company. It consists of a Research and Documentation division that creates superior publications and provides support for its exhibitions. A Sales and Marketing team takes art to homes and offices through an interface program and manages and maintains art resources for companies and collectors whom it also advises on art purchases.
In the under two decades since it was established and as one of the largest repositories of Indian modern art anywhere in the world, Delhi Art Gallery has become distinguished for its focus on 20th century Indian art. Its collections provide a critical link for everyone from art-lovers, collectors and investors to academicians, scholars and researchers. It has traced, compiled, restored and archived entire collections. Documentation processes across various genres have resulted in some iconic exhibitions, known for their breadth of scale and depth of research. Extensive exhibition catalogues and books – part of its ongoing efforts on shedding new light on, of course, the well-established artists and their genres, but also on the lesser-known but equally talented painters and sculptors – is a measure of the seriousness of Delhi Art Gallery’s effort of concentrating not just on the names of Indian artists familiar to all art-lovers, but also those artists who deserve their space on the same firmament.
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