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| DR. BHAU DAJI LAD MUMBAI CITY MUSEUM - QUARTERLY E-NEWSLETTER |
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Folk Archive by Alan Kane and Jeremy Deller
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31st October to 30th November | from the British Council Collection |
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The Museum is partnering with the Homelands, ato present exhibition, Folk Archive, a vibrant, visual account of contemporary popular British culture by the artists Jeremy Deller and Alan Kane. Bringing together drawing, painting, film, performance, costume, decoration, political opinion and humour, and some astonishing objects, Folk Archive celebrates activity from a vast range of British pastimes and pursuits.
The works respond to the question what might constitute present day ‘folk art’. By the artists’ own admission they made no attempt to define ‘popular art’ and decided to avoid what is most often referred to as ‘outsider art’, preferring to concentrate on a personal selection of things that conveyed their enjoyment of the range and depth of creativity they encountered. The one aspect common to all the works is that they have been authored by individuals who would perhaps not primarily consider themselves artists. While the project focuses on the UK, it implies connections with wider human activity across cultures.
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The Doubled Frame: Interrogating Identity
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September 19th, 2014 to October 19th, 2014 | TheKamalnayan Bajaj Special Exhibitions Gallery |
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The exhibition, The Doubled Frame: Interrogating Identity, attempted to trace the genealogy of the Museum's model and diorama collection by exploring the various lenses through which Indians were viewed and were insidiously being taught to view themselves in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries. The model collection becomes an important and as yet undocumented extension of the ambitious and controversial project to capture in minute detail the people of India. British administrators constructed an archaeology of dominance through visual narratives that ossified and redefined caste and custom and soon Indians learnt to interpret themselves through similar tropes.
Curated by Tasneem Zakaria Mehta
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POI/Bharat ke Log
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September 19th, 2014 to October 26th, 2014 |Special Project Space I and II |
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Curator TasneemZakaria Mehta invited artist ArchanaHande to respond to the thesis of the exhibition The Doubled Frame: Interrogating Identities by examining the issues of identity presented in the Museum’s model and diorama collection in the contemporary context. Hande's oeuvre has consistently explored the tensions extant in how we construct identity through gender and social frames. In POI/ Bharat ke Log, she created parallel contemporary narratives using assemblage, video, local clay figurines and popular charts that indicate the extent to which we are still chained to stereotypes.
Curated by TasneemZakaria Mehta
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The Florentine Renaissance: The City as the Crucible of Culture |
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March 30th, 2014 to July 8th, 2014 |
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The Museum hosted an acclaimed masterpiece of the Florentine Renaissance, Lorenzo Ghiberti’s (Italian, 1378-1455) The Gates of Paradise (1425-52). On display in India for the first time, the full-scale lost-wax bronze replica of the Gates, cast from the original mould, allowed visitors to discover Ghiberti’s masterpiece and to contextualise the civic values promoted by the great art of the period.
Co-curated by Dr. Gerhard Wolf, Director of KunsthistorischesInstitut in Florenz, Max-Planck-Institute, Dr. Timothy Verdon, Director of the Museum of the Opera del Duomo, and advised by Mrs. TasneemZakaria Mehta.
Organized by the Dr. BhauDaji Lad Mumbai City Museum in collaboration with the Guild of the Dome Association, the KunsthistorischesInstitut in Florenz, Max-Planck-Institute, and the Museum of the Opera del Duomo. Supported by the Jamnalal Bajaj Foundation.
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‘Thank you for a fascinating visit. The quality of conservation and presentation is truly remarkable, while the incorporation of contemporary art and craft brings fresh life and inspiration to this extraordinary historical monument. Congratulations.’ |
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Thomas Campbell, Director, The Metropolitan Museum, New York |
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7000 Museums –A Project for the Republic of India
September 19th, 2014 to October 26th, 2014 | By Atul Dodiya
The exhibition is a continuation of the Museum’s curatorial series, ‘Engaging Traditions’, which encourages contemporary artists to engage with the Museum’s history and collection. Through the series, artists are invited to respond to the Museum’s collection, history and archives, addressing issues that speak directly to the traditions and issues that underlie the founding of the Museum, yet evoke the present by challenging orthodoxies and questioning assumptions.
Curated by Tasneem Zakaria Mehta
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Prudential Eye Awards for Contemporary Asian Art |
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PG Diploma |
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Google Art Project |
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The Museum has been nominated for the Prudential Eye Awards for Contemporary Asian Art. We have been nominated as a finalist in the category of Best Asian Contemporary Art Institution. Nominees are drawn from more than 20 regions across Asia and the Museum will represent India. The Awards celebrate and support emerging artistic talent across Greater Asia.
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Applications are now being accepted for the next academic year of our Post-graduate Diploma in Modern and Contemporary Indian Art and Curatorial Studies.
Now in its third successful year the year-long, weekend course covers the theoretical and critical study of the history of Indian Art from 1850 to the present. It aims to enable students to understand Indian art in the broader context of Indian history, sociology, politics, gender and cultural studies. The course further explores new readings of Indian Art within the context of international modern and contemporary art history.
Deadline: December 1, 2014.
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The Museum is collaborating with Google on the Google Art Project which is a unique tool that encourages deeper public engagement with the collections and makes the Museum accessible to people across the world. The Art Project will use Google’s photography technology inside and outside the Museum to create standard-resolution, 360-degree, panoramic images of selected galleries and exterior depictions of the Museum, giving users the ability to experience a “virtual tour” of those selected parts of the Museum.
Through such virtual tours and other features, online audiences will be able curate their own Museum visit, compile their favourite collections and share these with others.
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“What a heroic accomplishment of respectfully restoring this beautiful building and then breathing life into it for the citizens of Mumbai and the world. Thank you very much.” |
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James Cuno, President & Chief Executive Officer, The J. Paul Getty Trust |
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Film Programme |
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New Acquisitions |
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The Museum runs a vibrant film programme with regular film screenings at the Education Centre. The latest addition to the programme is the Palettes series by director Alain Jaubert in collaboration with Alliance Française De Bombay. The Palettes series of documentaries explores great paintings throughout the history of art. From the canvas to the type of brush used by the artist, from the historical or individual context of the painting to the characters displayed in its features, each episode uses the finest technology to uncover the endless secrets a work can hide.
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Acquisitions of prints from 17th – early 20th
centuries
The Museum has acquired prints, lithographs, photographs, aquatints and plates dated from the 18th to the early 20th centuries to complement its collections of models and dioramas from that time. The models and dioramas, crafted to document the life and culture of Mumbai in the 19th and early 20th centuries, further illustrate art historical developments / innovations in art making of the time. With growing European influence on taste and culture, and the teaching of western art practices at the government schools of art, a new ‘naturalist’ approach to representation developed in different media. The models and dioramas in the Museum are sculptural and three dimensional examples of this style, which is reflected in the new acquisitions. |
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“Thanks for a wonderful experience. ‘Preservation and Conservation’ section/people have done a fine job. Educational programs and the initiative in involving students/graduates in Museum’s activities are worth emulating. Best wishes!” |
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Chanchal Kumar, Secretary Art, Culture and Youth, Government of Bihar |
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San Francisco Forum of Art Museum Directors |
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5th Dresden Summer - International Academy for the Arts |
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Indo-Swiss Workshop on Art Conservation |
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TasneemZakariaMehta was invited to participate in the second biennial San Francisco Forum of Art Museum Directors hosted by the Asian Art Museum - Chong-Moon Lee Center for Asian Art and Culture in San Francisco. The theme of the gathering was ‘Museums Transcending Time and Place: Classical to Contemporary/Local to Global.’ The aim of the forum was to encourage new collaborative projects and opportunities that will contribute to global awareness and appreciation of Asian art and culture. The forum also intended to foster partnership among museums and museum professionals.
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Curatorial Associate Nishita Zachariah was one of 15 international participants selected to participate in the 5th Dresden Summer - International Academy for the Arts organised by the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (State Art Collections Dresden). The Academy was a rare and exclusive behind the scenes look at the museums belonging to the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen. The week-long interaction provided unparalleled access to galleries, conservations labs and storerooms of the various museums, as well as hands-on sessions and in-depth discussions with the curators and conservators.
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Mr. AnantShelke, Incharge, Senior Conservator and Ms. MadhuraShelke, Senior Conservator from the INTACH Art Conservation Centre, Mumbai actively participated in the Indo-Swiss Workshop On Art Conservation. The workshop was organised by INTACH Conservation Institutes and the Embassy of Switzerland, New Delhi with the participation of experts from Bern University of the Arts and the Kunstmuseum Basel. The aim of the workshop was to present the conservation methods and concepts developed in Switzerland and contemplate their potential application in Indian conservation practice.
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Free Activity Days |
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Internship |
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As a part of the Museum’s educational initiative, the Museum organised free activity days for its visitors to celebrate Independence Day,Ganeshotsav and Diwali. On Independence Day visitors had the opportunity to participate in a range of interactive, entertaining and educational activities. There was a tour of the museum, followed by an illustrated storytelling session given by author KumkumSomani and even a puppet-making workshop and a role play activity. For Ganeshotsav visitors had the chance to craft their own Ganesh statues out of clay and during the Diwali workshop we saw an array of colourful paper lamps.To celebrate Children’s Day this month, the Museum will organise its annual Games Mela, a day of fun games like Snakes and Ladders, kho-kho or fugdi, all inspired by the Museum’s collection of indoor and outdoor games.
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VaneesaVaz, intern, gives us an insight into her favourite moments at the Museum.
I visited the museum in April 2014, where I found myself viewing the beautifully sculpted Gates of Paradise. Four days later, I was assisting at my first workshop. I’ve been fascinated by museums and always wanted to work in one. My favourite experience has been working on different workshops with kids, such as silver work, puppetry and mapping.
There is so much to learn when you interact with children. I have not only helped with various tasks, but absorbed numerous ideas and built up my confidence. I feel like Indiana Jones where each turn is a new discovery waiting to happen!
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“Congratulations to you and your team for preserving such an important chapter in Mumbai’s history. This is one of the most charming museums I have visited. Thank you so much for sharing this with us.” |
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Heidi Victoria, Hon Minister for the Arts, Victoria, Australia |
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The Journal of Indian Art and Industry |
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This photo-lithograph of a wood-carver was published in The Journal of Indian Art and Industry, Vol. 1, Issue No. 20, in 1887. It is based on a sketch drawn by John Lockwood Kipling, a Professor at the Sir J. J. School of Art, Mumbai.
The Journal of Indian Art and Industry was inaugurated by Government of India officials at a meeting to preserve and encourage Indian arts and manufactures in the early 1880s and published by W. H. Griggs (1832-1911) in London. The Journal published essays on Indian art manufactures and traditions written by several experts. These essays were often accompanied by photo and chromo-lithographic illustrations. W.H. Griggs published seventeen volumes of the Journal before the end of World War I.
John Lockwood Kipling, editor, and Sir George Birdwood, Curator of the Museum from 1858 to 1868, were among the major contributors to the Journal. The Museum’s library has a collection of Journal of Art volumes published in the years 1884 to 1914. The Museum also houses a collection of clay models depicting various craftsmen, such as the wood carver, many of which were modeled on Kipling’s sketches of craftsmen and artisans.
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ArchanaHande, artist, talks about her experience of working with the Museum and installing POI/ भारत के लोग. |
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It was a pleasure to work with the team at the Dr. BhauDaji Lad Museum. When Tasneem invited me to work with the Museum’s archive I was quite lost about what to see and how to react. The collection is like a honeycomb, it can either sting me or give me honey, and my job was to extract honey.
People of India, people of the world – is it stereotyping or is it an anthropological documentation of the colonial era? There is a huge debate on the question of identity when I compare the dioramas of that time with the clay models produced in the same towns or villages today. For me POI/ भारत के लोग is not an idea, I have been working on this concept for a long time. This is an extension of my early work called White Wash. But this particular one is more site-specific as I am directly reacting to the collection and also using the space to narrate the story of identity, migration and labour.
The museum and their staff were ever ready to help me try out all kinds of possibilities. They opened the space to me for rehearsals and also to experiment, which became my most enjoyable movement. In this particular work I see growth and a dialogue with the space and the museum.
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“A most impressive achievement! Congratulations to the entire team and its inspired leadership.” |
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AchimBorchardt-Hume, Head of Exhibitions, Tate Modern, London |
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An Institution of the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai | Supported by the Jamnalal Bajaj Foundation
Restored by INTACH, the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage |
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To ensure you receive our e-newsletter, make sure you add subscribe@bdlmuseum.org to your address book. |
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Design by: Radhika Chopra | Developed by: Pi Techniques |
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