Part Narratives Curated by Gayatri Sinha 13 August 2017 – 19 September 2017

Nandita Raman, Untitled # 5 (Natraj), 2009, Archival pigment print 24 x 30 inches, Courtesy: Nandita Raman & sepiaEYE

The Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Mumbai City Museum presents, Part Narratives, curated by Gayatri Sinha. The exhibition is on view from 13 August 2017 – 19 September 2017.

The exhibition is supported by:

About the Exhibition In 2017, the Partition of India is marked by its 70th anniversary. Drawing on the readings of departure and partial histories, the exhibition Part Narratives commemorates this event, and brings the art production that surrounded it within museum and art discourse. At the same time it turns our attention to issues of migration as they beset the world at present, to the long shadow of Partition and its passage through time.

As a subject of engagement Partition has generated painting, photography, drawings, sculpture, cinema, theatre, television productions and a multiplicity of oral testimonies textual writing on this major cataclysm in Indian history. Partition as a subject has persisted and leaked through the decades, extending from the eye witness sketches of the artist as diarist in the 1940s, to the conceptually universal art works of the present time. Over this period, the issues around Partition have been problematized and gained relevance beyond the actual event. As a discontinuous but distinct body of work, Partition as a subject is remarkable in its outpouring of a response that persisted, despite the absence of institutional support.

The exhibition draws on three principal timelines of art produced around the event: art as testimonial, which comprises the artists' eye witness accounts of the event of the 1940s and 50s, art as residue in the decades of the 60’s to the 80’s, and finally the event as historic imperative that invites reflection and understanding even seven decades later.

Gayatri Sinha Curator

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS:

Anita Dube Annu Palakunnathu Mathew Arpita Singh Atul Bhalla Chittoprasad Bhattacharya Gigi Scaria K. M. Madhusudhanan Krishen Khanna Nandita Raman Nandalal Bose S. L. Parasher Sheba Chhachhi Somnath Hore Sonia Khurana Susanta Mandal Zainul Abedin

Exhibition courtesy: Swaraj Art Archive Vadehra Art Gallery DAG Modern Akar Prakar sepiaEYE

ANITA DUBE

Anita Dube (b. 1958, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh) is an Indian contemporary artist. She completed her graduation in history from the University of Delhi in 1979 and a Master's in art criticism at the MS University of Baroda in 1982. Some of her recent solo exhibitions are Yours Disparately, Nature Morte, New Delhi (2014-15); Chance Pieces, Nature Morte, Berlin (2013). Some of her selected group exhibitions include After Midnight: Indian Modernism to Contemporary India 1947/1997, Queens Museum, New York (2015); Sparsha: Touching The Senses (Ritual And Contemporary Art), Kunstmuseum Bochum, Bochum (2014-15). Anita Dube is appointed curator for the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, 2018.

ANNU PALAKUNNATHU MATHEW Born in Stourport-on-Severn, England and educated in India and North America, Annu Palakunnathu Matthew‘s photo-based artwork explores re-looking at cultural histories, identity, and memory. Matthew’s recent solo exhibitions include shows at the Royal Ontario Museum, Nuit Blanche Toronto, and sepiaEYE, New York City. She has also exhibited her work at the RISD Museum, Tang Museum, San Jose Museum of Art, as well as at the Smithsonian. Annu Palakunnathu Matthew is Professor of Art at the University of Rhode Island and Director of the Center for the Humanities. She is also the URI 2015-17 Silvia Chandley Professor for Peace Studies and Non-Violence.

ARPITA SINGH Arpita Singh (b. 1937, Bara Nagar, West Bengal) completed her Diploma in Fine Arts from the School of Art, Delhi Polytechnic, New Delhi. Singh’s important solo exhibitions include: Arpita Singh, DC Moore Gallery, New York (2012); Cobweb, Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi (2010-11), and at The Museum Gallery, Mumbai; Picture Postcard 2003-2006, Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi (2006). She was honoured with the Padma Bhushan by the Government of India in 2011. In 1998-99, she received the Kalidas Samman awarded by the Government of Madhya Pradesh. She is also the recipient of the Parishad Samman by the Sahitya Kala Parishad, New Delhi.

ATUL BHALLA Atul Bhalla has explored the physical, historical, and political significance of water in the urban environment of New Delhi through artworks that incorporate sculpture, painting, installation, video, photography, and performance. His recent solo shows include Adrift (On the Dvaipayana), LightBox

Gallery, Harvard Art Museums (2016); you always step into the same river, SepiaEYE New York (2015); Ya Ki Kuch Aur, Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi (2014). Bhalla is an Associate Professor at the Shiv Nadar University at the department of Art Design and Performance.

CHITTOPRASAD BHATTACHARYA Chittoprasad Bhattacharya (b. 1915, Naihati, West Bengal) was a self-taught artist. In 1943-44, he experienced the Bengal Famine which resulted in his depiction of human suffering in drawings and sketches made in pen and ink. These drawings and reports were published in People’s War, and culminated in his publication Hungry Bengal. Some of Chittoprasad’s important exhibitions include Chittaprosad, A Retrospective, 1915-1978, Delhi Art Gallery, Mumbai (2014), Manifestations V, Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi (2011), Chittaprosad, Nandan, Kala Bhavana, Santiniketan (1994). He died in 1978.

GIGI SCARIA Gigi Scaria (b.1973, Kothanalloor, Kerala) completed his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the College of Fine Arts, Thiruvananthapuram in 1995. Scaria later undertook a Master of Arts at Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. Scaria’s solo exhibitions include Amusement park (Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai, 2009), Difficult to imagine, easy to construct (Art Asia Miami, 2008), Site under construction (Videospace Budapest, 2008) featured video art that included interviews (fictional and non-fictional), documentaries and animation. Gigi Scaria has participated in West Heavens, Shanghai, the 54th Venice Biennale, the 3rd Singapore Biennale, Prague Biennale.

K. M. MADHUSUDHANAN K. M. Madhusudhanan (b. 1956, Allapuzha, Kerala) studied Painting from Fine Arts College, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, and print making at the Faculty of Fine Arts, MS University of Baroda, Gujarat. His work confronts India’s film history, her colonial period and contemporary war politics. Madhusudhanan’s installation of 90 charcoal drawings titled The Logic of Disappearance - A Marx Archive has been shown at the Kochi Muziris Biennale: Whorled Explorations (2014-15), and in a solo exhibition at Baltic 39, Newcastle, as part of the AV Festival (2016). The series Penal Colony has been shown at the Venice Biennale: All the World's Futures, 2015.

KRISHEN KHANNA Krishen Khanna (b. 1925, Faisalabad, Pakistan) studied at the Imperial Service College, Windsor, England, and at Punjab University, Lahore. Khanna’s important solo exhibitions include: Krishen Khanna: A Retrospective (2010) at Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi; The Savage Heart (2008) at Cymroza Art Gallery, Mumbai; Solo Show (1965) at Egan Gallery, New York; Solo Show (1964) at Watkins Art Gallery, Washington D.C. He was awarded the Padma Shri and the Padma Bhushan in 1990 and 2011 by the Government of India. He received the Lalit Kala Ratna in 2004.

NANDITA RAMAN

Nandita Raman (b. 1980, Varanasi, India) works with a range of mediums including photography, video and language. Raman’s work has most notably been exhibited in Franz Josefs Kai 3, Vienna, Center for Documentary Studies, Duke University and Columbia University. Her cinema hall photographs will be shown in George Eastman Museum in fall 2017. Raman’s work has been published in Harper’s Magazine, Conveyor Arts, The Sunday Guardian, Marg Magazine among others. She has taught in City University of New York and International Center of Photography. She is a recipient of Alkazi Foundation’s ‘Documentary Photography Grant’ for her ongoing project in Varanasi.

NANDALAL BOSE Nandalal Bose (b.1882, Kharagpur, Bihar) trained under Abanindranath Tagore for painting. He joined the Government Art College, Calcutta in 1905 and then went to Santiniketan in 1914. Nandalal Bose worked with various mediums and also imbibed the wash technique used by Japanese artists. Bose’s work has been shown at Rubin Museum of Art, New York, Singapore, USA. Some of his exhibitions include Postcards of Nandalal Bose, Akar Prakar, Kolkata (2011), Manifestations VI, Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi (2011), In Search of the Vernacular, Aicon Gallery, New York (2009). He died in 1966.

S. L. PARASHER S. L. Parasher (b. 1904, Gujranwala, Pakistan) studied English literature at the Forman Christian College, Lahore in 1935. Subsequently, Parasher became a student of art under M. A. Aziz, and found a mentor and friend in Roop Krishna. In 1936, Parasher joined the Mayo College as lecturer and went on to become the Vice Principal. In 1952, he became the founding Principal of Government

School of Arts and Crafts in Shimla. Thereafter, Parasher moved to Bombay to serve as the Director of the All India Handicrafts Board and settled in Delhi in the early 1960s. He passed away in 1990.

SHEBA CHHACHHI Sheba Chhachhi’s lens based works investigate contemporary questions: about gender, the body, the city, cultural memory and eco-philosophy, through intimate, sensorial encounters. Chhachhi’s works often draw on pre-modern thought and visual histories, interweaving the mythic and the social. Her works are held in significant public and private collections, including Tate Modern, UK; Kiran Nadar Museum, Delhi; Bose Pacia, New York; Singapore Art Museum and National Gallery of Modern Art, India. Sheba Chhachhi has recently won the Prix Thun for Art and Ethics award (2017).

SOMNATH HORE Somnath Hore (b. 1921, Barama, Chittagong, Bangladesh) studied at the Government College of Art & Craft, Kolkata. From 1974 onwards Hore began working with bronze sculptures along with paper pulp prints. The anguished human form has widely been reflected in Hore’s figuration. Hore’s work has been showcased in private galleries as well as at the Nandan, the museum at Kala Bhavan, Santiniketan. His exhibitions include Abbey Grey and Indian Modernism: Selections from the NYU Art Collection, Grey Art Gallery, New York (2015); Wounds - Somnath Hore by Bengal Gallery of Fine Arts, Bangladesh and Akar Prakar, Kolkata (2011). He died in 2006.

SONIA KHURANA Sonia Khurana (b. 1968) studied art at the Delhi College of Art and later completed her Masters in London at the Royal College of Art in 1999. Khurana works primarily with moving image and performance, her practice includes drawing, text, sound, music, voice, architecture and installation. Her recent participations in exhibitions include: Difficult loves: seven contemporaries, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi, 2013; Aesthetic bind - Phantomata, November 2013 to January 2014, Chemould Prescott Gallery, Bombay, Liverpool biennial 2010, Liverpool, John Moores University; Gwangju Biennale, Korea, 2008.

SUSANTA MANDAL Susanta Mandal (b. Kolkata, India) completed his BFA in Painting from the Government College of Arts and Craft, in 1990, and his MFA in Painting from the Benares Hindu University, in 1993. Mandal has exhibited widely in India and around Asia. His recent solo shows include Hard Copy at

Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi (2015); How Long does it take to Complete a Circle? at GallerySKE, Bengaluru, (2011). Susanta Mandal is part of the LAYOUT Artists’ Collective formed in 2011, Delhi.

ZAINUL ABEDIN Zainul Abedin (b. 1914, Kishoreganj, Bangladesh) studied painting at the Government School of Art in Calcutta from 1933 to 1938. In 1948, he helped in founding the Government Institute of Arts and Crafts in Dhaka. Abedin’s recognized works are the sketches in Chinese ink on paper depicting the Great Bengal Famine of 1943. He won the Presidential Award for Pride of Performance from the Government of Pakistan (1958), an honorary degree from the University of Delhi, and an appointment as National Professor of Bangladesh in 1974. He died in 1976.

About the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Mumbai City Museum The Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum opened to the public in 1857 and is Mumbai's oldest museum. It is the erstwhile Victoria and Albert Museum, Bombay, that showcases the city’s cultural heritage and history through a rare collection of fine and decorative Arts that highlight early Modern Art practices as well as the craftsmanship of various communities of the Bombay Presidency. The permanent collection includes miniature clay models, dioramas, maps, lithographs, photographs, and rare books that document the life of the people of Mumbai and the history of the city from the late eighteenth to early-twentieth centuries.

The Museum, once in a derelict condition, underwent a comprehensive five-year restoration by INTACH supported by the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai and the Jamnalal Bajaj Foundation. The project won UNESCO’s international Award of Excellence for cultural conservation in 2005. The Museum re-opened in 2008 with an extensive exhibition programme and is committed to promoting contemporary art and culture.

The Museum hosts an extensive exhibitions programme which explores the importance of the collection and includes a strong focus on contemporary art and culture. A series of curated exhibitions titled, ‘Engaging Traditions,’ invites artists 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. Several distinguished contemporary artists have participated in this programme such as

Sudarshan Shetty, Jitish Kallat, Atul Dodiya, L. N. Tallur, Ranjini Shettar, Sheba Chhachhi, CAMP, Thukral and Tagra.

The Museum has partnered with international institutions to showcase artists and exhibitions including the Victoria and Albert Museum, British Council, British Library, Dresden State Art Collections, Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, Museum of Modern Art, Ermenegildo Zegna Group and Guild of the Dome Association in an effort to facilitate international cultural exchange. The Museum has expanded its curatorial initiative to invite external curators, institutions and organisations to present exhibitions related to the focus areas of the collections.

The Museum’s education and outreach programme aims to build and diversify the Museum’s audiences, encouraging repeat visits and engaged participation with its permanent collections, contemporary exhibitions and activities. On offer is a rich selection of programmes including film, music and courses and lectures on history of art focused on providing stimulating, participatory experiences that respond to different age, interest and language groups, and recognize a diversity of backgrounds. These experiences are aimed at encouraging critical engagement with Mumbai’s history, art and cultural developments. . For more information on Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Mumbai City Museum, please visit: Facebook: www.facebook.com/BDLMuseum Twitter: https://twitter.com/BDLMuseum Website: www.bdlmuseum.org E-mail: [email protected] Telephone: +91 22 23731234

ABOUT CRITICAL COLLECTIVE

Critical Collective is an initiative by art curator and critic Gayatri Sinha. Since its inception in 2011, it has initiated symposia with Indian and international scholars under the rubric of the Kiran Nadar Museum document series. It has been the convenor in the seminar program of India Art Fair in 2009, 2013 and 2014, and collaborated with the Kochi Biennale in 2013 and 2017. It has collaborated with Minsheng Museum, Shanghai on an exposition on Indian and Chinese video, and curated an 18

month long video program for Bhau Daji Lad Museum. In 2016 it launched a talk series Vivaad, in collaboration with Serendipity Arts Trust.

Its website, criticalcollective.in is intended to fill in the lacuna caused by an absence of publishing in the arts, a lack of reprints and a shortage of institutional infrastructure. This seminal project brings together over hundred artists, and several writers and curators from India and abroad, it also initiates special projects to investigate the depths of Indian art history.

ABOUT THE RAZA FOUNDATION

The Raza Foundation is an arts and culture organization established by the master of Indian modern art Late Shri Sayed Haider Raza, who sets an example where fame and glory are not lonesome attainments but things to be liberally shared with the broader creative community. The Foundation has been instrumental in creating spaces for various art and culture programs, publications and fellowships to the younger talent and also carrying a deeper research into the work of the masters.

ABOUT SERENDIPITY ARTS TRUST

Serendipity Arts Trust is an arts and cultural development trust which aims to promote new creative strategies, artistic interventions, and cultural partnerships which are responsive and seek to address the social, cultural and environmental milieu. Committed to innovation, SAT intends to support, promote and create platforms for innovation and creativity providing the wider public with a unique cultural and historical source of modern and contemporary art and culture.

For Listings

The Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Mumbai City Museum presents, Part Narratives curated by Gayatri Sinha. Exhibition Dates: 13 August 2017 – 19 September 2017 Exhibition Venue: Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Mumbai City Museum 91A Rani Baug, Veer Mata Jijabai Bhonsle Udyan Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Marg, Byculla East, Mumbai 400027

Timings: 10:00 am to 6:00 pm | last entry 5:30 pm Closed on Wednesdays and certain public holidays

For press enquiries, please contact Komal Chitnis | [email protected] | +91 22 23731234