In the modern era, collections of works of art are normally housed in Museums and Galleries. After Independence, the Government of India established the Lalit Kala Akademi in 1954. The first National Exhibition of Art was held in 1955. It was also decided in 1958 that while giving awards to the outstanding artists participating in the National Exhibition of Art, the Akademi should acquire works of art through purchases from the works selected for the National Exhibitions. Subsequently, the Akademi started collecting works from artists beyond the scope of the National Exhibition of Art. Purchase of art works from Kala Mela added more meaning to the collection.
Since then, this has become a consistent policy of the Akademi to acquire works of art and in the process the Akademi has built up a very important and perhaps the second largest collection of modern art in the country.
It is rightly said that the works in reserve collection are more important to be preserved than works on display. What I intend to say is that the space available for storing works of art should be more than the space made available in the gallery for display. Only then a systematic collection can be built up and contineous display can be made. The space available at the basement of Rabindra Bhavan Gallery is inadequate to house such an important collection.
In the past, off and on, we have exhibited from the permanent collection in many cities of India. But it needs a systematic showing which so far we have not been able to do. Besides, the works purchased must be preserved and kept properly to save them from damage and decay. Due to inadequate funding and manpower we have not been so successful in proper preservation of the works. The Akademi needs a fully equipped conservation Laboratory to take proper care of art works. However, we always believed that the best way to honour the artist is to preserve his work with utmost care and love and also to make it accessible to the public. We are planning to show works from the permanent collection at regular intervals. Documentation will also go hand in hand which will help in the publication of the catalogue.
The present catalogue covers a period between 1958-1966 in which 200 works have been reproduced. Out of these No. 31, 40 and 188 are lost and hence could not be reproduced. No. 189 is exhibited at the India Embassy, Moscow, No. 52, 60, 80, and 87 are on loan to Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi and No. 9 and 133 are on loan to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
It is thus seen that while three works are lost, nineteen works are on loan.
These earlier works direct a variety of styles and themes and are quite important to trace out the evolution and growth of Contemporary Indian Art.
The importance of understanding the artists' language and experience of their work often fall into the interpretive straitjackets of the critic or the art historian. In an anxiety to put the works of art in the context of a specific given cultural context the critic or the historian devise ways of using verbal language to focus our attention on the intrinsic qualities of the works of art. But let us not forget that 'language needs to articulate new meanings that are appropriate to the new meanings of the outcome'. The figurative language in the tradition of Indian art history was capable of interpreting the naturalistic paintings of the 50's and 60's. Hebber's 'Mahim Dargah' would spontaneously fit into this category. But can we stretch the figurative art historical language while reviewing the naturalistic paintings to day? The radicality of the same critical language can not be stretched unless new meanings are discovered in the period paintings. 'Mahim Dargah' is certainly one such painting which can be re-read and reinterpreted with the help of the new critical language of today. Many works from the Lalit Kala Akademi's Permanent Collection which is published in this catalogue were considered highly original and outstanding while they were produced can still recharge the battery of its originality and create another mode of existence which could be equally significant in the present context.
Seeing the works reproduced in this catalogue one can very emphatically say that a naturalistic referential vocabulary was at full play in Indian art during the period 1958-66 which is covered here. The referential characterization can be located in the finger dominant strokes, the mind was vocal, the body slipped into non-demonstrativeness. Broken ink- marks, fine Wagnerian lines, no dragging, no "sousing" noise. Gradually in the sixties the wrist started dominating over the finger, gouged, undercuts, change of surface corresponded with the thematic changes, physicality started dominating over the lyrical. The body started demonstrating, in fact, the new referent in many artists' works was the Body itself. It was a radical break no doubt, but still unlike the west, where modernism is always seen in opposition to classicism, Indian modernism can not be understood in simple opposition to naturalism. For reasons, other than artistic, Indian modernism may not be seen in fundamental opposition to a pre-existing condition. Within the opaque transference of social-political phenomena, we may try to identify only those works which display an unique and deviant particularity till a qualitative break finally vigorously separates one from the other.
Lalit Kala Akademi started acquiring works from 1958 onwards though the first National Exhibition of Art was held in 1955. There is now a large collection of works which is often taken out for travelling exhibition purposes, loaned to various Government agencies. We also felt the need to catalogue and document the works which are in the permanent collection.
The process has begun, and as a result we are publishing the first catalogue of the works from the permanent collection taking the period between 1958-1966. We hope, this catalogue will be a valuable document for artists, critics, researchers and academicians.
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