Thaindian News

New Delhi, March 10 (IANS) Culture Minister Kumari Selja Thursday inaugurated an exhibition of contemporary British photography at the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) here.

Titled “Something That I’ll Never Really See: Contemporary Photography from V&A; (Victoria and Albert Musuem)”, the exhibition is part of a travelling tour that was showcased at Bhau Daji Lad Museum in Mumbai.

Congratulating the museum for hosting the exhibition, Selja hoped it would now take a lead in hosting reciprocal exhibitions of Indian art and photography in London.

She said that this was the first time that the eclectic collection was being showcased at a series of venues outside Britain.

The exhibition features works by internationally-acclaimed photographers like Nan Goldin, Cindy Sherman and leading fashion photographer Tim Walker. Curated by Martin Barnes, the exhibition has brought to India 40 works by 30 artists from pivotal moments in photographic history.

The Victoria and Albert Museum is home to Britain’s national collection of photography.

Addressing the inauguration, Selja said that she was “keen to showcase the splendid collection of Rabindranath Tagore, Raja Deen Dayal, Homai Vairawala, Kuldeep Rai and several other eminent Indian photographers”.

She said Victoria and Albert Museum has been playing an active role in cementing bilateral cultural relations between India and Britain.

Even before a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on cultural exchange was signed between the two countries in July 2010, Victoria and Albert Museum had an agreement with the culture ministry, under which several exhibitions titled “Indian Life and Landscape by Western Artists” were hosted in different metros of India.

Selja said the signing of the MoU between India and Britain on culture was a historic occasion, marking a new chapter in relations, which have a legacy of several centuries.

“But, we now need to carry forward into the 21st century in a vastly changed paradigm,” she said.

She also said the exhibition includes some of the most innovative works created during a pivotal period in photographic history and explored a broad array of styles both by internationally well-known names as well as emerging talents.

The minister said over the past two decades, photography has become an integral part of the world of contemporary art. She said her ministry was “aiming to actualize much such dynamic collaboration in an endeavour to bring the international world of art and culture to India, and to take the Indian art and culture to audiences worldwide”.

She said her ministry and the NGMA have been focusing on photography both as an art form and a record of the history of our times.

“The NGMA is conscious of the artistic potential of the medium, and has many of the contemporary masters of photography in its collection ranging from Lala Deen Dayal, Raghu Rai and Dayanita Singh,” Selja said.

The Victoria and Albert Museum was represented by Kate Bellamy, head of the international audiences.