For years now, DAG (formerly Delhi Art Gallery) has been more than a gallery. Almost three decades old, with the largest collection of pre-modern and modern Indian art, it has had unusual collaborations — with the Archaeological Survey of India and the National Gallery of Modern Art at Dhrishyakala (Red Fort, Delhi) and with Ghare Baire (Old Currency Building, Kolkata), for instance.
The in-house publishing team makes modern art accessible. Earlier this year, at the launch of DAG’s new address in Janpath, the opening show — the second edition of Iconic Masterpieces of Indian Modern Art — came with a fine set of art books featuring essays by historians Yashodhara Dalmia, Tasneem Zakaria and critics from around the world. The two volumes, printed in six colours, took seven months to produce, revealed Kishore Singh, senior vice president at DAG, at the event. While collectors took turns complimenting Singh on his sharp jacket — “there is no question of sharing my tailor,” he jested — the stories flowed. About M.F. Husain and his translator Maria Jaroslav Jurkova’s unfinished love story and the priceless paintings ( Two Figures with Cactus was on display) he gifted her. Or about the ‘Company’ painting with a splendid horizon that 223 years later illustrates how Patna was becoming important for the opium trade.
“It was possibly by a miniaturist, disempowered from the Mughal court and finding agency with the East India Company,” he explained. “Across one bank you see the British buildings coming up and the emergence of Patna, while on the bank close to the viewer, all the activities are agrarian, where the opium petal cakes are processed and packed, to be loaded on to ships and moved on. It is the history of India, of globalisation, of exploitation, all coming together.”
