Modern Indian Paintings

Kumar Gallery was founded in October, 1955. In those days there was hardly any patronage for contemporary art and there were no private art galleries in India which were promoting or exhibiting Indian contemporary art. The gallery was launched with first shows of K. S. Kulkarni, M. F. Husain, Krishen Khanna, N. S. Bendre and Krishna Reddy. Works of Jamini Roy, Sailoz Mookherjea, Satish Gujral, K. H. Ara, B. Prabha and G. R. Santosh were on regular display.

In 1959 the gallery curated 'The Contemporary Art from India' which was shown at museums in Germany. Husain's first one-man show abroad was held by the gallery at Frankfurter Kunstkabinett, Frankfurt in 1960. Another major show of Indian artists was arranged with Kim Bonythan Gallery, Adelaide, Australia. In 1966, the gallery arranged a group show sponsored by M.I.T. Cambridge Mass, at various museums in the United States of America. Many artists from abroad were invited to hold their exhibitions at the Kumar Gallery.

By 1966 the gallery had further introduced artists including V.S.Gaitonde, Ram Kumar, Shanti Dave, Tyeb Mehta, Kanwal Krishna, Biren De, F. N. Souza, Jatin Das and A. Ramachandran. For the first ten years Kumar Gallery also gave financial support to several artists as there were not enough sales of their works. Over the years, my brothers: Pradeep, Navin, Praveen, Vinit and Sunit took the gallery's activity further and inspired quite a few art collectors. The gallery continued holding one man shows of individual artists including Retrospectives of A. Ramachandran (1978),.Laxman Pai (1989), and sponsored Satish Gujral's show (1990). Many artists introduced by the gallery are renowned to-day

The Present show is Part I of the 'Modern Indian Paintings'- One Hundred Years. Part II and Part III will be held subsequently. The exhibits are from the collection of the Kumar Gallçry and its Directors and were acquired during the past forty years. Besides the artists earlier exhibited by the gallery, the show includes Ravi Varma, the Tagores, Sarda Ukil, Hemen Mazumdar, Binode Behari and Ramkinker Baij to make up for a century of Modem Indian Art. Some of the works in this exhibition are reserved for the proposed museum of the Kumar Gallery.

- Virendra Kumar Jain, New Delhi, 14 Oct 1996