The National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) in Delhi is the country`s premier art museum and the leading institution of modern art in India. Located in the former residence of the Maharaja of Jaipur ("Jaipur House") near India Gate, the gallery was founded on 29 March 1954 as India`s first public art museum dedicated to modern art.
The Building and Infrastructure of Jaipur House
The original Jaipur House building, designed by Sir Arthur Blomfield in 1936, is shaped like a butterfly with a central dome and is an example of the colonial architecture of Lutyens` Delhi. In 2009, a new wing was added to the historic building, increasing the exhibition space to 12,000 square metres. This makes the Delhi branch of NGMA one of the largest museums of modern art in the world. The museum`s infrastructure includes an art reference library, a documentation centre, a conservation laboratory, a lecture hall, an auditorium, a museum shop and a cafeteria.
The Collection of the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA)
At the core of the National Gallery of Modern Art`s collection in Delhi are the works of ten masters recognised as the founders of modern art in India:
Raja Ravi Varma — a 19th-century artist who combined European academic technique with Indian subjects and mythology. His works, such as "Shakuntala" and "Savithri", made Indian gods and epic heroes familiar and accessible to the general public.
Rabindranath Tagore — poet-laureate and Nobel laureate, whose expressive drawings became part of his artistic legacy. His works are distinguished by their free lines and profound philosophical content.
Abanindranath Tagore — a key figure of the Bengal School, which turned to national traditions in opposition to the academic colonial style. His famous painting "Bharat Mata" ("Mother India") became a symbol of national revival.
Gaganendranath Tagore — an experimental artist whose caricatures and illustrations anticipated European expressionism. He combined Indian themes with surrealist fantasy.
Nicholas Roerich — a Russian artist who worked in India and created a unique series of Himalayan landscapes. His works are imbued with spiritual quests and a mystical perception of nature.
Nandalal Bose — the founder of the Santiniketan artistic traditions and a student of Abanindranath Tagore. He developed the idea of the connection between art and life and nature, creating numerous works on themes of Indian mythology and rural life.
Jamini Roy — the creator of a unique style based on Bengali folk art. His works are characterised by simple forms, bright colours and depictions of peasants and rural life.
Ramkinkar Baij — an innovative sculptor who combined European modernism with Indian themes. His monumental sculptures "Santhal Family" and "Flying Man" became milestones in the development of Indian sculpture.
Sailoz Mukerjee — a pioneer of Indian modernism, one of the first Indian artists to turn to abstraction. His works are distinguished by boldness and experimentation.
Amrita Sher-Gil — an artist often called the "Indian Frida Kahlo". She combined European post-impressionism with Indian sensuality and the theme of female identity. Her works, such as "Three Girls" and "The Family", became icons of Indian art.
Main Schools and Movements
The collection of the National Gallery of Modern Art in Delhi covers all key movements of Indian art, beginning with early schools. These include Indian miniatures (Rajasthan, Pahari and Mughal schools), the Company School (a blend of Indian and European techniques that emerged in the 18th–19th centuries under British colonial influence), the Kalighat School (folk painting from Calcutta) and the Tanjore School of painting, known for its vivid colours and use of gold leaf.
Academic realism is represented by works of Raja Ravi Varma and artists trained in British art schools, such as M. F. Pithawala, Pestonji Bomanji and Hemen Mazumdar.
The Bengal School includes works by Abanindranath Tagore and his followers — M. A. R. Chughtai, Kshitindra Majumdar, Nandalal Bose — who turned to Indian traditions and created a "national style" in art.
The Santiniketan School (Visva-Bharati University) is represented by works of Nandalal Bose, Ramkinkar Baij, Benode Behari Mukherjee and other artists who developed Rabindranath Tagore`s ideas about the connection between art and life and nature.
Individual modernist movements of the 1920s–1930s include works by Rabindranath Tagore, Gaganendranath Tagore, Amrita Sher-Gil and Jamini Roy — artists who sought their own path beyond schools and academies.
Artistic Groups of the Mid-20th Century
Of particular interest is the collection of works by the Progressive Artists` Group, which emerged in Bombay in 1947. It included M. F. Husain, F. N. Souza, K. H. Ara, S. H. Raza, H. A. Gade and others. These artists rejected the conventions of academic art and created a modern Indian idiom, blending European modernism with Indian themes and symbols.
The Calcutta Group is represented by works of Gopal Ghose, Paritosh Sen, Prodosh Das Gupta and other artists who developed modernist tendencies in eastern India.
The Cholamandal Artists` Village, founded near Chennai by K. C. S. Paniker, became an important centre of South Indian modernism and is represented in the gallery`s collection.
Abstract Art of the 1950s–1960s
The National Gallery of Modern Art in Delhi extensively features works by leading Indian abstractionists. Among them are V. S. Gaitonde, whose abstract compositions are considered the pinnacle of Indian modernism. Tyeb Mehta, known for his "Falling Figures" series. Akbar Padamsee, who worked in an abstract manner with elements of geometric forms. Krishen Khanna and Ram Kumar, who created unique abstract landscapes.
Sculpture is represented by works of D. P. Roy Chowdhury, Chintamoni Kar, Ramkinkar Baij — classics of Indian sculpture who combined European modernism with Indian themes.
Contemporary Art (Late 20th – 21st Century)
The contemporary art collection includes works by Jogesh Choudhuri, Bikash Bhattacharjee, Nalini Malani, Vivan Sundaram, Bhupen Khakhar, Arpita Singh and many others.
Among the contemporary artists represented in NGMA are Jitish Kallat (known for his video installations and conceptual projects), Subodh Gupta (working with found objects — pots, plates, suitcases — creating large-scale installations), Atul Dodiya (working in the genre of figurative painting with elements of social realism), Nalini Malani (one of the first Indian women artists working with video art and installations, addressing themes of gender and history), Bhupen Khakhar (known for his unsettling, surreal works exploring the theme of the human body), Arpita Singh (working with interiors and themes of memory) and Vivan Sundaram (using elements of pop art and comics in his works).
Branches
In addition to the main building in Delhi, NGMA has two branches — in Mumbai (opened in 1996) and Bangalore (opened in 2009). Each branch has its own collection and organises independent exhibitions.
The New Air India Gallery at the Red Fort
In 2025, NGMA opened a new branch in a historic building at the Red Fort in Delhi, housing the famous Air India "Maharaja" collection. The collection comprises nearly 9,000 works of art collected by the airline since the 1930s.
The gallery includes two permanent exhibitions. The first — "Anta Asthi Prarambh" ("The End is a New Beginning") — features rare bronze and stone sculptures, wooden panels, carpets, textiles (kalamkari, phad, phulkari), miniatures, architectural fragments from South Indian temples and other objects illustrating the richness of India`s artistic heritage.
The second — "Wings of Modernity" — includes paintings, sculptures, photography and mixed-media works by leading contemporary Indian artists: M. F. Husain, S. H. Raza, V. S. Gaitonde, Anjolie Ela Menon, Jogesh Choudhuri, Jitish Kallat and others. The collection also includes a ceramic ashtray by Salvador Dalí, created for Air India in 1967.
Temporary Exhibitions
The National Gallery of Modern Art in Delhi regularly organises large-scale temporary exhibitions, retrospectives of leading artists and experimental projects. Among the most significant projects of recent years are the retrospective of M. F. Husain (including over 300 works), a major exhibition of S. H. Raza, as well as international projects such as "India and Russia: Dialogue of Cultures" and "Indian Modernism in the Context of World Art".
For visitors to Delhi, the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) offers a unique opportunity to see how Indian art evolved from colonial influence to a distinctive national idiom, reflecting the complexity and diversity of contemporary India. Unlike the historical monuments of the capital, the gallery shows the country not in its past, but in the process of its continuous creative evolution.
