The Mumbai Gallery Weekend 2020 will see the city's auction house Prinseps hosting their first curated exhibition Bengal Through the Last 100 Years, starting from January 9 at the Taj Art Gallery.
The four-day-long exhibition will also carry a preview for the No Reserve Nationalist Book Auction which will go live later this month, from January 20-26, showing a series of seminal books and manuscripts related to the Indian National Movement including Mahatma Gandhi’s Harijan Sevak, 70 volumes of The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi (First Edition) as well as important publications on Subhash Chandra Bose and Jawaharlal Nehru.
Bengal through the last 100 years brings together a curated selection of 37 artwork, showcasing the depth and range of artists from Bengal, including early Indian modernists such as Abanindranath Tagore and Jamini Roy, to later modernists like Bikash Bhattacharjee. Curated by Menaka Mahtab, the show celebrates the birth of Indian Modernism in Bengal and the country's art hub at Santiniketan.
The exhibition creates a narrative ark that traces the evolution of artists such as Abanindranath Tagore, who set the tone for the Bengal school of style with his defiance of Western Classicism, to Jamini Roy, who presented an alternate Indian aesthetic by drawing from the rich heritage of folk traditions. The progression of Bengal’s distinct journey with modernism is further seen in Ganesh Pyne's abstract works and Bikash Bhattacharjee's
surrealist pieces.
Bengal through the last 100 years focuses on the progression of change, from the 1920s. The complete list of artists showcased includes Bikash Bhattacharjee, Satyendranath Bishi, Nandalal Bose, Ramendranath Chakravorty, Shailesh Chandra Deb Barma, Somnath Hore, Meera Mukherjee, Ganesh Pyne, Jamini Roy, Abanindranath Tagore, Gaganedranath Tagore, Rathindranath Tagore and a few students who studied at Santiniketan.
The exhibition will have a walk-through with Menaka Mahtab, as a part of the official
programme for Mumbai Gallery Weekend, on the 12th of January from 4 till 4:30 pm.
Exhibition Dates: January 9-12
Where: The Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai
Taj Art Gallery
When: 11 am - 8 pm