This Delhi exhibition is a retrospective milestone tracing art history on paper

Over the years art has seen tremendous evolution. From traditional mediums to contemporary ones which are often made by the artists through the trial and error methods, art is a living cell of experimentation. However, what one cannot disregard or forget is how paper was the basic medium of art. In fact even today, before a sculpture is made or a canvas is painted, the idea might be etched first on a paper. Keeping paper as the crux of the works by these iconic artists is the ongoing exhibition at Delhi’s Gallery Dotwalk called The Architecture of the Void: Lines on a Postcolonial Skeleton.

Ongoing Delhi art exhibition looks into paper as a prime medium of art

Participating artists include Badri Narayan, Bhupen Khakhar, Bireswar Sen, F. N. Souza, G. R. Santosh, J. Swaminathan, Jangarh Singh Shyam, Jogen Chowdhury, K. H. Ara, Meera Mukherji, Piraji Sagara, Prabhakar Barwe, Ram Kumar, Sadanand K. Bakre and Somnath Hore. On display one would find drawings, watercolours, etchings and works on paper by these modern Indian artists, where each work explores form, memory and identity. Sreejith CN, founder-director of the gallery mentions, “With this exhibition, we wanted to honour the fragility and courage of artists working on paper in the wake of Independence and Partition, while also connecting those questions to the present.

Most of the artists whose works are on display were highly active during the Indian independence, partition and post-colonial India where the country was reinventing itself politically, socially and culturally. This was a time where most artists took to paper to express themselves; rather paper became the medium of responding to the environment. Paper captures the fragilities, anxieties, power, aspirations, hesitation or erasures of a newly independent country.

This particular exhibition also brings about a significant milestone in the artistic trajectory of the gallery which is known to interact with modern artists, experimental creativity and much more. But this time, it pauses and takes the path of historical retrospection which is distinguishably different from its previous curations. However, one cannot deny that the names on display have, over the time, emerged as iconic artists and influences for generations of artists after them. Thus, their practices and methods have also come to influence how art looks like and practiced, today.  

What: The Architecture of the Void: Lines on a Postcolonial Skeleton

Where: Gallery Dotwalk, New Delhi

When: till May 30, 2026

Timings: 11 am – 7 pm (Sunday closed)

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