MF Husain, Souza and Gaitonde lead Kiran Nadar's landmark London exhibition

KIRAN NADAR, who is building one of Asia’s biggest museums of modern art, has announced her arrival in London with an impressive exhibition at Christie’s auction house in King Street.

Her new museum, described as an “architectural marvel”, is under construction near Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi.

The exhibition in London, called The Meeting Ground, includes works by MF Husain, Francis Newton Souza, Vasudeo Santu Gaitonde and Jitish Kallat.

Also on display are 22 black-and-white photographs, titled Confessions of a Wall, by Raghu Rai, who died in April aged 83. He was regarded as a pioneer of photo journalism in India.

The exhibition, a collaboration between KNMA and Christie’s, also reflects India’s growing importance in the global art market.

Nadar is one of India’s best-known art collectors and her husband, Shiv Nadar, is the founder of HCL Technologies.

MF Husain’s YatraAmit Roy

As chairperson of the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) in Delhi, she said of the exhibition in London: “Since its founding, KNMA has been committed to situating south Asian artistic practices within broader international conversations. Presented during a pivotal moment of institutional expansion, The Meeting Ground reflects both the depth of the col lection and the evolving role of KNMA as a multidisciplinary cultural institution speaking with the world from south Asia. International engagement is a pillar of our vision, opening up new frameworks for dialogue and scholarship.”

She said KNMA “is set to evolve into a landmark cultural destination with a new home, an expansive 100,000-square-metre (more than one million square feet) architectural marvel, near Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi. It will feature multiple exhibition spaces, a performance arts centre, an education block, an archive centre, a library, restaurants and a members’ room. Strengthening its role as a cultural epicentre, this expansion will further KNMA’s mission to be a vibrant hub for visual and performing arts, fostering artistic innovation and cultural dialogue.”

Francis Newton Souza’s Man and Woman Grinding Their TeethAmit Roy

KNMA “opened to the public in January 2010 as India’s first private museum dedicated to modern and contemporary art from the subcontinent”.

It was pointed out that “KNMA is currently undergoing a transformative expansion with the development of its new standalone museum complex in New Delhi. Envisioned as India’s largest multidisciplinary cultural space at more than one million square feet, this new home will be a global destination for the visual and performing arts. The Meeting Ground offers a rare glimpse into the museum’s growing collection and its mission to connect diverse artistic histories in South Asia, through sustained processes of acquisition, research, and curatorial engagement.”

The organisers explained: “With these embedded narratives of desire, belonging, and loss, the exhibition invites viewers to rethink the ‘institutional’ and opens up new possibilities for how a col lection may be experienced. In bringing these dialogues to audiences beyond the KNMA’s walls, the exhibition also reflects a commitment to widening access to art, and creating greater visibility for South Asian artistic practices within a global cultural conversation.”

Raghu Rai’s Confessions of a WallAmit Roy

KNMA has “presented major exhibitions by artists including Nalini Malani, Zarina, Nasreen Mohamedi and Raqs Media Collective, and regularly collabo rates with leading international institutions such as the Barbican Centre and Tate Modern in London, Qatar Museums in Doha, the Public Art Fund, the Muse um of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid, among others.

“The museum’s ever-expanding col lection of more than 16,000 artworks from south Asia features some of the most significant modernist and con temporary works. Now broadening its scope to include classical, folk and indigenous art, the collection spans from the 3rd century CE to the 20th century, tracing historical trajectories in Indian art alongside the experimental practices of young contemporaries.”

Francis Newton Souza’s The Red RoadAmit Roy

The London show is part of Christie’s summer exhibition series. “Presenting this exhibition in London extends KN MA’s ongoing international programme, bringing south Asian artistic histories to wider audiences and creating new con texts for engagement with the collection,” according to the organisers.

The announcement said: “The Meeting Ground invites viewers into an unfolding of several ‘scenes’. It begins as dialogue and contestations between modernists including MF Husain, SH Raza, Jeram Patel, KCS Paniker, KG Subramanyan and K Ramanujam, and different centres of artistic creation in India from the 1950s to today.

Vasudeo Santu Gaitonde’s untitled oil on canvasAmit Roy

“This historical focus from the early twentieth century expands into a scene offering performative metaphors, where artists such as Neha Choksi, LN Tallur and Simryn Gill reflect on how individuals and institutions hold forms of listening and mark-making to keep memories agile.

“The third strand of the exhibition foregrounds protagonists such as Zainul Abedin, Anwar Jalal Shemza, Zarina Hashmi, Francis Newton Souza, Bani Abidi and others who inhabit multiple homelands and shared worlds, often re fusing to belong to places defined by the severity of modern maps.

“Interwoven with these movements are masters of indigenous traditions, such as Jangarh Singh Shyam, Jivya Soma Mashe, and the collaboration between Gauri Gill and Rajesh Vangad.”

Another image from Raghu Rai’s Confessions of a WallAmit Roy

Akansha Rastogi, lead curator of the exhibition and associate director, visual arts, KNMA, commented: “The region of south Asia is connected through a shared visual history and deep cultural resonances, and the exhibition presents these rich and complex conversations through an intergenerational mix of artists. The exhibition represents how we think about the museum and the possibilities within the collection, while also offering a slice of the museum’s 15 years of exhibition history, which has evolved under the artistic direction of Roobina Karode.”

Damian Vesey, international specialist, South Asian modern and contemporary art, Christie’s, added:“We are profoundly grateful to Kiran Nadar for her vision in bringing this exceptional and exciting range of works from the muse um’s remarkable collection to Christie’s London at such a pivotal moment in its evolution. As a leading museum in India, KNMA has been instrumental in advancing the global exposure and education of south Asian art. This exhibition marks the first time Christie’s London has dedicated its summer exhibition to south Asia, as well as to a single institution. I look forward to welcoming audiences to Christie’s this summer to experience the extraordinary breadth and vitality of practices that cut across disciplines and media firsthand.”

Jitish Kallat’s Circadian RhythmAmit Roy

Anthea Peers, president, Christie’s (Europe, the Middle East, and Africa), said: “We are thrilled to collaborate with the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art on The Meeting Ground: Scenes from the KNMA Collection, a landmark exhibition for Chris tie’s London and for our summer pro gramme at King Street. KNMA is a leading museum in India with an important place in the development and presentation of modern and contemporary art from South Asia. It’s been a real pleasure collaborating with Kiran Nadar and her team on bringing this project to life here in London.”