HC to hear plea on irregularities in National Gallery of Modern Art

NEW DELHI: A plea was moved in Delhi High Court on Wednesday seeking direction to the Centre to investigate the irregularities allegedly caused by the officers of the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) here.

The plea, filed by a social worker, came up for hearing before a vacation bench of justices V. Kameswar Rao and I.S. Mehta, who fixed the matter for hearing on July 13. Petitioner Sharad Tiwari, in his plea filed through advocate Sugriva Dubey, stated that the NGMA, a sprawling complex at the India Gate roundabout, is not being managed properly and there was a threat that the costly items preserved there could be stolen.

Mr. Tiwari claimed that even after the findings of an audit, the Ministry of Culture and the NGMA have not taken any action in respect of the irregularities pointed out by the Auditor General, whose report has been kept in abeyance allegedly at the instance of some persons, who are close to top bureaucrats of the ministry under which the art gallery is maintained.

“The details of the audit report for the year 2012-13, 2013-14 have not been given and the same have been concealed,” the plea said.

The NGMA is the premier art gallery under the Centre. The main museum at Jaipur House was established on March 29, 1954, with subsequent branches at Mumbai and Bangalore.

Its collection of more than 14,000 items includes works by renowned artists including Rabindranath Tagore. Some of the oldest works preserved here date back to 1857. The Delhi branch is one of the world’s largest modern art museums. — PTI

(Source: The Hindu, 30th June 2016)

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Exhorting Johny ML to shut up - Urge for a 'Code of Conduct' for art critics!

Johny Mulluvilakom Lakshmanan's penchant to grab attention every now and then by making imprudent statements and writing preposterous pieces is well known in the art circles. Rubbing people and institutions on the wrong shoulder is nothing new to this art historian and art critic from Kerala - whether exhorting PM Modi to start a debate because of the Pune Biennale 2015 debacle (of which he was the project director) or stating that Prof. Rajeev Lochan should be out of the NGMA or unimpressively shooting down opinions of senior scholars and curators, there are many in the  Indian art fraternity  who believe that there should be a Code of Conduct for art critics and historians  or an association on the lines of Association of Art Historians (AAH) UK to ensure that a certain dignity in approach and comments is maintained.

It doesn't suit someone to indulge in mud slinging and go pooh-poohing proudly that by doing so they become brave and outspoken under the garb of artistic freedom of speech and expression. The Pune fiasco might not have been so much about the artworks as it was more about  Johny ML's defiance against local authorities and sentiments  as the other works depicting nudes were not asked to be removed by the uniformed miscreants who were exceptionally  outraged by Noida based artist-duo Manil-Rohit's work. Such controversies can easily be avoided if Indian curators  exercise reasonable caution and demonstrate appreciation of  regional cultural sensibilities. 

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