Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata

Last updated

Academy of Fine Arts
একাডেমী অফ ফাইন আর্টস
Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata Logo.svg
Academy of Fine Arts - 2 Cathedral Road - Kolkata 2014-09-16 7946-7950 Archive.tif
Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata
General information
LocationCathedral Road, Kolkata
Address2, Cathedral Road, Kolkata 700 071[ citation needed ]
Opened1933
Website
https://academyoffinearts.in/

The Academy of Fine Arts, in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) is one of the oldest fine arts societies in India. [1] The galleries of the Academy provide a whopping 6,300 square feet of space and has an auditorium, a conference centre, and several important and priceless collections of paintings, textiles, etc. [2]

Contents

Entrance of Academy of Fine Arts Kolkata Entrance of Academy of Fine Arts Kolkata.jpg
Entrance of Academy of Fine Arts Kolkata

History

The academy was formally established in 1933 [1] [3] by Lady Ranu Mukherjee. [4] It was initially located in a room loaned by the Indian Museum, and the annual exhibitions used to take place in the adjoining verandah.

In the 1950s, thanks to the efforts of Lady Ranu Mookerjee and patronage by Bidhan Chandra Roy, Chief Minister of West Bengal, as well as Jawaharlal Nehru, the Prime Minister of India, the academy was shifted to a much larger space in the Cathedral Road. The Academy is situated at the heart of the city guarded by the St. Paul's Cathedral on one side, and the Rabindra Sadan-Nandan-Sisir Mancha complex, on the other. [4] At present, Prasun Mukherjee is the chairman of board of trustees and Kallol Bose is the Jt. secretary of the executive committee.

Collections

The Academy boasts an eclectic mix of prized collections of various paintings and textiles from the Bengal School, majorly gifted by Lady Ranu Mukherjee. There are some famous paintings here like Saat Bhai Champa by Gaganendranath Tagore, Shiva with Ganesh by Jamini Roy. [3] Textiles include Baluchari, Jamdani garments, exotic carpets of the Orient, etc. Rabindranath Tagore's manuscripts of Bhanusingher Padabali find a special place. Artworks of the Tagores: Rabindranath, Abanindranath and Gaganendranath besides those of Sunayani Devi, Atul Bose, Nandalal Bose, Ramkinkar Baij and Benode Behari Mukherjee are also there. The Academy also hosts very early works of Jamini Roy, and Jogen Chowdhury. [4]

Theatre Auditorium

There is a theatre auditorium in Academy of Fine Arts which is one of the most popular spots for performers and viewers of the city. Since 1984, an annual theatre festival is organised here. [3] Shambhu Mitra's theatre group, Bohurupee, always scheduled its shows in the Academy's theatre. The Nandikar and Nandimukh International theatre festival is still organised at the venue. Productions have been staged by notable theatre personalities including Utpal Dutt, Shaoli Mitra, Soumitra Chatterjee, Manoj Mitra, and others. The Academy had evolved as the city's centre for public art and culture after 1961, when its status changed from a society to an institution, and the popularity of its Auditorium soared with the group theatre movement in the city. [2]

Present Status

The Academy which was once a coveted destination for new-age artists and theatre performers who came in the wake of the Independence, defining new styles, forms, genres, and creative sensibility, has dwindled in status. It is definitely a tragedy that the platinum jubilee of the Academy's foundation in 2008 went unnoticed and without any celebration. [2] Today it has largely become a space for amateur artists who cannot make otherwise clear the cut in the city's more gorgeous, and global galleries, to showcase and exhibit their works. According to Tapati Guha Thakurta, a leading historian, and scholar, particularly of the Bengal School and its evolution, notes how the Academy after its humble beginnings, and during the able trusteeship of Lady Ranu was the "nerve centre" of the city, and a space for "public art culture". [2] However, she laments it only "somehow exists today", [2] and has been certainly dispossessed in terms of its appeal, popularity, and prestige. The opening up of new galleries in the city, with their more market-oriented approach overshadowed the once famous destination, and the Academy failed to keep up with the transformations in the field of art as Guha Thakurta points out. [2] Pranab Ranjan Ray, a prominent face in Calcutta's art circles agrees with these observations. [2] He mentions how at the height of its glory the Academy's theatre auditorium housed plays by Shambhu Mitra, Utpal Dutt, Shaoli Mitra, and others. The emergence of new gallery spaces, like the Centre for International Modern Art (CIMA), with a fresh ambiance that caters to new generations, and serves the interests of the wealthier, global clientele, and an organised market of buyers, artists, and curators, has disadvantaged the Academy that was known for its accessibility by multiple and wider audiences. [2] Thus, ignored and fallen out of favour, the Academy has to negotiate through serious cash-straps to maintain its functioning. What the new galleries lack, however, are the art collections, which are priceless and wide-ranging, and had been gifted by Lady Ranu. This gives an edge to the Academy, however, these collections are kept locked, and away from public view which impoverishes the city's history and the splendour of the Academy. It is the theatre's presence that still maintains the vestiges of the Academy's past aura as the present Chairman of the Board, Prasun Mukherjee asserts. [2] Moreover. there were rumours that significant portions of the collection had disappeared from the prized collections due to the lackadaisical approach of the present trustees which had forced them to reopen the collection, and exhibit it post-proper authentication and curation. The Academy's financial condition too has drastically deteriorated. It barely manages to clear the wages of its staff, and requires major investments to overhaul the institution, concerted efforts to save its legacy, art collections, and its creative space, and reinvent itself as being contemporaneous and relevant before it completes its centenary in 2023. [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gaganendranath Tagore</span> Indian painter and cartoonist of the Bengal school (1867-1938)

Gaganendranath Tagore was an Indian painter and cartoonist of the Bengal school. Along with his brother Abanindranath Tagore, he was counted as one of the earliest modern artists in India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Gallery of Modern Art</span> Modern art museum in Rajpath, New Delhi

The National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) is the premier art gallery under Ministry of Culture, Government of India. The main museum at Jaipur House in New Delhi was established on 29 March 1954 by the Government of India, with subsequent branches at Mumbai and Bangalore. Its collection of more than 17,000 works by 2000 plus artists includes artists such as Thomas Daniell, Raja Ravi Verma, Abanindranath Tagore, Rabindranath Tagore, Gaganendranath Tagore, Nandalal Bose, Jamini Roy, Amrita Sher-Gil as well as foreign artists. Some of the oldest works preserved here date back to 1857. With 12,000 square meters of exhibition space, the Delhi branch is one of the world's largest modern art museums.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jamini Roy</span> Indian artist (1887–1972)

Jamini Roy was an Indian painter. He was honoured by the Government of India the award of Padma Bhushan in 1954. He remains one of the most famous pupils of Abanindranath Tagore, another praised Indian artist and instructor. Roy's highly simplified, flattened-out style, and reminiscent of European modern art was influenced by the “bazaar” paintings sold at Indian temples as talismans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Culture of Kolkata</span> Overview of the culture of Kolkata

The culture of Kolkata concerns the music, art, museums, festivals, and lifestyle within Kolkata. It is the former capital of India and, as of 2021, the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Geir Heierstad writes that Bengalis tend to have a special appreciation for art and literature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nandalal Bose</span> Indian artist and a pioneer of modern Indian art (1882-1966)

Nandalal Bose was one of the pioneers of modern Indian art and a key figure of Contextual Modernism.

Paresh Maity is an Indian painter. He is a prolific painter in a short career span.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bengali theatre</span>

Bengali theatre primarily refers to theatre performed in the Bengali language. Bengali theatre is produced mainly in West Bengal, and in Bangladesh. The term may also refer to some Hindi theatres which are accepted by the Bengali people.

Hiran Mitra is an artist based in Kolkata. He left his ancestral country home in Kharagpur to study Fine Art in the Government College of Art & Craft, Kolkata at the age of 14. His paintings are energetic abstract gestural paintings with the choreography of the human body observed from folk dance having influenced his recent calligraphic forms. He has contributed significantly to the visual stimulus in eastern Indian films, television, theatre and literature since in the 1980s [. He is also known to have defined a benchmark for book cover design for contemporary Bengali literature. His paintings are statements on the human condition and the twilight zones of reality and time. Bold brush strokes, layered washes and sprays and unconventional use of acrylic and industrial paints characterize his paintings. He is part of the Open Window Artist group and has been part of the Painters 80 Artist group in Kolkata.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Government Museum and Art Gallery, Chandigarh</span> Museum in Chandigarh, India

Government Museum and Art Gallery, Chandigarh, is a premier museum of North India having collections of Gandharan sculptures, sculptures from ancient and medieval India, Pahari and Rajasthani miniature paintings. It owes its existence to the partition of India in August, 1947. Prior to the partition, much of the collections of art objects, paintings and sculptures present here were housed in the Central Museum, Lahore, the then capital of Punjab. The museum has one of the largest collection of Gandharan artefacts in the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nabagopal Mitra</span> Indian playwright, poet and essayist (1840–1894)

Nabagopal Mitra was an Indian playwright, poet, essayist, patriot and one of the founding fathers of Hindu nationalism. He founded the Hindu Mela the pioneer institution behind the genesis of Hindu nationalism. Mitra also founded National Press, National Paper, National Society, National School, National Theatre, National Store, National Gymnasium and National Circus, earning him the sobriquet 'National Mitra'.

Paschim Banga Natya Akademi is a learned society for drama and theatre in West Bengal, India. Established on 26 September 1987, it is a wing of the Department of Information and Cultural Affairs, Government of West Bengal. The aim of this society is to develop skill and expertise, to document and archive the history of Bengali theatre, to disseminate information, to understand theories, as well as to promote and project significant creativity in the field.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Group theatre of Kolkata</span> Tradition in theatres in the city of Kolkata

The group theatre of Kolkata refers to a tradition in theatres in the Indian city Kolkata, which developed in the 1940s as an alternative to entertainment-oriented theatres. As opposed to commercial theatres, group theatre is "a theatre that is not professional or commercial", characterized by its tendency for experimentation in theme, content and production, and its aim of using the proscenium stage to highlight social messages, rather than having primarily making-money objectives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">R. Siva Kumar</span> Contemporary Indian art historian art-critic and curator (born 1956)

Raman Siva Kumar, known as R. Siva Kumar, is an Indian contemporary art historian, art critic, and curator. His major research has been in the area of early Indian modernism with special focus on the Santiniketan School. He has written several important books, lectured widely on modern Indian art and contributed articles to prestigious international projects such as the Art Journal, Grove Art Online or The Dictionary of Art, Oxford University Press.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kala Bhavana</span> Fine arts school of Visva-Bharati University

Kala Bhavana is the fine arts faculty of Visva-Bharati University, in Shantiniketan, India. It is an institution of education and research in visual arts, founded in 1919, it was established by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore.

Tapas Sen was a noted Indian stage lighting designer, who was an important figure in 20th-century Indian theatre. He started working with Bengali theatre movement in Kolkata in the late 1940s, along with noted directors, Utpal Dutt and Shambhu Mitra. Later he became a founding member of the Indian People's Theatre Association's (IPTA), Delhi chapter, and worked closely with Hindi theatre. Through his career stretching five decades he worked theatre directors, Ebrahim Alkazi, Vijay Tendulkar, and also dancers Sadhana Bose, Chandralekha, Birju Maharaj and Kelucharan Mahapatra. He was known not only for his creative stage lighting, but also had a significant impact on the work of leading theatre director of the time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karuna Shaha</span> Indian artist (1921–1996)

Karuna Shaha was an Indian artist. She was among the first few women to study at the Government School of Art in Calcutta. Shaha is well known for her nude studies in various mediums.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ranu Mukherjee (art patron)</span> Indian art patron (1907 – 2002)

Lady Ranu Mukherjee was a notable patron of art, and one of the most famous personalities in the sphere of Indian arts and culture. She became Rabindranath Tagore's muse, during the last years of the poet's life, and their relationship remains a fascinating tale of creative dynamics, respect and platonic poetic love. Her appreciation of art and literature had a distinct Tagorean sensibility. She is credited to have established the Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata, and was honoured with the Légion d'Honneur by the Government of France.

Rathindranath Maitra or Rathin Maitra in short, also spelt as Rathin Moitra, was a prominent Bengali painter. He was also one of the painters of the Indian modernist new generation and the Calcutta Group in the 1940s.

References

  1. 1 2 "Academy of Fine Arts". kolkata.org.uk (website). Retrieved 28 August 2012.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "The Academy of Fine Arts in Kolkata Has Lost its Mystique". The Wire. Retrieved 2 June 2023.
  3. 1 2 3 Swati Mitra (2011). Kolkata: City Guide. Goodearth Publications. p. 66. ISBN   978-93-80262-15-4.
  4. 1 2 3 "Academy of Fine Arts". Click India. Archived from the original on 16 December 2011. Retrieved 28 August 2012.

22°32′35″N88°20′43″E / 22.5429508°N 88.3453662°E / 22.5429508; 88.3453662