Nitin Bhayana: Art champion gets going

BUSINESS CLASS/ NGMA director, Rajiv Lochan, plans a makeover of the museum

The Lalit Kala Academy is celebrating its golden jubilee by hosting an exhibition, titled Swamrekha, that shows the national and triennale awardees at Rabindra Bhawan. On August 9, the academy honoured some of India's most important artists like M F Husain, Tyeb Mehta and Krishan Khanna, to name a few, in a heart-warming ceremony in Delhi.

Even though Lalit Kala has taken the lead in celebrations, this year is also the golden jubilee of the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) and it's director Rajiv Lochan plans to offer much more than felicitations.

Even through the NGMA does not have the best public perception, Lochan is all set to change that and come out of the dark with his "back to basics" corrective measures coupled with some interesting innovations that are sure to excite the growing art community.

It might sound absurd that it has taken five decades, but, starting next month, the NGMA will finally be open to the public in the real sense. Very soon, any visitor will be able to get onto the mailing list of the NGMA and get information on its upcoming programmes.

Besides, Lochan is also sending out letters to the current mailing list of 3,000-plus people and asking them to enroll anyone they feel might be interested in the arts. He is committed to grow the number of visitors to the museum, and he has taken on issues that will affect the number of visitors to the museum first.

Yes, the NGMA will finally get a coffee shop probably run by the staid but socially acceptable India International Centre. An expansion of NGMA's current programme with visiting school children is also on the cards and Lochan is committed to make the impressionable youth accustomed to getting into the intimidating gates of Jaipur House.

However, there are some issues which, due to years of neglect, cannot be addressed overnight. Even then, it's comforting to know that the documentation of 17,000 works owned by the gallery is underway and the digital inventory of the entire collection will shortly be in place. Access to the museum's works for scholars will be made easier with the help of computers. With the help of Hewlett Packard printers the museum visitor will now be able to take out an instant print of an image requested.

No doubt, that one clear advantage that Lochan, a scholar and an artist, has is visible in the museum's new acquisitions. And it is indeed comforting to see Jitish Kallats and Sheila Makhijanis in rooms that were permanently reserved for Shergill.

However, Lochan must champion for increasing his budget to at least Rs 10 crore from the current Rs 40 lakh, if he wishes to make up the large gaps in the collection.

Thus far, Lochan has shied away from the media but has been quietly making serious changes internally that will benefit future visitors. He hopes to announce some of these basic corrections and other innovative ideas when the NGMA embarks on its golden jubilee celebrations next month For the occasion, he plans to show the masterpieces of his museum: a three part exhibition that will run alongside the scheduled retrospectives and exchange programmes.

With the new wing of the NGMA almost 50 per cent complete, an Anish Kapoor show scheduled for 2006 and rumours of NGMA's acceptance of the long-term loans from private collections, Rajiv Lochan has an enormous task ahead. If he can pull it off, he will, quite simply, become a legend.