Exhibition of sculptures from NGMA Delhi's collection has a theatrical feel

In 1966, Ramkinkar Baij, or Kinkarda, as he was fondly called, was in the final stages of finishing the mammoth statues of Yaksha and Yakshi that now stand guard outside the Reserve Bank of India building in New Delhi.

It had been over 10 years since the work was first commissioned to Baij under the Jawaharlal Nehru regime, and the cost estimate had to be revised several times. Baij was a rooted person known for his eccentricities. But there was a method to his madness that cannot be easily replicated.

“He spent months just finding the right stone to carve those statues from,” says Adwaita Gadanayak, sculptor and director-general of the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) in Delhi, who is trying to bring due fame to the art of sculpting in India.

It’s fitting that the face of Baij, who is considered the father of modern Indian sculpture, should be central to “Chehre”, NGMA’s latest attempt to showcase the art form. The exhibition has on display 38 works that have been pulled out from the gallery’s reserve collection, with the oldest sculptures dating back to the 1940s. “We will keep circulating the gems that have been just lying in boxes,” says Gadanayak. 

At the gallery’s permanent wing, among the old faces that seem to be in conversation with one another, a majestic bust of Rabindranath Tagore has found its own space and peaceful existence. It is the original concrete sculpture that Baij made of his mentor in 1940. It’s also hard to miss Baij’s own presence — his face carved in bronze by sculptor Sarbari Roy Chowdhury, in 1965.

The use of open spaces and spotlights accentuate the theatrical setting of the exhibition. The works are divided into sections — a few faces separated from the rest and others clubbed together in groups, emulating how humans function at different times.

Another known face that stands out is that of Jawaharlal Nehru, created by Mack M Green in Madras (now Chennai) in 1950. An intricate work capturing Mahatma Gandhi’s serene visage by S G Shrikhande rests quietly, hidden for the discerning observer to find. 

Among the works away from facts, figures and history is a thought-proving idea expressed in Pawan Kumar Dhibar’s When the Mirror is Broken in terracotta, which shows a face split in parts as it would appear in a cracked mirror. There’s a stoneware work by Amitava Bhowmick called the Priest Head-III and another ceramic glass work, Untitled, by Hemi Bawa.

NGMA plans to display all of its reserve collections between this and another exhibition being planned for next month. Sculptures are a life form, says Gadanayak. NGMA, he adds, will keep rotating the works between different cities and even countries to inspire young artists. 

While Gadanayak spends his days running the daily operations of NGMA, his evenings are spent working on his own sculptures. “If you look at the detailing of some of the works on display, you’ll know it requires one to live the life of a monk to achieve it,” he says. “Not all of us can do it.”

Like a sculpture is hidden from the world till it’s complete, maybe there’s a great artist like Baij just waiting to be inspired.

‘Chehre’ is an ongoing exhibition at NGMA, New Delhi