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

It's fitting that the face of Baij, who is considered the father of modern Indian sculpture, should be central to 'Chehre'

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