Air India Art Collection at NGMA Bengaluru carries a whiff of nostalgia

Source The Hindu by Ruth Dhanaraj
Once upon a time, there was a maharajah who flew around on his private jet, sharing glimpses of India with people all over the world. And whenever he returned to his country, he would come laden with tales of the many wonders he had seen during his travels. The Maharajah (for that was his name and title) has long been the mascot for Air India, the country’s national carrier; though, over the years, his role has been diminished and he is rarely seen in public. For those who remember his glory days, or wish to relive the nobility of a bygone era, the National Gallery of Modern Art in Bengaluru (NGMA-B) is displaying art from the Air India Collection. Air India started collecting works of art and cultural assets in the early ‘60s — a time when modern Indian art needed the patronage, says Darshan, who not only curated the show but also conceptualised its design and display. Photo : An ashtray designed by surrealist master Salvador Dalí
> read more

A London exhibition reflects on shared South Asian histories and splintered maps

Source Stir World by Samta Nadeem
India and Pakistan gained their independence from the British in 1947, but what is more remarkable than the celebration of a contested freedom is the memory of an excruciating partition. I was born somewhere in the middle of our partitioned history to date, a little shy of half a century after the two nations declared freedom and yet The Radcliffe Line, clumsily and hastily drawn, seems to have sketched my most important and complex lessons in history, geography, identity, politics and pain – a condition not unique at all but personal to so many. Since secondary school, I have stared at the political map of our region to imagine who our neighbours would’ve been if South Asia were one alliance, how it would have redefined our relationships with major geopolitical forces like Russia, China or the West? To walk into an exhibition in the heart of London that erased all these lines, curatorially and metaphorically, was an experience I had to sit with.
> read more