Important Notice

INDIAN ART AND THE VENICE BIENNALE

The Venice Biennale is one of the preeminent international art platforms to support and showcase contemporary art practices around the world. It was founded in 1895 to commemorate the silver anniversary of the accession of King Umberto I of Italy, and his consort Margherita of Savoy. Initially displaying only Italian artists by invitation, it opened its doors to international art and... INDIAN ART AND THE VENICE BIENNALE

The Venice Biennale is one of the preeminent international art platforms to support and showcase contemporary art practices around the world. It was founded in 1895 to commemorate the silver anniversary of the accession of King Umberto I of Italy, and his consort Margherita of Savoy. Initially displaying only Italian artists by invitation, it opened its doors to international art and established national pavilions in 1907. The first of these was Belgium. In 1954, Indian art was exhibited at the Venice Biennale for the first time. This was also a time when the Indian art scene had gained some recognition, following the relative success of the Progressive Artists' Group in preceding years, and the establishment of the National Gallery of Modern Art and the Lalit Kala Akademi in the same year.

Spearheaded by Madanjeet Singh, then cultural attache at the Indian Embassy in Rome, the retrospective displayed 59 paintings by 32 artists, including Jamini Roy, Amrita Sher-Gil, M F Husain, S H Raza and F N Souza. Singh travelled to Bombay, Madras and Calcutta, personally collecting works from both private and public collections for this show. The exhibition sold more than 40 works, an impressive number at a time when Indian artists were relatively unknown in Europe. Radha, painted by A A Almelkar a year prior, was part of this exhibition.

Singh also organised the succeeding exhibition of Indian Art at the Venice Biennale in 1956, focussing mainly on four Indian artists: M F Husain, Dinkar Kaushik, Akbar Padamsee and S H Raza, whose works had seen a favourable response in Europe by then. Eglise by Raza, painted in 1953, was part of this show. Indian art continued to have a presence at the Venice Biennale until 1982. In 2011, an Indian Pavilion was organised once again, showcasing contemporary artists Zarina Hashmi, Gigi Scaria and Praneet Soi, Mriganka Madhukaillya and Sonal Jain.

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