minent artist Laxman Shreshtha had his first ever solo show at the Taj Art Gallery in 1963. Five decades later, he was the guest of honour at the inaugural exhibition to relaunch the same venue. His vibrant 1999 masterpiece in mixed media on paper will be on display at the gallery. “I’m still connected to them,” he says, smiling enigmatically.
There’s a tremendous sense of nostalgia in the room, as Uttara Parekh, harks back to how it all started. “JRD Tata and Colonel Soni, then the Managing Director of the Taj, appointed me as the Manager of the Taj Art Gallery, which they had just commissioned a few months earlier. The gallery was in a prominent location on the ground floor. With air-conditioned premises, good lighting and good display equipment, it offered the artists a lot at the subsidised sum of just Rs 80-100 per day!” Ms Parekh’s role was to add finishing touches to the gallery, organise exhibitions, and to build up and maintain relations with artists and art collectors.
“Eminent citizens visited regularly,” she says. “We had back-to-back bookings and a long waiting list to exhibit at the gallery. Stalwarts such as MF Husain, KH Ara, S Chavda, Mohan Samant, Jehangir Sabavala, SH Raza had their shows here. It was also a platform for relatively unknown artists to make a mark. We showed the work of artists such as Vivan Sundaram and Jatin Das, who are now so famous.”
Describing the art scene in the 1960s, she says: “There were just four or five art galleries. Acquisition of art was another ball game. Today, it’s all about investment. But in those days, people bought art for their own collections because they liked the colour or the composition. They never bought from the point of view of investment.”
Another aspect that she believes has altered today is the relevance of the art critic. “There were just a few prominent art critics, such as Nissim Ezekiel. The artists looked forward to critics visiting their show and would wait with bated breath for the review to be published the next day. The review could make or break the artist.”
Parekh paints an interesting picture of exhibition openings in those days: “You would have a diplomat from a foreign consulate or a political heavyweight, a prominent citizen or an art collector, coming to inaugurate the exhibition. There would be a couple of speeches, a little felicitation and that was that. It was an opportunity for the artist to interact and talk about his work. But there were no cocktails, no gourmet snacks, nothing like that. In fact, we weren’t allowed to bring food other than tea or coffee inside the gallery!” It was dramatically different from the wine-and-cheese evenings that most galleries host even for up-and-coming artists today.
That’s one change that we toast with bubbly and hors d’oeuvres as we mill around the bright and modern gallery at its relaunch after two decades (it was shut down in the mid-90s). As is evident to any visitor to the hotel, art has always been close to its heart. The Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai, thanks to early direction by the exquisite taste of art connoisseurs such as Elizabeth Kerkar in the 1960s, has an enviable collection of the works of India’s best contemporary artists, which are showcased throughout its rooms and public areas. It makes sense then, that they see value in reviving the gallery, which was the epicentre of the art community in its heyday.
Today, the new 1,000-square-foot space in the hotel’s heritage Palace wing has been created in space that once housed administrative offices.
Taljinder Singh, General Manager of the Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai, proudly points out how an area cluttered with cupboards and filing cabinets has been transformed into the perfect viewing area. “We wanted an international-standard gallery that offered our guests and art enthusiasts a space to appreciate Indian artists,” says Singh. “At first, I thought we’d clear away all the uneven bits, but Mortimer Chatterjee (of Chatterjee & Lal, the gallery that curate all the exhibits at the Taj Art Gallery) advised us to keep some of them as they make the display even more interesting.” Chatterjee has also advised them on the lighting and positioning of paintings.
The inaugural exhibition of 15 selected works by the likes of Jehangir Sabavala, VS Gaitonde, Ram Kumar and, of course, Laxman Shreshtha, we note, has been delightfully displayed. The gallery will now showcase significant artists and sculptors as well as incubate fresh talent.
The writer is a freelance lifestyle writer
