Venkatappa Art Gallery
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12°58′27″N 77°35′43″E / 12.9742357°N 77.5953023°E
Venkatappa Art Gallery (VAG) is situated in
History
The
Venkatappa Art Gallery came into being with the foundation stone being laid by the then Chief Minister
It was intended to function both as a museum holding the works of K. Venkatappa as well as becoming a space for artists from all over Karnataka to use for their arts practice. VAG is commonly mistaken for the Bangalore Museum as they both stand next to each other and yet they are very different. VAG continues to be a space that accesses the contemporary holdings within it a museum as well as a gallery, something quite rare in the history of the structure of museums.
The modernist building was built by the Karnataka Public Works Department in the lines of an artificial island with a beautiful moat with a lotus pond surrounding it. This was used recently as the scene for a painting protest undertaken by VAG Forum in memory of K.Venkatappa protesting the hand over of Karnataka's cultural commons to private parties.[3]
The plan for the museum/gallery was for five floors but only three floors have been built and the whole building has been air-conditioned.
It also houses the collections of KK Hebbar and the sculptor Rajaram.
The KK Hebbar Gallery wing was set up in 1993–94 with the help of Chiranjiv Singh who was the former Indian ambassador to
Contemporary art
Venkatappa Art Gallery also played host to the seventh
‘Silence of Furies and Sorrows – Pages of a Burning City’, was a group show with C.F. John, Raghavendra Rao, Nandakishore, Ravisankar Rao, Amrish, Shantamani, Tripura Kashyap, and Ramesh Chandra exhibited in the Venkatappa Art Gallery.[citation needed] This show came about as response to what was a troubling series of communal riots that rocked Bangalore in 1994.
Controversy
The tourism department identified Venkatappa Art Gallery as one of the tourist sites up for ‘adoption’ around 2014–15.[5] An MoU was signed in July 2015 between the departments of museums and archaeology and tourism and the Tasveer Foundation,[6] which will see the complete transfer of management, curation, renovation to the private foundation. This was done without involving the larger community of artists who stake a claim to VAG as a space that has nurtured them and continues to be a space where younger artists can experiment with their practice.[citation needed] The controversy is further fuelled by the fact that the director of the Tasveer Foundation, Abhishek Poddar, was also a member of the Karnataka Tourism Vision Group,[7] which recommended and set in place the process for ‘adoption’.[8]
References
- ^ Government of Karnataka, Department of Archaeology, Museums and Heritage. "Museums in Karnataka". Department of Archaeology, Museums and Heritage. Department of Archaeology, Museums and Heritage. Archived from the original on 18 October 2015. Retrieved 16 April 2016.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Staff Reporter (1 April 2016). "The footpath was his gallery". No. Bangalore. The Hindu. Retrieved 16 April 2016.
- ^ Chronicle, Deccan. "From paint brushes to black umbrellas". Deccan Chronicle. Retrieved 10 April 2016.[dead link]
- ^ Bharadwaj, K.V. Aditya (4 April 2016). "K.K. Hebbar's family wants a trust to manage Venkatappa gallery". No. Bangalore. The Hindu. Retrieved 16 April 2016.
- ^ M Sripad, Ashwini (24 January 2016). "Private Companies Chip in With Makeover Plans". The New Indian Express. No. Bangalore. The New Indian Express. Archived from the original on 24 January 2016. Retrieved 20 April 2016.
- ^ Narayanan, Nayantara (28 March 2016). "Artists are fighting to keep the Karnataka's only public art gallery public". Scrol.in. Scroll.in. Retrieved 20 April 2016.
- ^ Karnataka, Government of. "Tourism Vision Group". Government of Karnataka. Government of Karnataka. Retrieved 20 April 2016.
- ^ Rao, Alka. "Venkatappa Art Gallery Issue". VAG Forum. VAG Forum. Retrieved 16 April 2016.