In a first, Museum of Art and Photography opens in Bengaluru for physical exhibitions

General admission to the museum will be free while the exhibition tickets will cost Rs 150 with due concessions and discounts to groups, disabled people, senior citizens, defence personnel and students. (Express)

The exhibition also features MAP’s permanent collection ‘visible/invisible’ depicting the paradox of how visible women have been invisible in art which includes artworks by Jamini Roy, M F Hussain, Bhupen Khakhar, Mrinali Mukherjee, Arpita Singh and Ravindra Reddy. Commissioned work by artists Arik Levy, Ayesha Singh and Tarik Currimbhoy have been installed to beautify the architecture of the museum building.

Founder and Trustee, Abhishek Poddar’s personal collection of 7,000 artworks gave rise to the idea of MAP in December 2020.

Speaking about his connection with art and introduction of the museum, he said, “I started off my journey with art when I was a young boy. I was fortunate to have interacted with great artists like Manjit Bawa, Jyotindra Jain, Mapu, B N Goswamy, Dayanita Singh and J Swaminathan. They were the ones who became my gurus. It began as a personal collection and after a while I realised that it was unfair to have it all at home or enjoyed by a few people. This is when we decided to open it up and share it and thus the seed for the museum was born.”

MAP is located at Kasturba Road in central Bengaluru. (Express)

Talking about MAP’s permanent exhibition highlighting representation of women, Director Kamini Sawhney said, “When we look at the MAP collection, we really are looking at the collection, not in vertical silence but we are really trying to draw connections across collections. Women have been the central subject in the art of the centuries because they have had very little agency over their representation because the image builders have largely been males. We are looking at newer narratives, fresh approaches that are much more aligned in contemporary thinking.”

The collection has been divided into six sections namely; pre-modern art, modern and contemporary art, living traditions, photography, popular culture and textiles, crafts and design.

The experience has been digitised by the introduction of a 3D display of artwork and holograms of various art pieces displayed in the museum, additionally, the Sasken Multimedia Gallery showcases artworks that are not on display in the gallery. Tactile works to some artworks have been made by artists Gurjeet Singh and Mallika Khaneja to make the museum experience easy and accessible for visually-impaired people.

Elaborating upon the relevance of the museum and its connection to younger audiences, Poddar said, “Museums haven’t gotten their due place in India. We have been surrounded by art for generations but somehow the connection seems to have snapped. The mission at MAP is to re-establish that connection and make it relevant for today’s youths rather than it being just about history or the past. We are doing things that are interactive and we are using a fair amount of technology; we hope that it would appeal to the younger audience.”

The museum will be open Tuesday to Friday from 10 am to 6:30 pm and Saturday to Sunday from 10 am to 8 pm. General admission to the museum will be free while the exhibition tickets will cost Rs 150 with due concessions and discounts to groups, disabled people, senior citizens, defence personnel and students.

Apart from the exhibitions, MAP has an academy comprising online courses, tools and resources, an encyclopaedia of Indian art, a WIPRO library which is open to students, researchers and scholars, SMOOR cafe which is open to all and a rooftop restaurant and lounge for members. MAP is located at Kasturba Road in central Bengaluru.