Work of Art

One of the oldest commercial art galleries in the country,Gallery Chemould grew organically out of the frame-manufacturing business run by Kekoo. In 1963,Kekoo established the gallery on the first floor of the Jehangir Art Gallery,holding exhibitions there until 2007,when it moved to its current premises on Prescott Road. It became a primary force in Indian art,playing the role of facilitators to contemporary art practices. It also become a starting point in the gallery-artist synergy,building infrastructure for the commercial art market of the future. “We played the role of tastemakers. There were artists at one end and collectors at the other and the gallery fed them both,” says Gandhy.

A gallery’s history is intertwined with that of its artists,and for Chemould,it spans a few generations. From the Progressives of the early ’60s like MF Husain and SH Raza to inter-disciplinary artists of the ilk of Vivan Sundaram and Atul Dodiya to more contemporary ones such as Jitish Kallat,Chemould’s list engages some of the brightest talents of the Indian art world.

In 1969,Husain had an ambitious plan for his show ‘21 Years of Painting’,to be held at the gallery. He wanted a car to be brought into the gallery space and Kekoo obliged. “Imagine bringing a car into a gallery in the ’60s. It was a big expense and they were not making money out of it,” says Gandhy. Husain had promised the couple that he would do his next show with them,an unwritten understanding that galleries and artists used to share before hard-bound contracts came into the picture,but he later opted for its rival Pundole Art Gallery,started around the same time. “Those days,the concept of a stable was still not strong,and artists often showed off-gallery. But in this case,Husain was a little deceitful,” she says. Much later,her mother wrote a critical letter to Husain after his controversial portrayal of Indira Gandhi as goddess Durga. The letter will appear in a book that Jerry Pinto is writing on Kekoo and Khorshed.

While Gandhy’s business acumen has sharpened the gallery’s operational skills,profits have never been the sole driver. Artist Atul Dodiya remembers an event before his solo show at Kolkata’s CIMA art gallery. Gandhy was so impressed by his work that she organised a 10-day show in Mumbai,just so that people would get the chance to see them before they went on sale in Kolkata.

Through such initiatives,Gallery Chemould,situated then at the heart of Kala Ghoda,Mumbai’s art district,became the nodal point of people and ideas,a cultural hotspot for art enthusiasts of the city. Just like its founder,who was a socialist with strong political views,Chemould was much more than a gallery. “All shows wouldn’t sell,one show would fund the other. We weren’t living like kings,but we were making ends meet,” Gandhy says.

Dodiya remembers his student days when he would visit the gallery to meet a friend,attend an exhibition or simply to chat with the couple. “Kekoo would treat an art student like anyone else. He was always warm,honest and friendly,” he says. One of the gallery’s most important artists,he first participated in a group exhibition comprising 17 painters in 1988. The inaugural exhibition at the gallery’s new space in 2007,‘Shri Khakhar Prasanna’ was also done by Dodiya. A panoply of Andy Warholesque busts of Bhupen Khakhar,it was a tongue-in-cheek tribute to the artist. “Chemould was a seedbed for art across India. During Kekoo’s time,it was a platform for social thoughts and ideas. It was always more than a gallery,a place for political activism,” says art critic Ranjit Hoskote.

It was towards the end of the ’80s that the gallery started changing its stance. After completing higher studies on art administration in London,Gandhy took over from her father in 1989,instilling in the gallery professional dynamism and what she calls,“a little more form and direction.” Anticipating the herald of the new media in art,she shifted the gallery’s focus to emerging contemporary artists. “I was looking at the work of younger artists and installation art and slowly,the gallery began to find its own language,” she says.

The clash of old and new would result in losing one of its most treasured artists,SH Raza,who was getting increasingly critical of the new media work. Gandhy remembers a show in the late ’90s,one of performance artist Pushpamala N’s early works,that triggered one such debate with Raza over its artistic validity. “Raza had a certain old-school sensibility,an aesthetic for the abstract. He thought the artist was talented but confused,but I was interested in where she was going. New media was a new sensibility altogether,” Gandhy says. In Raza,the gallery lost its biggest star-artist,who would bail it out during financial crises,but she decided not to compromise.

Chemould’s emergence as an important breeding ground for new,contemporary artists coincided with the shift in Indian art in the early ’90s,with the arrival of inter-disciplinary artists. Noted artists from the generation,including Shilpa Gupta,are all represented by the gallery. “The first body of installation and video from India was shown at the gallery in the ’90s. Chemould has constantly pushed the envelope for experimental art. From Rumanna Hussain,to Atul and Anju Dodiya,I have seen some of my favourite shows here,” says Gupta.

As it completes 50 years,the gallery will roll out a series of shows that mark its focus. Titled ‘Aesthetic Bind’,the exhibitions curated by noted critic Geeta Kapur,will start next month and run through spring 2014. The first exhibition,‘Subject of Death’,starts on September 2 and will celebrate the spirit of the late Bhupen Khakhar,an artist strongly aligned with the gallery. While works of Khakhar are being borrowed from his estate to form the centrepiece of the show,the rest will be a curated collection of new works by artists like Anju Dodiya and others. ‘Citizen Artist’,the second show,will bring together works that emerge from the contours of urban life: Pushpamala N,Gupta,Jitish Kallat are a part of the show,along with Delhi-based Raqs media collective and last year’s Skoda award winner CAMP,that made the Radia tape artwork. The third show,‘Phantomata’,on moving images,include artists like Tushar Joag and Sudarshan Shetty. The fourth,‘Cabinet Closet Wanderkammer’,features Atul Dodiya and delves into the curiosity of the artistic mind,while the fifth,‘Floating World’,centres on the ethereal,with artists such as Nilima Sheikh,Reena Kallat and Shakuntala Kulkarni.