The new Indian Painting Gallery was inaugurated on
Tuesday, March 16, 2004 at 3.45 p.m. on the 1st floor of the
INDIAN MUSEUM, KOLKATA by famous sculptor Sri Chintamoni Kar.
Dr. Pratap Chandra Chunder, ex-Union Minister, Education and
Social Welfare graced the occasion as Guest in chief. Many great
personalities from the world of art and museology were also present.
The pictorial art in India, according to traditions, ranks
foremost of all arts whether literature, sculpture, theatre or
music (kalanam pravaram chitram). A vast panorama of Indian painted
delights spanning over an extensive time and space forms the
subject matter of the two compartments of the Gallery of INDIAN
PAINTINGS.
From the rock paintings of pastoral world, murals and frescoes
of the Classical period,manuscript illustrations of the East
and the West zone inspired by the two prominent religions of
India - Buddhism and Jainism, enchanting colour and calligraphic
lines of Persian drawings that culminated into the exuberance
of the Mughal Court miniatures, the colour of life and nature
manifested in the paintings of the hills and plains of the North
as well as in the deserts of Rajput glory,the sound of music
and the rhythm of life melted in the painted delights of the
Deccan, the Company drawings which twisted the trend of pictorial
to a new direction, to the renaissance of Indian paintings emerging
with the Bengal school - is a history of a great stride of almost
three millennia of Indian pictorial art.
A visual feast of this colourful and chequered art is presented
here for a modest understanding and aesthetic appreciation of
wonder that was India.
