KNMA Delhi announces new date for Indian contemporary art exhibition at Moscow's State Tretyakov Gallery

The State Tretyakov Gallery is presently closed to the public until further notice on account of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Extension.India is a joint project of Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA), The State Tretyakov Gallery, and the Indo-Russian Cultural Foundation.

Kiran Nadar, KNMA founder said, “The whole world is currently waging an unprecedented battle against the pandemic; many countries are under quarantine. Under the circumstances, we have jointly decided to postpone the exhibition.  We are committed to this project and are confident that in March 2021, we will all gather in Moscow to present contemporary Indian art to Russia and the world.”

Calling the exhibition “an incredible showcase of contemporary Indian art from over 60 artists under the curatorship of Roobina Karode and the Russian team from the Tretyakov,” Nadar thanked Tretyakov’s director, Zelfira Trefulova and her team, as also the Indo-Russian Cultural Foundation Chairman Alex Popov and his team.

“I thank all those who are working hard to make this happen,” she said.

Tretyakov’s director, Zelfira Tregulova, said, “Only these extraordinary circumstances could force us to defer this important exhibition, especially after many months of work by the international team with artists from across India. However, we look forward to the opening next spring, knowing that the exhibition will break new ground in the understanding of the power and breadth of India’s contemporary art scene.”

“We are deeply grateful to our partners and collaborators, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art in Delhi and the Indo-Russian Cultural Foundation, as well as the sponsors, without whom this project could not be achieved. Above all, we are grateful to the artists themselves and all lenders. We look forward to showcasing the works that capture the fears, the strength of spirit and hopes for the future,” Tregulova said.

The exhibition will bring together for the very first time,  more than 60 cross-generational Indian artists, including internationally acclaimed figures alongside emerging, younger generation artists, including Nalini Malani, Vivan Sundaram, Bhupen Khakhar, Anish Kapoor, Amar Kanwar, G. Ravinder Reddy, Mrinalini Mukherjee, Anita Dube, Shilpa Gupta, Dayanita Singh and Jitish Kallat, among others.

About the organisers:

The State Tretyakov Gallery, founded in Moscow in 1856, is the foremost museum in the world of Russian art.

One of the largest museums in Russia, its holdings number more than 180,000 works of Russian art from all periods.

Among these are masterpieces by Andre Rublev, Valentin Serov, Ivan Aivazovsky, Konstantin Flavitsky, Alexander Ivanov, Ivan Shishkin, Victor Vasnetsov, Ilya Repin and Mikhail Vrubel.

The new Tretyakov Gallery features the most complete permanent exhibition of Russian art of the 20th century as well as contemporary art and regularly presents a changing programme of exhibitions.

Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, founded in New Delhi in 2010 by Kiran Nadar, is a private museum on modern and contemporary art in India, dedicated to bringing visibility, accessibility and integrity to the diverse and simultaneous artistic practices prevalent in the South Asian region.

It has over the years built an extraordinary collection that spans across the last hundred years.

From the rare and distinguished paintings of MFHusain, FN Souza, SH Raza, Arpita Singh, Bhupen Khakhar, abstractions of VS Gaitonde and Nasreen Mohamedi to multimedia installations by Nalini Malani, Vivan Sundaram, Ranbir Kaleka, Sheba Chhacchhi, to sculptural objects of Subodh Gupta, Bharti Kher, Sudarshan Shetty, Ravinder Reddy, KNMA has equally welcomed the best works in photography, video and animation and kinetic objects into its collection.

The Indo-Russian Cultural Foundation was established in 2013 in London by Alex Popov, who was instrumental in bringing the “India – Jewels that Enchanted the World” exhibition to Moscow Kremlin in 2014 and since then is active in different art and cultural projects in India, Russia and other countries, promoting knowledge and cooperation between the two countries.