With the addition of a new exhibit room opening this May, the Jehangir Art Gallery intends to bring down the waiting period from the current seven years to three years for artists who wish to exhibit at the prestigious location, said Adi Jehangir, chairperson of the Gallery’s managing committee to Parsiana on April 11, 2017. "We hope to eventually bring it down to two years,” he had told the Mid-Day (MD) of March 24. The cost of showing at the new exhibition area will be about Rs 4,000 per day. Applicants due for exhibitions in 2018 will be allotted this new space, according to Jehangir.
To be housed in the space previously occupied by Café Samovar, the much-loved eatery that downed its shutters in March 2015, (see "Sayonara Samovar,” Events and Personalities, Parsiana, April 21, 2015) the 90 ft long room with a width of 12 ft will add to the existing five galleries and auditorium available in the iconic Gallery, Jehangir informs us. He adds that the space will be suitable for display of paintings as well as sculptures and installations.
New exhibit room being prepared Photo: Farrokh Jijina
Refurbished by architect Jamshed Sethna, the space has "waterproof security glass for one wall which allows natural light to pour into the Gallery,” he told MD. A skylight strip used on the ceiling allows additional natural lighting. This is an "attempt to prevent the feeling of a dungeon… despite the need for more space, we decided to leave one wall glass- paneled,” Jehangir told MD.
A green "arboreal screen” is being planted along the length of the glass wall, on the grounds of the Prince of Wales Museum of Western India (now called Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya), when Parsiana visited the gallery-in-the making on April 22. LED lighting is proposed to be used for the first time at the Gallery, instead of incandescent lighting as at present, as it is more cost effective.
A fortnight-long inaugural exhibition in the first week of May featured works by artists who were "involved with the growth of the Gallery,” many of whom may be "Indian modernists,” according to Dilip De, trustee of the Gallery who was helming that exhibition and who was quoted in the MD report. The managing committee decided on the names and works of the artists for the inaugural show in the week of April 24, Gallery representative Arvind Chougule informed Parsiana. Regular exhibitions will be hosted after the monsoons, he said.