KNMA to exhibit collection of modern, contemporary works at Christie's London

In a major institutional collaboration, the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) will take its collection of works across modern and contemporary practices to Christie's London as part of the auction house's summer exhibition series.

''The Meeting Ground: Scenes from the KNMA Collection'' will take place at Christie's King Street in London from July 16 to August 21, bringing South Asian artistic histories to wider audiences and ''creating new contexts for engagement with the collection''.

It will also be the first time for Christie's London to dedicate its summer exhibition to South Asia and to a single institution.

Presented in collaboration with Christie's, ''The Meeting Ground'' is curated by Akansha Rastogi with Preeti Bahadur, Avijna Bhattacharya, Premjish Achari and Srinivas Aditya Mopidevi.

The exhibition will aim to offer a glimpse into the museum's collection across modern and contemporary practices alongside folk and indigenous artistic expressions from South Asia.

''Presented during a pivotal moment of institutional expansion, 'The Meeting Ground' reflects both the depth of the collection and the evolving role of KNMA as a multidisciplinary cultural institution speaking with the world from South Asia. International engagement is a pillar of our vision, opening up new frameworks for dialogue and scholarship,'' Kiran Nadar, chairperson KNMA, said in a statement.

The exhibition will bring together works by leading modern and contemporary artists alongside emerging voices across painting, sculpture, installation, photography and video.

Conceived across five sections, ''The Meeting Ground'' explores ''artistic exchange across regions and generations, memory and labour, migration and borders, and the presence and absence of the body''.

''The region of South Asia is connected through a shared visual history and deep cultural resonances, and the exhibition presents these rich and complex conversations through an intergenerational mix of artists. The exhibition represents how we think about the museum and the possibilities within the collection, while also offering a slice of the museum's 15 years of exhibition history, which has evolved under the artistic direction of Roobina Karode,'' Akansha Rastogi, lead curator of the exhibition, and associate director, Visual Arts, KNMA, said.

''The Meeting Ground'' will begin as dialogue and contestations between modernists including M F Husain, S H Raza, Jeram Patel, K C S Paniker, K G Subramanyan and K Ramanujam and different centres of artistic creation in India from the 1950s to today.

This historical focus from the early twentieth century expands into a scene offering performative metaphors, where artists such as Neha Choksi, L N Tallur, and Simryn Gill reflect on how individuals and institutions hold forms of listening and mark-making to keep memories agile.

''As a leading museum in India, KNMA has been instrumental in advancing the global exposure and education of South Asian art. This exhibition marks the first time Christie's London has dedicated its summer exhibition to South Asia, as well as to a single institution. I look forward to welcoming audiences to Christie's this summer to experience the extraordinary breadth and vitality of practices that cut across disciplines and media firsthand,'' Damian Vesey, international specialist, South Asian Modern and Contemporary Art, Christie's, said.

The third strand of the exhibition will foreground protagonists like Zainul Abedin, Anwar Jalal Shemza, Zarina Hashmi, F N Souza, Bani Abidi and others ''who inhabit multiple homelands and shared worlds, often refusing to belong to places defined by the severity of modern maps.

Interwoven with these movements are masters of indigenous traditions, such as Jangarh Singh Shyam, Jivya Soma Mashe, and the collaboration between Gauri Gill and Rajesh Vangad.

With these embedded narratives of desire, belonging, and loss, the exhibition will invite viewers to rethink the 'institutional' and opens up new possibilities for how a collection may be experienced.

This will be the fourth annual non-selling summer exhibition at Christie's King Street, preceded by ''Modern and Contemporary Art of the Arab World'' in 2023, ''Ahmed Mater: Chronicles'' in 2024, and ''Marwan: A Soul in Exile'' in 2025.

KNMA and Christie's Education will be hosting a three-day, in-person course from July 28-30 aligned with the opening of the exhibition. Through lectures, excursions, and exhibition visits, the course will offer an introduction to South Asian art and the ideas explored in the exhibition.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)