DIGITAL COPY ON MAGZTERThe Historian
A
three-day India Art Fair has
been an annual event since
2008, within the space of a
city, which has a history that wraps
together the ancient, the medieval,
the colonial, the nationalist, the
modern, the urban and the rural.
Just as these varied historical
identities are juxtaposed, the city of
Delhi has a part named New Delhi,
which is also the national capital
of the Indian Republic. In modern
memory, Delhi is where the Red
Fort is, the Lal Qila, a medieval fort
city, built within the city of
Shahjahanabad, today referred to
as Purani Dilli. This city sits on the
bank of river Jamuna and it show-
cases the medieval, architectural,
political and cultural vision of
Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan. Of
course, there are other markers of
history in Delhi. There is the Jain
Temple right in front of Red
Fort’s Lahore Gate, very close
indeed to the raised platform from
where the Prime Minister, on
Independence Day, addresses the
nation. There is Tughlaqabad, FerozNUZHaT KaZMI, PRofessoR aND HoD of THe DePaRTMeNT of aRT HisToRY aND
aRT aPPReciaTioN, jaMia Millia islaMia, New DelHi, locaTes THe soUl of THe
faiR wiTHiN THe HisToRical caPiTal ciTY of DelHiShah Kotla, Purana Qila, Qutb
Minar, Hauz Khas, Pragati Maidan
for world trade and other activities,
the Qudsia Garden and the
Salimgarh Fort. Here is the New
Delhi and Nizammudin Railway
stations on one side and, Brtish
Town Hall and of course the
Lutyens' Delhi on the other. In
this city is also housed the National
Museum, National Gallery of
Modern Art, and the Craft
Museum. Delhi is also where all
classes of people, every day, pay a
visit to Dilli Haat, under whose ae-
gis exist the exotic and the delicate.
Here ‘Indian Art’ too is sold along
with ‘Indian Craft’, and here the
market attracts, both the domestic
and the international.
And then, within all of this, with
certain predictability, IAF happens.
A wintry warming up takes place,
not just amongst the initiated but
even amongst those looking from
the outside. It becomes a three-day
major diversion in the city, where
art is displayed, discussed, assessed,
evaluated, critiqued and when it
also decidedly seems that the gap
between the artist and his audience,
somehow, dissolves. The presence of
the Art Gallery is omnipresent,
dealing in art is of prime concern
and connecting the city of Delhi
with the international larger art
industry takes a step forward.
India Art Fair does bring to Delhi a
carefully designed occasion, where
the international layout for an ex-
perience of art aligns itself with the
market, proceeding to
circumspect art as a well-gearedindustry that chooses well its
spokespersons, critics, writers and
promoters.
After IAF leaves the city, art
continues to be produced, taught,
promoted, circulated, written about
and discussed. Art continues to be
argued, structured, manufactured,
aligned, dislocated. Art is
contextualised and decontextualised,
from historical evidences in the city
of Delhi, in its contemporary
practices, in Delhi’s many
institutions, which are either state
owned, public or private.
After the third day, the IAF space is
like a metaphor that brings to mind
a historical Delhi that has been and,
many times, reinvented. IAF,
especially, to the people of Delhi,
in my perspective, has come to be
associated as an annual event. And
each year it reveals the larger inter-
national art scenario and its complex
dynamics, within which is placed
and tested the currency of Indian
modern and contemporary art.Photograph by Gireesh GV(^84) / ARTs ILLusTRATeD / feb 2016 - mAR 2016 /IAF - Delhi Connecting Art