Bombay to Mumbai: Century-old art society changes name – Times of India

MUMBAI: Best portrait in oil or water colours by a native lady.” “Best portrait of animal life in oil or water colours.”
Back in 19th-century Bombay, when Maharajahs patronised the arts and “gate money collections” decided an event’s success, these unique categories marked an important annual awards ceremony whose print advertisements lured elite connoisseurs with the promise of “electric lighting” and English bands.
The All-India Annual Arts Exhibition, which began in 1889 to give amateur artists a platform, commands a mention in the early career biographies of legends from S L Haldankar to M F Husain. While the century-old exhibition changed its address this year by moving online in March, its non-profit host, Bombay Art Society, changed its century-old name to Mumbai Art Society recently. If the pandemic forced the former’s transition, the Society’s decision to rechristen itself in September stemmed from “long-standing pressures from social and art circles”.
Following CM Uddhav Thackeray’s reminder about this demand during a recent inauguration, the institution so far the only one other than the Bombay high court to retain the erstwhile name of the city chose to shed ‘Bombay’ from its moniker during its annual general meeting on September 29. “We don’t want to obliterate our past though,” says art writer Rajendra, newly-elected president of the institution. “We will continue to use the old name in brackets,” he adds.
Formed in 1888 by British art lovers at a time when India was bereft of galleries, the art space quickly gained favour among the city’s beau monde through its exhibition. Attended always by the Governor, the show was held near the start of every year at the Bombay Secretariat in Fort.
Later, the non-profit moved to the JJ School of Art, which had been founded in the Year of the Mutiny in 1857. Here, it was often mistaken for a government department without much need for public funding. After the exhibition shifted to Town Hall (Asiatic Society of India), “gate money collections” escalated steadily by a few hundred rupees every year.
With their renderings of mountain peaks, fruits, flowers, cherub-faced children, “domestics” and horse-soldiers, English women tended to take home the coveted gold medal in the initial few years, until artist M V Dhurandhar’s win in 1892 emboldened fellow students from JJ School of Art to participate. Soon, artist M F Pithawala pulled off a hat-trick by scoring three golds between 1907 and 1909. Later, when renowned artist Amrita Sher-Gill won the prize, she “was also considered an outsider”, according to a journal brought out during the Society’s centenary year in 1989.
“The show was the primary reason behind the foundation of Jehangir Art Gallery in 1952,” reveals Rajendra, citing that the institution’s permanent office at the Gallery came about when the Society’s first Indian president, the art-loving Sir Cowasee Jehangir, requested the government for land to build the gallery. While the Society’s clout waned in the ’70s, with the emergence of other art platforms, PM Narendra Modi inaugurated its art complex at Bandra Reclamation in 2016. Like Jehangir Art Gallery, this arts space was built on government land. Today, the Society, which runs solely on donations, is struggling to pay its annual property tax of Rs 11 lakh.
Covid has brought other problems. “Since art galleries were closed for most of the period since the pandemic began, emerging artists bore the brunt of it. Primary sale was affected in a big way,” says Rajendra, who is also the director of India Art Festival. He added that the Society donated Rs 10,000 to struggling artists who had requested financial help. Optimism sustains him though. Maharashtra governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari doubled the governor’s cash prize in their annual exhibition to Rs 50,000 last year, and again this year to Rs 1 lakh.
Besides, the Society not only has plans to convert its 500-strong art collection into a “circulating painting library” for corporates who want to decorate their foyers, but also to create a visual arts knowledge centre that will run crash courses for kids and adults alike in mediums ranging from films to animation. A hint of this future can be found in a new category that has made it into the Society’s ongoing online exhibition that marks India’s 75th year of Independence: Video installation.