Indian Museum Spotlights South Asian Arts and Culture

The Museum of Art & Photography (MAP), in Bengaluru, India, opens on February 18 with thousands of newly acquired Asian artifacts. Its collection includes 60,000 paintings, sculptures, textiles, and photographs from the Indian subcontinent, dating from the 10th century to the present.  

The museum is the brainchild of industrialist, philanthropist, and art collector Abhishek Poddar, who says,“South Asian cultures represent the cultures of nearly a quarter of the world’s population, and yet their stories have not been told.” 

The five-story MAP, which is in India’s Silicon Valley, incorporates art and multimedia galleries, an auditorium, a library, a technology center, a sculpture courtyard, a learning center, and a specialized research and conservation facility. You’ll also find a gift store, a café, a member's lounge, and a fine-dining terrace restaurant.

Says MAP director Kamini Sawhney, “More than half our population is under 25 years old. We wanted MAP to be accessible to everyone and to speak especially to a young generation whose visual experiences are so greatly influenced by the digital world.” 

The museum’s inaugural exhibitions include Representation of Women in Art from painting, sculpture, photography, textiles, and jewelry; and Time & Time Again, the first major photography retrospective of Indian artist Jyoti Bhatt, with 1,000 prints and 60,000 negatives. Also featured is Chirag-e-Al, a show of work by Karnataka-born artist L.N. Tallur that creates intersections between artificial intelligence and ritualistic belief systems, challenging audiences to question humanity's growing reliance on technology.