I travelled to India to meet my mom. Her company sent her to Bangalore to train her team of programmers. She worked most of the trip. Luckily, the company provided a driver.
Our driver's name was Shadakshari. He was not from Bangalore and he informed me he had a small room with a bed he would stay in. His family lived in a village 50km outside of the city. He would stay in Bangalore to work as driver for several days then go back to his family. He was not married but lived with his mother and father. He had several brothers and sisters who were married with children. (We decided to give him the day off on the Sunday so that he may travel back to his family for a visit to celebrate Ugadi).
After dropping my mom at the office our driver took me to The National Gallery of Modern Art in Bangalore. I asked him to join me in observation as he had never been and I wanted to share the experience. My driver told me later that it is not always safe for girls to be alone.
The NGMA charges 150 rupee for foreigners and 10 rupee for Indian Nationals.
It is an old white mansion and from what I understand it was once royal then purchased. Then in was donated to the government. It is now known as a government building.
The architecture is very cool. It reminds me of an Indian Getty. The front just looks like a large white brick box. As with every government building you walk through security with metal detectors and a bag check. The first building is a long corridor. Your are instructed to view the room on the right first. There are several guards watching you as well as a video surveillance system. The large plaques on the wall were written in English. They description on the room was well written and looked as if belonged in any national art gallery. However, the description described nothing in the room. The first room was meant to be mini paintings commissioned by the East India Tea Company. The mini paintings were commissioned to show England the lush terrain of India and the animals etc. Instead the room contained several portraits of past Indian Royals, Indian and English soldiers, posh Englishmen, and paintings the Hindu religion such as Krishna represented blue. There was not one mini painting or even a regular size painting of landscape. I found the descriptions and the rooms to be unorganized. I found the mini paintings in the second building in a hallway. The artwork gathered depicting Indian history was good and interesting, of course. I just wish some thought and care would be taken to the organization. There were literally over twenty-five guards standing around. The scultpures were very very good.
I did get a small understanding of western influence in art as well as Japanese influence. The style in the 1800s was reminiscent of ancient Persian style painting.
Some artists strived to learn and master the Italian and French style of realistic painting as well as abstract painting as well. However, a turn of events caused the art world to look internally and forge a purely Indian style of painting only showing small influences from both Western and Eastern styles.
Unfortunately as I was taking these photos from the car a guard came up and said that no pictures were allowed.
Our driver's name was Shadakshari. He was not from Bangalore and he informed me he had a small room with a bed he would stay in. His family lived in a village 50km outside of the city. He would stay in Bangalore to work as driver for several days then go back to his family. He was not married but lived with his mother and father. He had several brothers and sisters who were married with children. (We decided to give him the day off on the Sunday so that he may travel back to his family for a visit to celebrate Ugadi).
After dropping my mom at the office our driver took me to The National Gallery of Modern Art in Bangalore. I asked him to join me in observation as he had never been and I wanted to share the experience. My driver told me later that it is not always safe for girls to be alone.
The NGMA charges 150 rupee for foreigners and 10 rupee for Indian Nationals.
It is an old white mansion and from what I understand it was once royal then purchased. Then in was donated to the government. It is now known as a government building.
The architecture is very cool. It reminds me of an Indian Getty. The front just looks like a large white brick box. As with every government building you walk through security with metal detectors and a bag check. The first building is a long corridor. Your are instructed to view the room on the right first. There are several guards watching you as well as a video surveillance system. The large plaques on the wall were written in English. They description on the room was well written and looked as if belonged in any national art gallery. However, the description described nothing in the room. The first room was meant to be mini paintings commissioned by the East India Tea Company. The mini paintings were commissioned to show England the lush terrain of India and the animals etc. Instead the room contained several portraits of past Indian Royals, Indian and English soldiers, posh Englishmen, and paintings the Hindu religion such as Krishna represented blue. There was not one mini painting or even a regular size painting of landscape. I found the descriptions and the rooms to be unorganized. I found the mini paintings in the second building in a hallway. The artwork gathered depicting Indian history was good and interesting, of course. I just wish some thought and care would be taken to the organization. There were literally over twenty-five guards standing around. The scultpures were very very good.
I did get a small understanding of western influence in art as well as Japanese influence. The style in the 1800s was reminiscent of ancient Persian style painting.
Some artists strived to learn and master the Italian and French style of realistic painting as well as abstract painting as well. However, a turn of events caused the art world to look internally and forge a purely Indian style of painting only showing small influences from both Western and Eastern styles.
Unfortunately as I was taking these photos from the car a guard came up and said that no pictures were allowed.
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