M.E.C. ART GALLERY

The M.E.C. art Gallery - A Contribution to Indian Art

The M.E.C. Gallery (founded 1991- Feb) is a name that could boost of familiarity with a large number of art-lovers, collectors, and of course the major, midding and the younger artists of the country. For it has, from its very inception, efforted to bring the aesthetically inclined people of the capital close to the contemporary Indian Art, be it exhibitions of painting, water-colours, sculpture or graphics in its Khan market premises, in New Delhi.

It is true that in the beginning, that is, in the year 1991 and 1992, the M.E.C. management tried to introduce more of the younger artists to its audience both painters as well as the watercolourists- and build up a line of gallery adherents on a long-term basis. The response in this regard was good both from the artists as well as the audience-art lovers and collectors- as the effort brought good art to the art-lovers and art collectors at very reasonable prices. Those who had their new houses built and were oriented to Indian art on the aesthetic plane, got a landscape, a figureative work or an abstract one to decorate their living or drawing rooms at a price they could not grudge (in fact they were rather happy to possess a good Indian work at a very discounted price).

This was of course the stage when the M.E.C. management went by the philosophy that the contemporary Indian art must go to as many homes as possible (in fact it wasn't our policy at that stage to confine art to art collectors alone). This approach paid good dividends as we were able to introduce quite a good number of artists from Delhi and outside (mainly from U.P. and West Bengal) to the capital's art-lovers. Indeed, this effort and this opening for the younger artists encouraged some of them to shift to the capital of India-Delhi and survive on their art-earnings here. The gallery also helped a few non-functioning artists to make a beginning as a professional artists after they had spent a life-time in some ad. agency or a publications' art department as illustrators or lay-out artists.

It was in the mid-nineties that the gallery shifted its focus (or rather enlarged it) to include the middle level artists whose price-tag could be afforded by the more discerning and more demanding of the capital's art collectors and connoisseurs. This was in a sense opening another widow of 'preservable art' besides the already functioning widow of 'affordable art'. This, needless to say, enlarge our list of clientele and also compelled us to stock more works from the two strains of artists, thus providing a large range of choice to our patrons who may at times lik to gift away works of art rather than collect them for themselves. At this stage of course our interest too widened. We started taking in more and more of oils besides the usual water-colours that still constitute our mainstay.

The M.E.C. gallery's rendezvous proved to be an uplifting experience. Indeed, the management found that besides the "affordable' art, there exists art that will make people go for its- both as a thing of aesthetic pleasure as well as a judicious investment- an investment that could bring higher returns in due course of time if the collectors wished to encash the works. This put the gallery on the road of search and discovery, that is, find out and pick up artists who who would make the 'collectors' grade. In this effort some of those artists who were already attached to the gallery and working in oil, could also make the grade and were automatically put on a higher pedastal (their earlier place was of course filled by new entrants in the field).

The process of elevating both art as well as the artists was of course greatly aided by the aminent personalities who inaugurated the gallery-shows during the formative years of the gallery. It may be recalled here that Gallery itself was inaugurated by the Late Gaini Zail Singh, the then President of India, in 1991 (Feb.). The show, contributed by Delhi Print-makers guild, is still a memorable even in the history of our Gallery.

The Gallery thereafter organised several group shows (in order to provide an opening to a larger number of artists at a time) and seasonal shows- Summer, Winter and Monsoon ones. Gradually, the Gallery acquired works of some of the leading artists of the Indian art world. M.F.Hussain, Manjeet Bawa, Paresh Maity, Jai Zharotia, Dhiraj Chaudhury, Satya Sevak mukherji, Lalu Prasad Shaw, Jogen Chaudhury, Anupam Singh, Jagdish Dey, Sur Dilip. This effort lifted the profile of gallery and encouraged us to expand into other dimensions of the contemporary Indian art too, that is, sculputure and graphics. Now both sculpture and graphics more than two thousand years of history while the latter is wounderful gift of modern science, which began its joureny as a tool for illustrating books and reached the door of abstract art- a discipline in itself, quite far from the tendency to be illustrative.

We were encouraged in this direction by the fact that the Gallery by now had acquired an image that could compel any sensitive management to diversity, to serve the art world in a wider sense. To provide every art genre under one roof. The other compelling reason of course was that more and more celebrities were getting associated with the Gallery. We had Dr. Karan Singh to inaugurate an art show. Ms Poonam Dhillon, a film world perosnality, Ms Padmini Kolhapure, Mr. Anil Kapoor, Mr. Boney Kapoor (all from the film world) patronising the Gallery. Things were indeed looking up and we had to rise to our audience's expectations. This was thus the time to acquire a new premises where the greater part of our art activities and stocking could be shifted to. And this we did in 1999 a branch of the M.E.C.Gallery was established at A-11, East of Kailash, New Delhi-110065.

This branch of the M.E.C. Gallery has been serving as the second window of the contemporary Indian art. Indeed we decided to pay special attention to the contemporary graphics and started acquiring complete editions of an artist's prints so that a collector both at home and abroad could get hold of the entire range of prints from an artists, leaving no missing links, which is what generally happens when a gallery or an artist sells them peace-meal. This emphasis on the special branches of art lead us to plan for separate galleries for water colours, oil-paintings, drawings and graphics (these plans are at various stages of realissation). Indeed, we decided to keep the Khan Market M.E.C. Gallery only as a display gallery rather than a stocking one as well.

But besides this spread, we have also thought in the direction of providing better services to the art-lovers and art-collectors. We are now running a free mailing service to those who choose to become our buyer-members (a membership drive is already on). We also offer varying rates of discount to our buyer-members ranging from 10% to 20% of the artist's price- which could encourage better art. We are also planning to bring out a news bulletin (later to be converted into a quaterly magazine) which will go free to all our members-patrons.

We also have a plan to organise quarterly or bi-monthly gatherings of our members- patrons at suitable venues wherein we would offer special art items of rare value acquired byus in due course. Currently of course we are engaged in compilling and disseminating related information about the artists attached to our gallery (this should facilities our patrons to acquire both older and contemporary works of these artists).

Another service which we have already begun is to provide authentication certificate to our buyer- patrons, at the time of the purchase of an art work so that they could use it at a later date if they want to part with their work- (we were all aware that the value of a good art work increases with the passage of time and an authentication certificate at that point of time could help market the work).

The Gallery has also plans to organise artists- camps and bring the practicing artists into a happy working environment, say a hill-station or a see-side resort- and for exchange of views and ideas.

The Gallery will also come out with quality publications on Indian art both contemporary and traditional. This will help the art-lovers and patrons to update their view of the contemporary art scene- works-wise and artist-wise; period-wise and style-wise.

There are also suggestions under consideration that an art house in order to help art-collectors who would like to dispose of their collections in an open market. Relevant data is being collected in this regard and our patrons will be informed about progress in this regard.

It may be of use to our patrons here to know that so far we have exhibited the works of some 170 artists in our Gallery and stock the works of most of them, including their latest ones, in all the branches of art, contemporary and flok, realistic and abstract.

We of course realise that Art is an expanding activity and the scene a changing one. And this underlines the need for continuous exchange of informaiton, views and ideas among all the arms of art scene-the art-gallery, the art patrons and the creative artist. We therefore hope to provide these links that would further the cause of contemporary Indian art and take it unprecedented heights.