The MET Breuer is a building designed by Marcel Breuer, located on Madison Avenue and 75th street. It is a space that would expand on The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s modern and contemporary art program. This would include a new series of exhibitions, performances, artist commissions, residencies, and educational initiatives. It opens to the public on March 18, 2016.
Its inaugural show will be a retrospective of artworks by Nasreen Mohamedi. This would be the first-ever retrospective of her work in the United States. The retrospective spans her entire career, from the early works in the 1960s to the works on paper in the 1980s.
“We are proud to present Nasreen Mohamedi in our first wave of exhibitions at The Met Breuer,” said Thomas P. Campbell, Director and CEO of The Met. “Mohamedi’s work calls on us to expand our understanding of graphic minimalism in a transnational context. It is a project that speaks to our interest in introducing a broad range of audiences to the innovative work created by artists across borders.” This exhibition is showcasing more than 130 of Mohamedi’s paintings, drawings, and photographs, as well as rarely seen diaries, from collections around the world. The exhibition has been supported and sponsored by Nita and Mukesh Ambani and the Reliance Foundation. It has been organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía with the collaboration of the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art.
The Estate of Nasreen Mohamedi is represented by the Talwar Gallery, based in New York & New Delhi, they have loaned works for this exhibition. We had an opportunity to chat with Mr. Deepak Talwar, the founder of the gallery. Here is what he had to say:
JS: It is fantastic that The MET Breuer has chosen to showcase Nasreen Mohamedi’s works for their inaugural exhibition. In fact, it is the first retrospective of her works in the United States. She is considered one of the key modernists however, would you agree that she was not very well known during her time? Why do you think that is?
DT: Yes, it is fabulous not just for Nasreen but for India and all artists from India that one of the greatest museums on this planet selected her exhibition as their inaugural exhibition. Nasreen was not very well known during her time but the content, the greatness, the magic was always there in her work. Most people tend to look at what is comfortable, old, known and recognizable and follow what the majority are doing while Nasreen was doing was way beyond and above all this… There was a magical force in her work forty years ago when it was created and it is there now, one just needs to see and have the courage to act on it, as a collector, as a gallerist and as a curator.
JS: Please tell our readers about the works your New York gallery has loaned for this exhibition.
DT: Our gallery has been presenting, exhibiting and placing Nasreen’s works in Museum exhibitions and collections for the past decade and a half. We have assisted in loans of works from every period and medium from the late 1950s to late 1980s.
JS: Which is your favourite work in the exhibition?
DT: The one with the lines…
-Jyotsna Sharma