Museums and Art Galleries
in Chandigarh
Government Museum and Art Gallery
An important building designed by Le Corbusier, in the moving spirit behind
its eventual construction in 1968 was Dr. M.S. Randhawa, Chandigarh's first
Chief Commissioner, and himself an art scholar. Ratna Mathur Fabri, an outstanding
Indian designer made the museum furniture, display screens, showcases and frames.
The present museum (earlier housed in temporary quarters) opened on May 6,1968.In
1949 the collection of the Central Museum, Lahore, was divided between India
and Pakistan. India's share, the core collection of this museum, included 619
Gandhara sculptures and 92 ancient sculptures from other periods, as well as
447 miniature paintings (mainly from the Punjab Hills but with some Persian,
Mughal and Rajasthani works in addition). Besides there were small collection
of objects in stucco and terra cotta metal, ivory, lacquer, ceramic, enamel
and fabric.
Over the past 40 years more than 9,000 objects have been acquired, the total
number of works now exceeds 10,000. A guide to the museum, a catalogue of contemporary
art, a catalogue of Brahmanical sculptures and series of picture postcards are
on sale in the museum lobby. Art scholars may consult more than 6,000 books
and journals in the museum's reference library. All the manuscripts of Dr. M.S.
Randhawa are also preserved here. The museum's documentation section has an
extensive collection of photographs and slides. Documentation of the Gandhara
Collection has been computerised: computerised documentation of other collections
is underway.
Museum of the evolution of life
Open from 10.00 hrs to 16.40 hrs all days except Monday and official holidays.
Opened on August 14,1973. A large cyclorama gallery is the focus of the museum;
it depicts the origin of the earth and the evolution of life. Other galleries
introduce the viewer to astronomy, geology and the world of ancient man.
Child Art Gallery
Open from 10.00 hrs to 16.30hrs all days except Monday and official holidays.
This gallery exhibits works by young artists of the city. The museum frequently
organises art workshops for children.
National Gallery of Portraits
Open from 09.00 hrs to 17.00 hrs all days except Saturday & Sunday and official
holidays.
Opened on September 11,1977 with photographs and paintings of 125 prominent
figures of India's Independence movement. The exhibits are intended to chronicle
the struggle for freedom from 1857 to 1947. The gallery now contains 1066 photographs
plus facsimiles of original writings, sculptures, ceramic murals and glass-box
tableaux depicting turning points in the independence movement. The gallery's
library contains some 1300 books on the freedom struggle. One can also hear
the taped voices of many of India's patriots.
International dolls museum
Open from 10.00 hrs to 17.00 hrs all days except official holidays.
Set up on December 24, 1985 in Bal Bhawan, Sector 23, it contains more than
300 dolls from nearly every country in the world. Ten ceramic murals and a large
model train completes the display.
Punjab Kala Kendra
Open from 10.00 hrs to 17.00 hrs all days except Sunday and official holidays.
Set up in Sector-16, the Kendra is the office of the Punjab Arts Council (Punjab
Lalit Kala Akademi). Exhibitions are frequently organised in its large galleries
and the Punjab Lalit Kala Akademy's permanent collection of contemporary art
is also on display here.
The Rock Garden
Open from 10.00 hrs to 19.00 hrs all days except Thursday and official holidays.
This unique sculpture garden, the work of the city's internationally acclaimed
artist Nek Chand, spreads over 64 acres. The visitor is led through a maze of
paths, chambers and canyons, each presenting a glimpse of a fantasy world. The
Rock Garden has charmed millions of visitors since it was first opened to the
public in 1976 not only by the visual delights if offers, but its strange history.
Nek Chand was a road inspector of the city Public Works Department when he began
to transform a dump of discarded building materials. He kept the garden a closely
guarded secret.....Never suspecting that one day critics would praise his unique
works and he would exhibit them in Paris's Museum of Modern Art and in other
cities around the world. The first phase of the rock Garden is a small canyon...
part natural, albeit peculiar, rock forms, and part amalgam of broken ceramic
fixtures, pebbles and coal slag. It's the sort of place that might be inhabited
by trolls. The canyon opens into a series of "chambers" each one filled
with scores of human and animal forms in concrete and broken ceramic or glass.
Each one is different. The second phase recreates a mountain village on the
banks of a stream, its inhabitants --some humble, --some aristocratic --sensed
rather than seen.
