Rockefellers' India connect

Even though several artists had availed of the Rockefeller Fund, information about it appeared scant

Some finds are serendipitous and happen entirely by chance. While documenting the histories of several Indian modernists, a recurring “fellowship” or “grant” that kept finding mention was the Rockefeller Fund. What was this Fund and why was it important? Why did so many artists in the 1960s and ’70s get it, and what did it entail? Even though several artists had availed of it, information about it appeared scanty and few artists outside its privileged community knew about it. 

It was this sketchy premise that has developed into a full blown curatorial venture as I set about investigating its antecedents. The Fund has had an interesting history, initially starting off as Council for Economic and Cultural Affairs, a philanthropic enterprise begun by the Rockefeller brothers in 1963, during which time it invited Krishen Khanna to spend a year in New York, immersing himself in art, and S H Raza, then already teaching at Berkeley University, a $1,000 grant to travel and see art at America’s museums and other institutions. 

The catalyst for the foundation of the Council was John D Rockefeller III who had spent time in Asia and was vastly interested in Asian culture but found any engagement between America and Asia non-existent. Given the Rockefellers’ own interest in development issues, the Council was soon changed to the Agricultural Development Council.

John Davison Rockefeller III. The Rockefeller Archive Center

Concomitantly, the John D Rockefeller III Fund was set up to promote cultural relations between the two continents, the grant including all countries from Afghanistan to Japan and everything in between, and inclusive of disciplines such as art (of course) and art writing/history, but also architecture, music, dance, literature and theatre. Since then, the Fund has invited over 6,000 grantees to USA, offering accommodation, materials, travel assistance, per diems (for a period of up to a year, usually), and invitations to black-tie programmes and openings of major cultural events. 

Several hundred Indians availed of this largesse, of which 13 artists, in particular, stand out for their body of work: V S Gaitonde, Akbar Padamsee, Avinash Chandra, Natvar Bhavsar, Jyoti Bhatt, K G Subramanyan, Arun Bose, Paritosh Sen, Ram Kumar, Adi Davierwalla, Tyeb Mehta, K S Kulkarni and Bal Chhabda. Artists such as Ratan Parimoo won the grant too, but he is better known as an art writer/critic, joining those such as Richard Bartholomew and B N Goswamy on one hand, and the likes of L P Sihare (one of the most significant directors of the National Gallery of Modern Art) on the other. 

The grant petered off towards the middle of the ’70s amidst suggestions of cultural bodies being CIA agencies in disguise, a particular Asian fear in those decades, and with India’s relations with the US suffering in the wake of the liberation of Bangladesh, it would be some time before the fund was able to resume its cultural seguing again. By this time Rockefeller III had died in a car accident, and with his and his wife’s collection of Asian art donated to form the Asia Society in New York, the fund itself became the Asian Cultural Council. Since its formation, four Indian artists have been awarded the grant: Vinod Dave, Bhupen Khakhar, Rekha Rodwittiya, and most recently (but five years ago) Pradeep Mishra. 

The most striking aspect of the grant has been the dignity it has offered the artists (and other grantees). They have been invited as viewers and observers and not asked to either submit a report or give/donate works. On the other hand, appointments with museum directors are set up, so their works can be shown to them — a rare and gracious privilege, and which has contributed its little bit to Indian art being known to at least the cognoscenti in America.

Kishore Singh is a Delhi-based writer and art critic. These views are personal and do not reflect those of the organisation with which he is associated