A private museum in Delhi for sculptor Amar Nath Sehgal's rich legacy

In 1947, among the millions who made the perilous journey across the line that severed the country into two overnight was Amar Nath Sehgal, then 24. Displaced from Campbellpur (now Attock) in Pakistan, the family made its way to Shimla through the horrors of Partition — scenes that would remain stamped on young Sehgal’s mind for a lifetime. In later years, the anguish, helplessness and pain he witnessed would find expression in his works, many of which he created in his studio-cum-home in Delhi.

His home has now been turned into a private museum that has on display hundreds of his works — sculptures, drawings, paintings, woodcuts, tapestries, poems — as also photographs, letters and posters that piece together the artist’s life. The museum that opened on February 5, the artist’s 97th birth anniversary (he died in 2007), is the result of 10 years of painstaking work by his sons, Raman and Rajan. Besides celebrating their father’s legacy, they wanted the world to know that the man who is largely known as a modern Indian sculptor was an artist who cut across mediums.

Curator-archiver Shruthi Issac calls it the “289 box project” — that’s the number of boxes she is going through so that every aspect of Sehgal’s 60-year-long artistic journey is represented.

Anguished Cries

Enter the Amar Nath Sehgal Private Collection, as the museum is called, and to the right is a concrete sculpture — an oblong slab that has “Ishwar Allah Tero Naam” written in Hindi on one side and in Urdu on the other. Resting on a base of screaming faces, this sculpture is a visitor’s first encounter with Sehgal’s experience of Partition. Close by stands a statue named Shyness, the metal version of which is placed by the swimming pool at The Oberoi, New Delhi.

The Captive, a homage to Nelson Mandela and the political prisoners at Robin Islands

Not far from it, as though stretching to the skies, is a fibre glass sculpture titled Aiming for Excellence (the bronze version is at the Yamuna Sports Complex). But it’s the one on the outer wall near it that truly draws the eye. Called Anguish Cries, this is the third edition of this particular work. The second one, in bronze, is housed at the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi. The first was inaugurated in Berlin in 1971. The family doesn’t know where that piece is today. “We are in communication with the German embassy to locate it,” says Issac.

Locating the artist’s works, many of which were sold or given to public and private institutions, is a major part of the ongoing project. Among the ones the team is still looking for are Monument to Aviation, a sculpture once installed at the Delhi airport, and a bronze work that went missing from Qutab Hotel (now Edenpark Hotel). Sehgal, who studied industrial chemistry and physics before travelling to New York to study art, also worked with gold. “We are now looking for the collection in 18-carat gold that he created for a bank in Luxembourg where he lived for 24 years,” says Issac.

Amar Nath Sehgal creating a sculpture of Gandhi

In a way, the sons are carrying forward the work the artist started. Sehgal became a pioneer of intellectual property rights for artists in India after he fought and won a 13-year-long legal battle with the Indian government. This was after a bronze mural he had created for the Vigyan Bhavan in Delhi in the 1960s was removed without his consent during renovations.

Back in his museum, the ground floor has a photo archive gallery and a smattering of sculptures, including Monument to Love and Non-violence (1963), which was inaugurated by Coretta Scott King, Martin Luther King Jr’s wife. On the floor above, besides sculptures and paintings, are tapestries, one of them restored by an 85-year-old weaver who had originally created it with Sehgal. There is also a poster wall of his exhibitions — one of them at the Musée National d’Art Moderne in Paris in 1965. Sehgal, incidentally, was the first Indian artist to have a solo exhibition at a national museum in France.

The next floor is largely dedicated to his drawings, though there is also a sculpture wall and a shelf that displays his tools. Here, you see joyful colours creeping into his works — especially in those created at Luxembourg.

The Amar Nath Private Collection is located at J-23, Jangpura, New Delhi. Entry is free, but appointments are preferred. 

For details, visit amarnathsehgal.com