The advisory committees of the National Gallery of Modern Art are not dissolved, says the Center after the dispute of Amol Palekar

The Ministry of Culture said Sunday that the advisory committees of the National Gallery of Modern Art Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru had not been dissolved and were being reconstituted.

The clarification comes after the controversy involving Amol Palekar, actor-filmmaker, who was interrupted several times while speaking at an event organized by the NGMA of Mumbai, when he criticized the department for removing the advisory committees. Palekar was forced to shorten his speech at the event organized to inaugurate an exhibition of the works of the artist Prabhakar Barwe.

The exhibition Barwe, said Palekar, "will be the last exhibition decided by the advisory committee composed of local artists and not by a bureaucrat or a government agent whose objective is either the moral control or the proliferation of certain arts. with an ideological inclination. On November 13, 2018, the Artist Advisory Committees of the two regional centers in Mumbai and Bangalore were removed. "

In a statement, the ministry said on Sunday that the terms of the Mumbai and Bengaluru committees had expired on November 15 and that of the Delhi committee on January 17. He added that the recommendations of the advisory committees The new advisory committee will make a decision about future exhibitions, he said.

Palekar criticized the ministry's decision to reduce Mumbai Gallery area for external exhibitions According to a decision made by the NGMA General Manager last November, only one-sixth of the total area of ​​the gallery, or the dome area, will now be available for external exposures, reported Mumbai Mirror .

With regard to permanent collections, the Department stated that The gallery had offered to present its own collections initially over a period of two years. "Some artists expressed fears about the availability of less space for temporary exhibitions and retrospectives," he said. "The GNAM is deliberating on the suggestions received from artists and a final decision will be taken shortly in consultation with all stakeholders."