The Jehangir Art Gallery is an art gallery situated in the Kala Ghoda area of South Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. Inaugurated in 1952, it is among the most prominent venues for visual arts exhibitions in the country and has long served as a platform for both established and emerging Indian artists.
| Name | Jehangir Art Gallery |
|---|---|
| Type | Art gallery |
| Location | Kala Ghoda, Fort, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India |
| Founded | 1952 |
| Founder | Sir Cowasji Jehangir |
| Named after | Jehangir Cowasji Jehangir Readymoney |
| Country | India |
The gallery was founded by Sir Cowasji Jehangir at the suggestion of K. K. Hebbar and Homi Bhabha. It was named in memory of Sir Cowasji's son, Jehangir. The building stands close to the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (formerly the Prince of Wales Museum), in the heritage precinct of Kala Ghoda, which has historically been a cultural and arts hub of Mumbai.
Established in 1952, the Jehangir Art Gallery quickly became one of the central venues for modern Indian art. Through the second half of the twentieth century it hosted exhibitions by artists who later became central figures in Indian modernism, including members of the Progressive Artists' Group such as M. F. Husain, F. N. Souza and S. H. Raza, as well as artists like K. K. Hebbar, V. S. Gaitonde and Anjolie Ela Menon.
For many years, the gallery operated on a system of advance booking by artists, with exhibition slots typically scheduled long in advance owing to high demand. This made obtaining a show at the Jehangir an important early career milestone for many Indian painters and sculptors.
The gallery comprises multiple exhibition halls used for solo and group shows that change on a weekly basis. The premises have historically also housed:
The pavement outside the gallery is also used informally by artists to display and sell their work, contributing to the street-level art culture of Kala Ghoda.
The Jehangir Art Gallery is regarded as a landmark institution in the development of post-Independence Indian art. Together with the National Gallery of Modern Art branch in Mumbai and other neighbouring institutions, it forms part of the city's principal cluster of art venues. Its annual calendar of exhibitions has documented changing trends in Indian painting, sculpture, photography and printmaking over more than seven decades.