Eckart Muthesius and Manik Bagh – Pioneering Modernism in India

15 October 2024 - 8 December 2024

KNMA, Saket, Delhi

“Eckart Muthesius and Manik Bagh - Pioneering Modernism in India” shows a selection of rare vintage photographs together with drawings and watercolours by Muthesius, immortalizing Manik Bagh as a “fairy tale palace” of Modernism.

This exhibition tells the fascinating story of an early dialogue between India and Germany in the field of design and architecture based on the fruitful friendship between two sophisticated and like-minded young men. Moreover, the exhibition also sheds light on the little-known topic of Indian patronage of Western art, design, and architecture during the height of the global economic crisis around 1930.

It was the friendship between Maharaja Yeshwant Rao Holkar II (1908-1961) of Indore and his wife, Maharani Sanyogita, (1914-1937) with the Berlin architect Eckart Muthesius (1904-1989) that resulted in India's earliest icon of modernity: the palace of Manik Bagh. The building gained worldwide recognition soon after its completion in 1933. Muthesius not only designed the palace and its surroundings but also most of the highly innovative interiors. Numerous masterpieces of contemporary art and design complemented the purist style of Muthesius, who was later appointed “Chief Master Builder” of the princely state of Indore.

The detailed and artistically appealing designs from Manik Bagh ('gem garden') reflect the uncompromising affinity of the architect and his client for the ideals of Modernism

Other Exhibitions

MUSEE DES ARTS ASIATIQUES, NICE, FRANCE

19 September 2016 - 15 February 2017

CONSTRUCTS| CONSTRUCTIONS

23 April 2015 - 29 November 2015

WORKING SPACES : around memory and perception

28 January 2015 - 17 February 2015

Drawings, Prints and Watercolors (1970s-1990s)

25 January 2015 - 30 October 2015

visions of interiority: interrogating the male body - A RETROSPECTIVE (1963-2013)

14 October 2014 - 1 March 2015

You can’t Keep Acid in a Paper Bag - A RETROSPECTIVE (1969 - 2014) in three chapters

26 September 2014 - 21 December 2014

Oneiric House/ round about midnight

1 February 2014 - 9 March 2014

IS IT WHAT YOU THINK? - Ruminations on Time, Memory and Site

30 January 2014 - 27 September 2014

An Unfinished Portrait - Vignettes from the KNMA collection

23 January 2014 - 30 November 2014

SEVEN CONTEMPORARIES - Part of Difficult Loves

31 January 2013 - 8 December 2013

The self in making Part of Difficult Loves

31 January 2013 - 8 December 2013

A view to infinity - A Retrospective (1937-1990) Part of Difficult Loves

31 January 2013 - 8 December 2013

ZONES OF CONTACT - Propositions on the Museum

18 January 2013 - 30 November 2013

of bodies, armour and cages

27 October 2012 - 8 December 2012

CYNICAL LOVE - Life in the everyday

27 January 2012 - 20 January 2013

CROSSINGS - Time Unfolded II

23 January 2012 - 19 December 2012

TIME UNFOLDED

1 January 2011 - 31 December 2011

OPEN DOORS

1 January 2010 - 31 October 2010

Enactments and each passing day

9 September 2016 - 8 February 2017

the dark loam: between memory and membrane - A RETROSPECTIVE (1930-2016)

24 August 2016 - 20 December 2016

Anatomy Lessons Artist. Pedagogue. Poet. Scholar

16 July 2016 - 20 December 2016

Exhibition on view at MET Breuer, New York

18 March 2016 - 5 June 2016

hammer on the square - A RETROSPECTIVE (1957-2015)

28 January 2016 - 20 July 2016

Conversation Chambers| Museum Bhavan

18 December 2015 - 1 May 2016

POND NEAR THE FIELD - Five Artists from Kerala

15 November 2015 - 31 July 2016

Pond near the Field Five Artists from Kerala

12 December 2016 - 30 April 2017

STRETCHED TERRAINS - A String of Exhibitions

3 February 2017 - 31 July 2017

HANGAR FOR THE PASSERBY

19 April 2017 - 28 February 2018

EARTH as HAVEN: Under The Canopy of Love

15 October 2017 - 15 January 2018

The euphoria of being Himmat Shah A continuing journey across six decades

30 October 2017 - 15 December 2017

Amruta Kalasha Thanjavur and other South Indian Paintings

14 November 2017 - 15 December 2017

VIVAN SUNDARAM, A RETROSPECTIVE: FIFTY YEARS STEP INSIDE AND YOU ARE NO LONGER A STRANGER

9 February 2018 - 20 July 2018

NEW CONFIGURATIONS vignettes from the collection in recent years

27 April 2018 - 20 December 2018

DELIRIUM EQUILIBRIUM

19 August 2018 - 15 November 2018

Envisioning Asia, Gandhi and Mao in the photographs of Walter Bosshard

1 October 2018 - 31 October 2018

bauhaus imaginista: Moving Away

4 December 2018 - 18 December 2018

Jangarh Singh Shyam: A Conjuror’s Archive

4 December 2018 - 11 January 2019

WHAT PLACE IS KITCHEN? WHAT PLACE COMMUNITY

27 December 2018 - 12 January 2019

ARPITA SINGH | Six Decades of Painting

30 January 2019 - 14 July 2019

over the edge, crossing the line - five artists from Bengal

22 January 2019 - 24 July 2019

AMAR KANWAR, SUCH A MORNING

31 January 2019 - 10 February 2019

Bihar Museum and Kiran Nadar Museum of Art

2 April 2019 - 2 June 2019

Our Time for a Future Caring

11 May 2019 - 24 November 2019

COMMON COURSE

13 August 2019 - 3 November 2019

over the edge, crossing the line - five artists from Bengal

13 August 2019 - 30 November 2019

SIGHTINGS: out of the wild

17 September 2019 - 5 January 2020

SMELL ASSEMBLY

7 September 2019 - 3 November 2019

Structuring Form The Innovative Rigour of Mahendra Raj

19 November 2019 - 8 January 2020

Kiran Nadar Museum of Art presents इस घट अंतर बाग-बगीचे | Haku Shah 1934-2019 Within this earthen vessel are bowers and groves

10 December 2019 - 8 January 2020

The Soul (Un)Gendered: Anupam Sud, A Retrospective

12 December 2019 - 7 March 2020

Narrating from the museum archives and collection

25 January 2020 - 31 October 2021

Right to laziness... no, strike that! Sidewalking with the man saying sorry

30 January 2020 - 10 April 2021

Abstracting Nature – Mrinalini Mukherjee and Jayashree Chakravarty

30 January 2020 - 10 April 2021

Line, beats and shadows – Ayesha Sultana, Prabhavathi Meppayil, Lala Rukh and Sumakshi Singh

30 January 2020 - 10 April 2021

Zarina – A Life in Nine Lines

30 January 2020 - 10 April 2021

Delhi Modern: The Architecture of Independent India seen through the eyes of Madan Mahatta

13 February 2020 - 28 February 2020

Unfoldings: The Route Map of Experience by Jayashree Chakravarty

11 March 2021 - 15 April 2021

Atul Dodiya: Walking with the waves

23 March 2022 - 13 August 2022

K Ramanujam: Into the Moonlight Parade

23 March 2022 - 13 August 2022

INNER LIFE OF THINGS: AROUND ANATOMIES AND ARMATURES

26 April 2022 - 28 December 2022

Somnath Hore | Birth of a White Rose

28 April 2022 - 30 September 2022

Convergence

28 April 2022 - 30 June 2022

Traversing Space: Here and Beyond

30 April 2022 - 30 June 2022

Between Vows and Words: Anupam Sud

24 August 2022 - 22 December 2022

Around The Table : Conversations about Milestones, Memories, Mappings

5 November 2022 - 22 December 2022

Jitish Kallat: Tangled Hierarchy 2

14 December 2022 - 10 April 2023

Jitish Kallat: Covering Letter

14 December 2022 - 10 April 2023

Sitaare Zameen Par

7 February 2023 - 20 August 2023

Pop South Asia

9 February 2023 - 30 April 2023

Very Small Feelings

4 July 2023 - 3 October 2023

Prussian Blue: A Serendipitous Colour that Altered the Trajectory of Art

19 September 2023 - 20 December 2023

MIRROR/ MAZE: Echoes of song, space, spectre, Works from the KNMA collection

26 October 2023 - 4 January 2024

MIRROR/ MAZE: Echoes of song, space, spectre

25 January 2024 - 11 July 2024

A Thousand Lives

1 February 2024 - 15 May 2024

Ganesh Haloi

1 March 2024 - 13 April 2024

The Rooted Nomad: MF Husain

18 April 2024 - 24 November 2024

Walking through a Songline

26 May 2024 - 10 July 2024

If We Knew the Point Amitava

27 July 2024 - 30 September 2024

Magic in the Square Mohan Samant

27 July 2024 - 30 September 2024

Putul Katha

16 August 2024 - 11 September 2024

PURVAEE

13 September 2024 - 20 February 2025

The Elemental You:

15 October 2024 - 9 January 2025

Eckart Muthesius and Manik Bagh – Pioneering Modernism in India

15 October 2024 - 8 December 2024

Exhibitions