MUMBAI: Choosing an art gallery’s location can be critical to its success. Unlike many industries, for galleries there is an implicit imperative to cluster together. In Mumbai, the gallery scene first centred itself around Kala Ghoda. In the immediate aftermath of Indian Independence, the Artists’ Centre and Chetana were home to exhibitions by a number of artists associated with the famed Progressive Artists’ Group. By the 1950s, these spaces were supplemented by the Jehangir Art Gallery and the Taj Hotel’s in-house gallery.
It was during the 1960s that the first commercial art galleries begun to flourish. By the time Chatterjee & Lal began to exhibit in the early 2000s, the art scene had moved out of Kala Ghoda and gravitated towards Colaba, and it made sense for us to set up a gallery in that area. As it happened, we were the first gallery to enter the warehouse buildings close to Radio Club, which ended up as a critical node for the arts ecosystem during the 2010s.
The 19th century warehouses of Colaba located close to Radio club – which had originally been built to store cotton and coal – are blessed with large open plan spaces, perfect, a century later, to display art. After mounting sundry exhibitions in our Colaba gallery since launching the space in 2007, it has required much consideration to move our gallery to Horniman Circle. Arthur Bunder Road has been such a great base for us, and its proximity to the water’s edge provided a welcome sense of expanse in the densely populated city.
We are grateful that our new home in Horniman Circle’s prestigious crescent also provides for respite and calm in the form of its well-maintained garden. There is also a historic continuity with cotton between Colaba and Horniman Circle. Before the buildings of Elphinstone Circle – as they were originally known – were completed in 1872, it was known as Bombay Green, where traders dealt in raw cotton, opium, and other commodities. The boom in exports of cotton from India just prior to this (as a result of the American civil war in 1861 – 1865), which had reduced the amount of cotton exported out of the US led to great wealth being built by traders who then funnelled it into the grand buildings we see today.
The micro-histories of the city are of endless interest to us and inform many of our research-based exhibitions. This new chapter in the gallery’s journey comes at a moment when a lot of the art scene has moved to the area around Fort and Ballard Estate. The new gallery offers two discreet display spaces, offering flexibility in exhibition models. It is also positioned between districts of Fort and Ballard Estate, close to many other contemporary art galleries.
The very first exhibition ever mounted by Chatterjee & Lal was in 2004 at Ruia House, Mumbai. It was made possible by the network we had built up whilst we were both working for an auction house in India, and the exhibition was called ‘Amrita Sher-Gil: Icon’, and it included material from the descendants of Victor Egan, Sher-Gil’s Hungarian husband. It seems entirely appropriate to open the new gallery in 2025 with another Sher-Gil exhibition, again one which considers the wider context of the artist’s Indo-Hungarian roots. ‘Master and Disciple: A Hungarian-Indian Family of Artists’ is curated by Judit Bagi, Ferenc Hopp Museum of Asian Arts, Budapest and is mounted in collaboration with the Liszt Institute Hungarian Cultural Centre Delhi.
Curator Judit Bagi explains: “In this exhibition, Amrita’s brilliant, innovative individuality comes to life with the help of a unique photographic material. In our exhibition, we present Amrita Sher-Gil’s busy career through photographs from the legacy of Ervin Baktay of the Ferenc Hopp Museum of Asian Art in Hungary, mostly taken by Umrao Sher-Gil (Indian aristocrat, Scholar and photographer, and Amrita’s father). The main family threads of inspiration for Amrita Sher-Gil’s soul-painting, such as her father’s photography and her uncle’s wide-ranging, science-popularizing expressions, will also be scrutinized.”
The exhibition has been ideated by Dr Mariann Erdo, director, Liszt Institute Delhi, who says, “the Liszt Institute Hungarian Cultural Delhi started the AMRITA 110 project two years ago with the aim to let the Indian public know more about Amrita Sher-Gil’s Hungarian roots.”
As gallerists, the chance to exhibit these rare photographs is a wonderful opportunity to re-connect with Sher-Gil, who is without question one of the most extraordinary figures in 20th century art. Her legacy of a global artistic vision articulated through a strong individual artistic language is as relevant today as it was during the late 1930s when she burst onto the art scene. Our exhibition provides insights into the individual behind the paintings and to the intellectual and cultural milieu into which she was born.
Over the next year, our programming will continue to highlight research-based exhibitions in addition to solo and group presentations by gallery artists and represented estates. We can’t wait to share these with the city we so adore!
(The exhibition will be on view from December 23, 2025, to January 3, 2026. Mortimer Chatterjee and Tara Lal are co-founders of Chatterjee and Lal art gallery.)