Metro cities can be sometimes devoid of life. Perhaps that is the reason why it moves so fast. Fortunately, almost every metropolitan neighbourhood of India boasts of a vibrant art scene, however small that might be. If you are in Bangalore, you must have inevitably checked out its numerous art galleries in the city. One of the art galleries, which remains largely popular with its residents and tourists is the Museum of Art and Photography, or MAP Bangalore Museum. The private art museum has become a pride of the city, not solely for its exquisite collection, but also for its architecture.
MAP Museum Bangalore
MAP Bangalore Museum is located at the heart of the city facilitated by easy metro connectivity. It was established in 2016 by industrialist Abhishek Poddar. At present, the museum features several artefacts in the form of textiles, paintings, sculptures, photography, and design objects, ranging from the 12th century to contemporary times.
But MAP Bangalore Museum isn’t only a physical experience. Anyone with a smartphone can partake in a digital interactive viewing; a feature since December 2020, when MAP launched a digital museum. The launch was accompanied by a week-long online festival, ‘Art (is) Life.’ The festival not only took the audiences through the museum building, but also included art, dance, and poetry performances. MAP organizes a digital exhibition each month, about art and its inclusion in other social criteria.
MAP Museum Bangalore Architecture
The MAP Bangalore Museum spans 44,000 square feet to includes five galleries, an auditorium, an art and research library, classrooms, a restoration lab, storage, a sculpture garden, a cafe, and a fine-dining restaurant. The plans for the museum were designed by Mathew and Ghosh Architects. The construction was supervised by an architectural committee composed of giants like Martand Singh, Mahrukh Tarapor, and Rahul Mehrotra.
The building’s facade, which is made up of steel panels embossed with a cross pattern and has the appearance of an industrial water tank, is intended to highlight the metaphorical relationship between the idea of storing something valuable. The building’s material, transparency, opacity, and straightforward yet distinctive design combine to ensure that MAP Bangalore Museum is an architectural icon.
MAP Museum Bangalore Collection
MAP Bangalore Museum houses over 60,000 articles in its collection, most of which narrate Indian history through Indian modernists and indigenous artisans. They are categorized into six departments – Living Traditions, Modern and Contemporary Art, Photography, Popular Culture, Pre-Modern Art and Textiles, Craft and Design.
Image Courtesy – The Spaces
