The Curator’s Note 

I came to Baroda in 1950 as a child and have lived here ever since. I have been a witness to its transformation from basically a university town and a “pensioner’s paradise,” as it used to be called, to a highly industrialized and dynamic city. I have seen many of its beautiful buildings being brought down and vast stretches of greenery disappear, replaced, sadly, by mostly hideous buildings. 

 Both as a sociologist and a painter, this transformation has fascinated me. I have also been interested in its history. Apart from being a prehistoric site, Baroda had also been a centre of international trade. Roman coins and artifacts found in and around Baroda bear witness to this fact. Besides, having been ruled by some dynamic rulers such as the Rashtrakutas,  Chalukyas, the Jain kings, the Muslims and ultimately, the Marathas has resulted in the creation of a complex, composite culture. The highly artistic Akota bronzes found here are well displayed in the Baroda Museum which has a rare collection of art from almost all over the world. Glass from Kapadvanj, a town in north Gujarat, was widely used and traded here in the 19^th century here. English architects were invited to Baroda. Italian marble masons were brought here specially for the beautification of the palaces and public buildings.  

The Gaekwad rulers, and notably Sir Sayajirao Gaekwad III, were great connoisseurs of art, music, dance and literature. It is natural, therefore, that all these flourished during their rule. Raja Ravi Varma was specially invited to Baroda by Sir Sayajirao. The latter, who was a great institution builder, had also established the Kalabhavan and the School of Music. In recent times, the Faculty of Fine Arts of the M.S. University of Baroda has given tremendous fillip to art. 

Hitesh Rana, the owner of Sarjan Art Gallery, and a product of the Fine Arts Faculty, shares my love for Baroda and the fascination for its history and culture.  Both of us are interested in knowing how an artist, old or young, living in this great city, views its past and present. Does he draw some artistic cues or inspiration from it? Witnessing the happenings in a city where one lives, or lived does it get drawn into one’s repository?   

Responses, reactions and reflections – all become important in the language of art as artists express themselves while viewers wait to view their works with utmost curiosity, as these mostly tell us all about our own city like never before. 

We requested a group of senior and younger artists, both living in Baroda as well as those who studied here and have left the city, to work on the theme Baroda of yore and the present day Baroda. We were happy to find that this idea evoked a very good response. Barring a few, who could not participate in this exhibition for various reasons, a large number of them have taken part.  Because of space constraints, we could not accommodate more than fifty artists in this show.  We hope to hold another show of a similar nature at a later date in which we will be able to include those who have been left out this time.  As some of the artists, especially the senior ones, did not want to be restrained by a given theme, in the interest of artistic freedom, they have been given a free hand. Since this is a group show only of the Baroda artists, we also decided to include works of those who, unfortunately, are no longer with us. So we also have here works of the late N.S. Bendre, Sankho Chaudhury, Nasreen Mohammadi and Bhupen Khakhar. 

As a response to our invitation we found that senior artists who have participated in this exhibition have come out with varied types of artistic expressions. Some have drawn inspirations from the idea of old and new Baroda and created works concentrating on this theme. 

As we have given them greater freedom to divert from the core theme, some artists have concentrated on the human aspect depicting portraits, dwelling on human relationships or creating works embedded in memories and nostalgia.