PNN
New Delhi [India], February 8: To mark the 75th anniversary of India's Constitution, the Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Museum presents We the People at India Art Fair 2025. This exhibition explores the role of individuals in shaping Indian identity, through rare and significant works of art.
While the adoption of the Constitution in 1950 marked a definitive moment in India's democratic history, We the People challenges the conventional narrative that visibility and agency for common citizens emerged only with the Republic. The exhibition offers an alternative story using two remarkable sets of portraits created in Jaipur, and highlights the unexpected significance of a throne - a palace object whose role we think we know well.
In the late 1700s, the court artist Ramji Das produced a singular body of work: a series of watercolour portraits depicting palace servants, from guards and musicians to barbers and nursemaids. These are among the earliest known visual documents of ordinary people in Indian courtly art. Decades later, Maharaja Sawai Ram Singh II (r. 1835-80), a progressive ruler and pioneering photographer, turned his lens on a similar set of subjects -- his own attendants and courtiers -- capturing them in strikingly intimate and personal portraits.
Their works are placed in dialogue with contemporary portraits of similar ordinary working people by the Mysore-based artist Suchender P., bringing us into the present. We the People invite viewers to reflect on historical and contemporary notions of visibility, representation, and selfhood.
HH Maharaja Sawai Padmanabh Singh of Jaipur expressed, "It's very important to showcase the work we're doing in Jaipur and at the Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Museum, both to audiences in Jaipur and also to audiences in places that are not Jaipur. We want to do unconventional things, and so that's why we're here. We want to break those barriers. We're very happy to engage with a different audience."
Dr. Mrinalini Venkateswaran, Head of Collections at the MSMS II Museum Trust emphasized, "We wanted to put together an exhibition that brought together historic collections juxtaposed with contemporary art. We also wanted it to be topical for it to speak to as wide an audience as possible. What better opportunity than to have the 75th anniversary of the Constitution of India to be able to do that?"
The Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Museum invites you to visit Booth K06 at the India Art Fair 2025 from 6th-9th February at the NSIC Grounds, Okhla, New Delhi.
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