Rashtrapati Bhavan's art heritage to be made public

NEW DELHI: Rashtrapati Bhavan will introduce a slew of new initiatives including an electronic art catalogue that will make rare art accessible to people in a newly constructed ceremonial hall.

The hall — to be inaugurated on Friday — can house about 1,400 people and will form part of an integrated Rashtrapati Bhavan Cultural Center with an art gallery, multi-purpose halls and auditorium. Built as an extension of the existing auditorium, the hall has been built keeping in mind large public functions that the President hosts including the August 15 'at home' receptions and 'guards of honour' for visiting foreign dignitaries during inclement weather.

In keeping with its promise of making the Rashtrapati Bhavan more accessible to people, President Pranab Mukherjee will inaugurate an e-art catalogue on Thursday.

The catalogue includes over 113 high quality photographs of paintings from celebrated artists like Jogen Chowdhury, Jamini Roy and MF Hussain, Lutyens sketches, portraits of former Presidents and national leaders, Chinese painting acquired by the British and select art objects from the Rashtrapati Bhavan collection.

"Very few people in India and abroad are aware of the rich repository of art available within Rashtrapati Bhavan. Visitors to the Rashtrapati Bhavan are able to see only a limited part of the entire collection. The catalogue is expected to be user friendly and designed to look like a photo album with description of the item and background of the artist. It has been researched and compiled by press secretary to the President Venu Rajamony with the NGMA research curator Ruchi Kumar," a statement from the President's office said.