Amar Mahal Museum and library

October 20th, 2019

When the director of Amar Mahal museum and library Jyotsana Singh extended me a proposal to do a solo at their contemporary art gallery, on the redesigning and opening of its Museum galleries. I immediately accepted the proposal since ,I had this in my mind to do a major solo at the same gallery for a long time. The Amar Mahal Palace was planned by a French architect, in 1862. However, it was not built until the 1890s. Maharani Tara Devi, wife of the late Maharaja Hari Singh (son of Raja Amar Singh) lived in this palace till her death in 1967. Subsequently, her son Karan Singh and his wife Yasho Rajya Lakshmi converted the palace into a museum to house rare books and works of art.

We finalized the dates and started working feverishly on all aspects of the show ,including printing and designing of Hard bound 50 pages catalog of the show, invitations and the farmings of all the art works. Mr.Shekhar a renowned and senior artists and a friend of mine helped me every inch in designing of the whole show and spent quite a time with me ,in the designing and execution of all the activities in detail. There were around seventeen works comprising of , egg temperas, dry brush, acrylics and drawings.

The venue and space could not have been better then this,Amar Mahal  situated on the right bank of the river Tawi with shivalik hill  ranges to the north of the Mahal, on the left bank of the river, provide a grand view, with the  river flowing in between, draining the valley. The show opened on the evening of a beautiful and pleasant day on 20th October, 2019.During the grand opening ceremony a hard bound catalog of the show was unveiled by Dr.Karan Singh, Jyotsana singh,Shri Vikramaditya singh his son Martand singh,Jyoti gupta and myself among the galaxy of Intellectuals, artists and prominent citizens of Jammu. A traditional lamp was lit by the respected dignitaries in the back drop of folk Karkan singers singing their melodies. Dr.Karan Singh went around the each exhibits along with other guests in a jam packed gallery and the opening party continued till late evening with high tea and exciting discussions and meeting with the artists, writers, musicians and the family members and intellectuals. The show concluded on 10th November,2019.

My heartfelt thanks goes to all those who came at the opening ceremony and made it a grand success since this show included ,some of the important works produced during the last three years of my career. I am extremely thankful to the Amar Mahal museum and library for hosting my one man show in their main contemporary art gallery. My special thanks go to Jyotsana Singh ji for extending this wonderful proposal and doing it so gracefully. I am also extremely grateful to the museum for acquiring one of the important work from among the exhibited works in the show titled ‘Winter light’ for the permanent collection of Museum. I am indeed honored to have my work included among the wonderful collection of Amar palace museum.

Suman

November 13th,2019