When guns fall silent, India trades art: From Moscow to Venice, India’s NGMA presents arts Journey @72

Missiles are flying over West Asia. Troops are dug into European soil. In Washington, a president openly muses about annexing neighbours. The world in 2025-26 is running dangerously short on the language of peace, and dangerously long on the grammar of force. India, characteristically, is trying something else.

A New Chapter on the World Stage

As global powers race to project hard power, New Delhi is quietly expanding its cultural footprint, using art, heritage, and civilisational memory as instruments of foreign engagement. The ambition is no longer confined to domestic walls. At the 72nd Foundation Day of the National Gallery of Modern Art, Director General Dr. Sanjeev Kishor Goutam confirmed that NGMA will carry India’s artistic identity to the world’s most prestigious contemporary art stage, the Venice Biennale, with the institution itself serving as Commissioner of the India Pavilion for the first time in years.

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The Case for Civilisational Gold

Dr. Goutam framed the larger argument in terms that cut through diplomatic abstraction. “India is known as a sone ki chidia,” he said. “And when we call it a sone ki chidia, ‘sona’, gold, we are not talking about material things. Sona means something very exclusive, very special. India has a great culture and legacy. From the very beginning, we are very spiritual towards nature, we do prakriti puja, nature worshippers.” He drew a pointed contrast with the Western artistic tradition. “Europe has always had an understanding about physical appearance, nudity, muscles, and the physique, like David, you know very well. But we never showcase our physical things, we always prefer spiritual understanding of the material world. Spirituality comes from one’s inner side. This is the big difference between European, other art forms compared to India. That’s why people have great respect for Indian culture and art.”

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Roerich’s Journey from Russia to India

The Roerich story is perhaps the most tangible proof of India's spiritual pull. Nicholas Roerich, Russian by birth, modernist by training, mystic by instinct, came to India and found something he could not leave behind. He settled in the Kullu valley, painted its mountains with a fervour that was less artistic than devotional, and spent his remaining decades in a country he understood as the last keeper of a spiritual intelligence the industrialised world had discarded. On the Foundation Day, NGMA released two major catalogues of the Roerich family’s paintings alongside a documentary film on his Indian chapter. Roman Babushkin, Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy of the Russian Federation in India, called the legacy nothing less than a civilisational bond. “It is a very, very special occasion since we are dedicating our evening to the cultural legacy, which we are enjoying today not as pieces of art, but also as a continuity in the legacy which our previous generations are leaving to us,” he said. “Roerich’s legacy is very special since it is the civilizational bond between our two countries. Because we are very similar, in terms of how diverse we are. And staying here in India, he fell in love with this country, like we do. And this is a lifetime journey. Therefore, the books which were released today, the catalogues of their paintings, the endeavors which are making these collections come together, this is something which is a huge step and the next chapter in what we do in preserving this legacy.”

Building the Infrastructure of Art

Under Dr. Goutam's two-year tenure, NGMA has moved with unusual pace. The Dikshit Bharat camp drew more than 15,000 artists, from senior masters to first-time exhibitors, to work collectively on the Viksit Bharat theme, a scale of creative mobilisation with few precedents. The Seva Parv initiative, held simultaneously across 75 locations nationwide, brought together over 70,000 participants, each receiving awards that they deserve truly. On the Foundation Day itself, NGMA inaugurated its first-ever Printmaking Studio, followed by the announcement of a 7-day Printmaking Workshop running March 30 to April 4, a direct investment in the next generation of practitioners. The occasion also saw the integration of the Bhagavad Gita for All initiative, founded by Prithviraaj Shetty, bringing India's philosophical tradition into the gallery's public engagement framework.

Reclaiming What Was Always There

There is a deeper argument running beneath all the programming. Dr. Goutam’s first project as DG was Chitrakavyam Ramayanam, a sweeping exhibition that reclaimed the Ramayana as a living artistic tradition, weaving together modern and contemporary art, folk and tribal forms, indigenous practices, and immersive elements. It was a deliberate act of cultural recovery. For generations shaped by British colonial aesthetics, the show was a reminder that India had its own visual vocabulary long before it was told otherwise. The decolonisation of the Indian artistic imagination, Goutam suggests, is not a political statement. It is a curatorial one.