national crafts museum and hastkala academy case study

Museums of the World: National Crafts Museum & Hastkala Academy

The National Handicrafts and handlooms museum was designed by the master architect Charles Correa in the year 1990. But its famed name is National Crafts Museum & Hastkala Academy. This is situated in the nook of Pragati Maidan across the Purana Qila. The Museum celebrates India’s rich, diverse, and practising craft traditions. s Craftsmen markets were suffering due to modernisation & loss of connection with traditions; hence, it was set up for them as reference material.

Since India is known to be a culturally diverse country, each & every part of the country possesses its art techniques & traditions; from North to down South to East to West, geological features affect the art practices of its local people.

The availability of materials guides the course of art and craft in those places. 

Arts & Crafts | National Crafts Museum & Hastkala Academy

Currently, The Museum holds a collection from various states of India. Over 33000 specimens in various artefacts and arts, those consisting of Textile, Metal lamps, Sculptures , Utensils, Woodworks, Folk Tribal Paintings, Cane and Bamboo crafts, Clay and Terracotta objects.

The elegant examples of textiles include Kalamkaris, Pashmina, Jamawars and Shahtoosh Shawls; embroidered fabrics namely Kanthas, Chikankari works and Chaklas Tie and Die (Bandhani) fabrics, Baluchar and Jamdani Saree, Pichwais, Phulkaris, Orissa’s Ikat fabrics, and many more, Not only this but Tribal textiles of the Lambadi, Toda and Naga tribes of North- Eastern India .

These are preserved with the intent that they would be a source of reference, revival and reproduction of our cultural heritage and Indian crafts. This serves as a guide to tourists who wish to learn about the art & culture of India. This is also beneficial for the master craftsmen, art historians and craft designers, along with the people who are interested to know India’s age-old cultural heritage. 

Museum Boasts an art collection of a diverse and unique range of displays. A varied range of objects is made up of Cane, Bamboo , Clay Terracotta Metal, Stone, as well as Wood and Textiles; all these collections are displayed in a total of five galleries, three courtyards and passages of Folk, Tribal and Traditional community categories. All passage walls are covered in beautiful folk & Tribal paintings .

Bhuta Sculpture Gallery displays the sculptures from the Bhuta cult of coastal Karnataka , known to be one of the largest in the world.

The Folk and Tribal Craft gallery sculptures with other daily objects, along with a diverse selection of paintings of the folk and tribal community of India.

Cultic Craft Gallery features all types of other accessories associated with the ritual practices of various religions in India, such as sculptures, Paintings , and textiles.

Court Craft Gallery Court Craft Gallery features objects of exquisite craftsmanship and precious materials created for homes and palaces for the nobility in India.

Textile Gallery covers the colourful collection of Indian textile art of handcrafted techniques found all over India.

Design & Planning

The museum is spread across 6800 sqm. of land, a horizontal play of masses. It depicts true Indianness, with innate emotion towards Vernacular architecture and excellent craftsmanship. As mentioned before, the traditional Indian architectural elements such as internal courtyards, open passages, wooden doors with carvings, pillars, iron screens, and jharokhas make you reminisce.

The design style of Correa is well known – The Museum has square courtyards associated with Vedic kund as displayed in Jawahar Kala Kendra, the square courtyards in the museum do not follow a strict Mandala Pattern but are stepped at several places forming an informal social arena, the variation in levels articulates spaces for rejuvenating the mood says Jain, the Director of the National Crafts Museum in Delhi .

He also adds that the metaphor of Indian streets exists in the low-key building and mentions that the concept of museums and displaying objects was never a part of Indian tradition. All of these courts with different scales also give access to exhibits via pathways in an informal manner. Village Court, Darbar court, and Temple court.

It Retains the timeless quality of India. Around 40% of the area is occupied by courtyard & exhibition spaces. The complex follows a rectangular geometry. Columnar, Planar, and Structure all of these define the space. The amphitheatre at the centre of the site creates symmetry and balance. The circulation is free-flowing, it leads from open, semi-open and closed series of space. The light source is mainly natural light from the courtyards, a pucca building which keeps the experience of nature. It is a load-bearing Structure, which uses exposed concrete, and stone, a pucca building masked with a clay-tiled roof, one story high with walls around 3m high.

Correa often creates a space which is not easy to label. The museum is almost invisible. It doesn’t overshadow the Purana quila across which it sits or the artist’s village complex . The passage throughout the building is a play of unveiling the mystery, in this case, exhibits along the way; The Museum seems unfinished in a way, and Correa deliberately tried to create this sense. All these features make the National Museum speak its own telltale.

References:

Wordpress(2020). National Crafts Museum, Delhi . [online]. (Last updated: Sep 26 2020). Available at: https://architecturecasestudies.wordpress.com/2020/09/26/national-crafts-museum-delhi/ ments   /[Accessed date: 15/02/2023].

SHUBHAM JAIN(2016) . Crafts Museum by Charles Correa . [online]. (Last updated: Feb 7 2016). Available at: http://archmonk.weebly.com/architects-and-their-works/crafts-museum-by-charles-correa [Accessed date: 17/02/2023].

Ramaarya(2022) . National crafts museum, New Delhi – 90 minutes at the museum. [online]. (Last updated: June 27 2022). Available at: https://ramaarya.blog/2022/06/27/new-delhi-national-crafts-museum/                   [Accessed date: 17/02/2023].

An Architect, honing her Design skills each day, She likes to Observe Spaces, People, & The Greens! She is in awe of built forms & narrates tales about them, Bingeing On pop cultural content is her guilty pleasure.

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• You are here: Essays

Crafts Museum in Delhi, India by Charles Correa

6 August 1995 By Robert Powell Essays

Correa reinterprets the timeless quality of India into a building which resists the obvious western label of museum.

First published in AR August 1995, this piece was republished online in June 2015

The British brought to India the concept of collecting, preserving and displaying objects of nature and art. Dr Jyotindra Jain, the Director of the National Crafts Museum in Delhi, writes a wonderful essay on this theme in a new monograph of Charles Correa’s work entitled The Ritualistic Pathway (1993).

Jain says that ‘the institution of a museum, aimed at housing objects of antiquity and curiosity, is of western origin’. It was never part of the Indian tradition to display fragmented sculptures, rusted swords and paintings out of their context.

Part of the sequence of modest vernacular courtyards that make up the museum

Indeed, says Jain, ‘broken images were immersed in holy waters, worn-out metal objects were melted down to cast new ones and terracotta votive objects were left to decay and merge with the very earth from which they were created’.

But in following the British example the Indians forgot that, unlike in the West, the past and the present are not so severely divided and, says Jain, ‘blindly adopted the archaeological museum concept’. Dr Jain has considerable ·rapport with Correa, and in this project the architect succeeds in interpreting the timeless quality of India, where tradition and modernity coexist, into a building that resists the label ‘museum’.

Ground floor plan

Correa has frequently expressed the benefits of open-to-sky spaces. In this low-key building, a metaphor of an Indian street is introduced - along a diagonal axis are three courtyards of different scale and intensity. They are stunning spaces with perceptible changes of mood that make for great architecture.

But it is not simple nostalgia for the past. Correa’s work has always drawn on the vernacular and ‘deep-conscious’ echoes, but it is also modern in its fusion of an underlying orthogonal grid and the internal display spaces of lofty dimensions with the open and semi-open passages covered with tiled roofs and lined with artifacts.

Elaborately decorated wall

Correa has succeeded in making the museum almost invisible. He creates an environment that is difficult to define or label. It is not institutional and is deliberately self-effacing in its relationship to its ancient neighbour, the Purana Quila. Nor does it overshadow the artists’ village complex alongside.

The processional route through the building is constantly changing in an intricate kaleidoscope of space and light. It is a journey of discovery and there is a deliberately unfinished feeling about the museum … exactly as intended. What does finished mean? Merely a new beginning.

Crafts museum, Delhi, India

Architect: Charles Correa Photographs: Joo Ann Foh

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National Crafts Museum & Hastkala Academy, Delhi

Articles are written collaboratively by the EIA editors. More information on our team, their individual bios, and our approach to writing can be found on our  About pages . We also welcome feedback and all articles include a bibliography (see below).

Formerly known as the National Handicrafts and Handlooms Museum, the National Crafts Museum was established in 1956 by the All India Handicrafts Board . Located at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi and falling under the purview of the Ministry of Textiles, it was originally envisioned as a resource centre for the preservation of the artistic and cultural heritage of India and has remained a prominent force in the advancement of Indian handicrafts and folk art. The museum’s collection includes over thirty thousand objects in various mediums such as metal work, jewellery, carving, painted wood and papier mache, folk painting, textiles, basketry and matting, terracotta and glazed pottery. It also has a permanent display of vernacular and village architecture and decoration and holds regular demonstrations by craftspersons on their techniques. In fact, the primary audience of the museum is not the public but visiting artisans. It was set up over a period of thirty years by the activist Kamaladevi Chattopadhay, and the building that presently houses its collection was designed by architect and urban planner Charles Correa between 1975 and 1991. As of writing, the director of the museum is Jyotindra Jain , who has held office since 1984.

The museum is divided into three distinct areas: the galleries, which house old and new artefacts and include the Tribal and Rural Craft Gallery, the Gallery of Courtly Crafts, the Textile Gallery and the Gallery of Popular Culture; the village complex, which is a remnant of the Asia Trade Fair held in 1972 and designed by Sankho Chaudhuri , spread over five acres, exhibiting various styles of vernacular architecture; and the crafts demonstration area, where invited artisans produce and sell their wares, accompanied by occasional folk music and dance performances. An additional textile gallery was inaugurated in 2019. The museum also houses a library with nearly ten thousand books and articles, a slide collection, a small conservation laboratory and a research and documentation unit.

Its physical space features mud-coloured structures with terracotta-tiled roofs, situated around open courtyards with views of the nearby Purana Qila. Each courtyard houses a different collection, such as the Darbar Court, the Village Court, the Temple Court and so on, reflecting the distinct modes of patronage the artefacts have received over the years. Following the decline in courtly sponsorship by the late-eighteenth century and diminishing village demand of traditional artefacts in favour of inexpensive substitutes made of plastic, aluminium and paper, production for Hindu ritual use has been positioned as an important source of patronage. However, this has resulted in the elevation of the craft rather than the craftsperson as well as a naturalising of caste differences.

The museum was conceived by the propagation of handloom cloth, or khadi , as well as the role of handspinning and weaving in the Indian nationalist movement during the twentieth century. It also served as an acknowledgement of the displacement of weavers as a result of the expansion of mills. Notable displays at the museum include its extensive bhuta collection from Karnataka, Kashmiri dushalas , Baluchari sarees, rare handkerchiefs from Chamba renowned for their embroidery, Madhubani paintings, Naga sculptures and bidri work. Most artworks in the collection are on permanent display and unattributed to a single artist.

The museum also maintains a National Craftspersons Directory, aimed at documenting artisans who produce the displayed artefacts along with a record of their works and techniques. The museum holds frequent workshops to bring together practitioners of a craft from across the country and arranges pensions and apprentices for the practitioners to ensure the continuity and preservation of artistic traditions and craft forms for subsequent generations. It also produces catalogues and invites students to tour the galleries and observe the craftspeople at work. There is also an on-site indoor theatre that screens documentaries, lectures and discussions.

Over two dozen craftspeople are invited each month to provide live demonstrations and sell their wares at the museum’s Craft Demonstration Programme. At present, the museum remains an invaluable resource for the viewership and appreciation of craft traditions and continues to expand its influence as a site that resists the homogenisation of Indian art traditions.

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Crafts Museum New Delhi, India

The Crafts Museum is a repository and a celebration of the handmade. Making by hand continues to be a fundamental activity across India, and the abundant and diverse craft traditions have produced myriad objects of exceptional skill and beauty. The Crafts Museum houses some of the finest of these. Unlike most museums, which display dead or old or rare objects, this is a museum of living crafts, of skills and objects still in common use. The Museum's Craft Demonstration Programme each month is an opportunity to discover these, to explore the sophisticated knowledge and techniques, as well as the histories, legends and folklore that are embedded in the rich craft heritage of the country.

Murals at Crafts Museum - A Catalyst for Change

Crafts museum, gharey bairey - stitches of kantha, masks, other worlds, gharey bairey: home and the world, masterpieces at crafts museum, ajrakh: harmony at repetition, painted fables - panchatantra chitra, ajrakh: rhythm of blues, retelling the ramayana with crafts, diwali: the festival of lights, in this collection, 1 museum view.

Delhi's Crafts Museum Is A Lively & Fascinating Gem Gracing The City's Crown

Very few places, especially museums, offer an opportunity to watch the most amazing pieces of craft and art take shape right in front of your eyes! Yes, the Crafts Museum in Delhi is one lively and fascinating museum, where you can actually sit down with the artisan as he works on his piece.  Even the location of Crafts Museum is well thought out, because it sits in the precincts of Pragati Maidan, which is witness to countless fairs and exhibitions. Ride a Metro from anywhere in the underground network and it will land you right outside Pragati Maidan, and a short walk is all it takes to carry you into the museum complex.

Handicrafts from Around India

If you're a serious art lover, you should make it to the museum soon after it opens in the mornings to enjoy the vast and varied exhibits on display from all corners of the country. Not only are there handicrafts that represent the various states of India, but even the structures housing these exhibits are just as marvellous, depicting the typical architectural style of the region. From the sandstone Havelis of Rajasthan, which are like poetry in stone to pagoda-like wooden structures of the North-Eastern states and thatched mud houses with frescoes on the entrance, India in all its glory and culture is laid bare for all to enjoy. 

The Soothing Ambience

Some people get put off by the idea of visiting a museum because mostly these places are musty, dark, dull, uninspiring and may even smell bad. But the Crafts Museum is unique and very refreshing in this sense! The layout of the place, as you enter, makes you feel right at home and the whole experience will make you feel more connected and in touch with your artistic soul. The setting and relaxed, unhurried ambience as you stroll past a village artist carving a peacock out of a piece of wood, oblivious to the world around him is what makes it so special.

A Creative Space

The museum has indoor passages leading to huge halls displaying crafts in a manner similar to other museums. But once you reach the courtyards and the outdoor open-air spaces of the museum, it takes on an entirely new charm, full of sights and sounds of rural and semi-urban craftsmen all over the courtyards, bent over something or the other like wood, metal or stone and even fabrics. This is where it all comes alive and you can feel the energy and creativity reaching out to you, inviting you to come and feast your eyes on the mind-boggling variety of crafts that are either works-in-progress or fully polished and completed. 

Want to take home the charming enamel on silver Ganesha which is being given the final stroke of a paintbrush? Unlike other run-of-the-mill museums, you can actually buy whatever catches your fancy and suits your budget. Once COVID-19 is not a threat anymore, come along and spend some time here among the beautifully handcrafted pieces of art and don’t forget to take those stunning pictures for the ‘gram!

Where | National Crafts Museum & Hastkala Academy - Bhairon Marg, Pragati Maidan Timings | 10 AM - 6 PM Here’s Their Website | http://nationalcraftsmuseum.nic.in/

Tribal Cultural Heritage in India

Showcasing new initiatives in education

National Crafts Museum – New Delhi

The National Handicrafts and Handlooms Museum, popularly known as the National Crafts Museum & Hastkala Academy, celebrates the rich, diverse, and practising craft traditions of India. Situated in a large campus at the corner of Pragati Maidan, opposite the majestic Purana Qila, the museum was designed by the renowned architect Charles Correa | Learn more >>

Introduction The institution of the museum, aimed at housing objects of antiquity, is of Western origin.  Indians themselves did not have a tradition of setting up museums of fragmented sculptures, rusted swords and out of context painting.  Broken images were immersed in holy water, worn-out objects were left to decay and merge with the very earth from which they were created. It is due to this continuous process of abandonment of the old and reproduction of the new that the tradition of craftsmanship have formidably survived in India. as archaeological museum concept in the nineteenth century, it missed out on the fact that, unlike the West, the ‘past’ and ‘present’ were not so severely divided in its case, and it therefore failed to give adequate importance in its museums to the evolving context of its culture – the living practices of rituals; festivals; weekly markets; picture-shows of itinerant storytellers; the materials, techniques and tools of artisans; the cultural changes and the attitude towards the past and the contemporary tradition as such.  it is this overlooked dimension of Indian culture which is emphasised in the concept of the Crafts Museum. […] The core collection of the Crafts Museum was put together in the 1950s and’ 60z to serve as reference material for the craftsmen whose hereditary traditions were fading on the face of modern industrialization. […] The Scales and proportions of the building are based on those of the traditional Indian village where objects of everyday life are hand made and used.

Source: National Handicrafts Address : <http://nationalcraftsmuseum.nic.in/about_Museum.htm> Date Visited: Sat Sep 03 2011 12:21:07 GMT+0200 (CEST)

The Collection The Museum’s collection of about 22,000 objects, covers a range of bronze images, lamps and incense burners; ritual accessories; utensils and other items of everyday use; wood and stone carving; papier mache; ivories, dolls, toys, puppets and masks; jewellery; decorative metalware including bidri work; paintings; terracotta and cane and bamboo work.  The Museum’s rare collections include carved wooden figures of the bhutas, folk deities of coastal Karnataka; tribal bronzes from Chhattisgarh; carved wooden architecture of Gujarat represented by a whole haveli (traditional house), jharokha (balcony) and a palatial facade; embroidered, beaded and printed wall hangings; saris employing techniques of brocade, ikat, jamdani and tie-and-dye.  The above collection is displayed in five galleries as mentioned in the classified information.  Moreover, there is a reference collection, comprising about 15,000 objects which can be used by scholars, designers, craftsmen and interested public for study and research.  While brief captions provide basic information about the displayed objects, for further information the  Museum’s catalogue could be consulted in the library.

Source: Home Address : http://nationalcraftsmuseum.nic.in/museum_collection.htm Date Visited: Sat Sep 03 2011 12:24:04 GMT+0200 (CEST)

“We shall first have to give up this hubris of considering tribes backward. Every tribe has a rich and living cultural tradition and we must respect them.” – Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu on the constitutional obligation  to respect the cultural traditions of India’s tribal communities

“Air is free to all but if it is polluted it harms our health… Next comes water… From now on we must take up the effort to secure water. Councillors are servants of the people and we have a right to question them.” – Mohandas K. Gandhi, Ahmedabad address on 1 January 1918; quoted by his grandson, Gopalkrishna Gandhi, in “On another New Year’s Day: Mahatma Gandhi’s ‘khorak’ a 100 years ago” ( The Hindu, 1 January 2018)

“The world has enough for everyone’s need but not for anyone’s greed.” – Mahatma Gandhi quoted by Medha Patkar and Baba Amte (Narmada Bachao Andolan)

Research the above issues with the help of Shodhganga : A reservoir of theses from universities all over India, made available under Open Access >>

Adivaani | Adivani website

Crafts and visual arts | Masks

Community facilities

Cultural centres

Daricha | Daricha Foundation website | YouTube channel

Ethnographic Museums

Museum collections – general

Museum collections – India

Publishers & distributors: Books and journals on Indian tribal culture

Revival of traditions

Tribal identity

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For details and hyperlinks click on the rectangular button (left on the map’s header)

Scroll and click on one of the markers for information of special interest

Explore India’s tribal cultural heritage with the help of another interactive map >>

National Craft Museum and Hastkala Academy Delhi (Entry Fee, Timings, History, Images, Location & Entry ticket cost price)

National Craft Museum and Hastkala Academy Delhi Entry Fee

• 20 per person for Indians
• 300 per person for Foreign Tourists

National Craft Museum and Hastkala Academy Delhi Phone

011 2337 1887, quick facts about national craft museum and hastkala academy delhi, national craft museum and hastkala academy delhi timings.

Links: Website | Map

National Craft Museum and Hastkala Academy Delhi Address : Bhairon Marg, Pragati Maidan , New Delhi , Delhi , 110001 , India

If you’re in Delhi and have a special love for art and craft, then you shouldn’t miss visiting the National Crafts Museum & Hastkala Academy located within the city.

Popularly referred to as the Crafts Museum, the National Crafts Museum & Hastkala Academy is one of the largest craft museums in India that is widely renowned for preserving, protecting, and reviving the tradition of local handicrafts. It’s the kind of place that invites people from different corners of the world to take a glimpse of diverse collections like wood carvings, sculptures, bamboo crafts, bronze and metal lamps, tribal paintings, terracotta figurines, etc under one roof.

Here you can also see vintage and antique jewelry along with various metal objects. The Matting and Weaving products such as the bamboo grain baskets and different Textile items including block prints, vintage shawls, a story depicting kerchiefs, and patched clothes can also be observed here at the museum. In addition to all this, the museum also houses gunpowder cases, glazed pottery, toys and masks, and wooden Krishna panels to draw visitors’ attention in large numbers.

Among the multiple galleries, the most frequently visited galleries are the Gallery of Bhuta Sculpture, the Gallery of Cultic Crafts, the Gallery of Folk and Tribal Arts, and the Gallery of Textiles. There is also a village within the premise that describes the life of rural India in a great way. Other things that the Crafts Museum proudly features are a research center, a library, an auditorium, and a laboratory.

Café Lota at National Crafts Museum & Hastkala Academy, Delhi

Relish the taste of regional Indian dishes at the in-house contemporary restaurant that this museum has to serve everyone’s appetite. Beautifully designed with terracotta figurines, the Café Lota Restaurant offers a healthier version of mouth-watering meals with soft music playing in the background.

Please note that the timings of the restaurant are from 8:00 AM to 8:30 PM from Tuesday to Sunday. In case you’re looking for a reservation, you need to call the authorities and get the seat booked in advance.

Entry Fee and Timings of National Crafts Museum & Hastkala Academy, Delhi

The entry fee to visit the National Crafts Museum & Hastkala Academy is INR 20 per person for Indians and INR 300 per person for foreigners. It opens its door from 9:30 AM to 6:00 PM with all the galleries remaining closed every Monday. The recommended exploration time is 1-2 hours.

How to Reach National Crafts Museum & Hastkala Academy, Delhi?

Lying at a distance of only 1 km from the famous tourist attraction India Gate, a 5-minute stroll away from Delhi Zoo , and adjacent to the Purana Qila monument, National Crafts Museum & Hastkala Academy can be easily accessed by people from Pragati Maidan Metro Station either on foot or through an auto rickshaw.

You can also opt to enjoy a local bus ride to Pragati Maidan Bus Stand and then choose to go from there. Alternatively, a list of top car rental companies in Delhi is also there from where you can book a private cab to experience hassle-free traveling without any discomfort. The choice is yours!

The Capital City of India has a lot more to offer to its visitors than just the National Crafts Museum & Hastkala Academy. If interested and have time, you can plan your Delhi tour with our Delhi tour packages to make the most of your time.

We at Delhi Tourism, a division of Holidays DNA , strive to offer the best of our services to our diverse clientele. Our team of experts helps you customize the all-inclusive travel package along with adding a personal touch to it to meet all your holiday requirements. Don’t forget to leverage the benefits of our ongoing travel deals to enjoy your trip at pocket-friendly prices. Please fill out the Contact Us form to know more about us in detail.

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At the end, the artwork survives

Odrija Kalve

An interview with German gallerist Volker Diehl

I met Volker Diehl during his visit to Latvia – he had arrived to attend the opening of the “Elective Affinities” exhibition that is still taking place at the Latvian National Museum of Art’s Arsenāls Exhibition Hall. The show, dedicated to German art from the 1960s to the present, features several works from DIEHL Gallery in Berlin.

Today Volker Diehl has two gallery spaces in Berlin – DIEHL Gallery in Charlottenburg, and DiehlCUBE in Wilmersdorf – a 7x7x7-metre-large vitrine and laboratory of alchemical presences containing messages, statements, and context-based topics of immediate art. DIEHL Gallery focuses on contemporary art with international relevance – for instance, the programme includes the internationally acclaimed Chinese-born artist Zhang Huan (New York), the renowned Spanish sculptor Jaume Plensa (Barcelona), and the Russian Blue Noses   group and Olga Chernysheva (Moscow). Alongside these international positions, the programme is ultimately balanced and rooted by German artists.

We met to talk in Jūrmala, where Volker Diehl was staying at his friend’s house, and spoke about the reasons why he became interested in art, how he sees the contemporary art world today, and what led him to Russia (Volker Diehl lived in Moscow for six years; in 2008 he was the first Western gallerist to open a gallery space in Moscow). The gallerist also revealed his thoughts on the Latvian contemporary art scene and the reasons why it is not known internationally.

When did you first start thinking about art? 

I never did anything else in my life. I grew up in a small village – not far from Dortmund. I always wanted to be connected to art and to music. As a young man, I played the contrabass in a symphony orchestra for a while, but art was always my passion and I never wanted to do anything else. I wanted to be an artist, so I studied sculpture for one year in Münster, but it didn’t take long for me to understand that it wasn’t the right thing for me – I didn’t like to work alone in the studio, I like communicating with people. After one year there, I switched to art history studies, in Berlin. During these studies I was already working professionally. I started to work for a gallery – DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service), where I put together all kinds of exhibitions, for I was the assistant to the main curator. At that time I met a lot of really wonderful artists – André Thomkins, Markus Raetz, Wolf Vostell, Dieter Hacker , Shigeko Kubota, Emmett Williams, his wife Ann Nöel, a lot of Fluxus artists. I also worked for Shigeko Kubota – the wife of Nam June Paik – for one year. Through her I met Nam June Paik, as well as Takehisa Kosugi, with whom I went to Paris to assist with his concerts. 

Through DAAD I met the independent curator Christos Joachimedes, as well as Norman Rosenthal – exhibitions secretary at the Royal Academy in London. Both of them were planning an exhibition called “Zeitgeist”, for which they were looking for an assistant. So, I became their personal assistant for a year and a half. Today people would say “co-curator”, because we were such a small team.

It was a huge exhibition – 45 artists, and all the big names of that time were in it: Joseph Beuys, Andy Warhol, Mario Merz, Anselm Kiefer, Francesco Clemente and Georg Baselitz, Janis Kounellis, Cy Twombly, Sigmar Polke etc. It was a very important exhibition and it really boosted my hunger of arts and life. I met all these wonderful artists in their studios, and helped with realizing commissions for the Zeitgeist exhibition. Parrallel I even published a book, “Maler in Berlin”, together with Roland Hagenberg, with artist interviews and photos.

After that, it was clear that I would never do anything else but work in the art world.

When did you open Volker Diehl Gallery ?

The gallerist Folker Skulima offered me a junior partnership after the “Zeitgeist” show, so in 1984 I started to organize young contemporary artists’ exhibitions in the gallery. I did shows with Jaume Plensa, Leiko Ikemura, Erwin Bohatsch, Rosemarie Trockel, Gianni Dessi, and Pizzi Canella, among many others.

In 1990 I took over the gallery, and since then it has had my name. Besides the gallery, I have done a lot of other projects since then – in 1996 I was one of the founders of Art Forum Berlin (and its managing director for 2–3 years). I was travelling a lot to Moscow because, at the time, I thought that in the near future it would be a new hot-spot for contemporary art (many people thought so back then). So, in 2005 the biennale was founded in Moscow; two years later – The Garage. Many foundations (like the Ekaterina Cultural Foundation , etc.) and collectors started to open private museums and foundations – like Igor Markin and Stella Kay. I thought it was a good time to open a gallery in Moscow, and I did – in April 2008 I opened the gallery with Jenny Holzer’s solo show. But then in September, when I opened Wim Delvoye, everything was already over – the financial crisis had started, and nobody was buying art anymore. That was a crazy week. Monday Damian Hirst and Sothebys and the Lehman Brothers Bankruptcy, Tuesday the opening of Garage with a Kabakov exhibition, Wednesday Popup show of Larry Gagosian and Thursday Wim Delvoye in my gallery. I did a few more shows after that in Moscow, like Zhang Huan and Jaume Plensa. And the last show was with Olga Chernysheva. I ended up having to close the gallery at the end of 2009.

Going back to the “Zeitgeist” period – in an interview, you said that meeting with Joseph Beuys changed your perspective on how to look at art.

Joseph Beuys was a very charismatic person. I got to know him more when he was working on his installation “Blitzschlag” in Martin-Gropius-Bau, for the “Zeitgeist” exhibition. I liked his politeness and generosity. His words were like statements. It left quite an impression on me, watching a man with such vision. I could easily understand why he was so influential and had so many admirers. I really appreciated it at that time, and I still have a photo of us both in my gallery office. 

I had an equally impressive encounter with Andy Warhol. He came to Berlin in March of 1982. At a meeting, he asked me if I could get him photos of Albert Speer’s architecture from the 1930s. I found a lot of photos in the archives, which we then sent to him.

He used one of the photos which I had found in the Landesarchiv [the State archive] – it was a photo of the Light Dome [Cathedral of Light – red. ], which Albert Speer designed in 1934, in Nuremberg.

Speer had used anti-aircraft searchlights, aimed skyward, to create the columns of light. Inspired by this photo, Warhol did a whole series of paintings; he sent me a photo where he is standing in front of one of his first paintings of Speer’s Light Dome.

Later, in May 1983, I visited him in New York, at The Factory.

When he entered the room, he had everybody’s attention – without even doing anything, just by being there. I will never forget that.

It was a really wonderful gift, and I’m very thankful that I had the chance to meet these artists.

Volker Diehl and Joseph Beuys, 1980s. Photo from personal archive

Could you explain how you select artists for your gallery?  

When I started, it was a small art world, and it was very different – romantic even – compared to today. At that time we were looking for an artist who could make a new and innovative statement – something that would be unique. And it was much easier to select and to work with artists because back then, all of the galleries were working pretty much on the same financial level. Nowadays it’s a very different business. Today, you don’t have such a broad choice of artists; you have to find your niche, one where you will be able to represent an artist.

The expectation to do art fairs has become increasingly stronger. Fewer collectors are visiting galleries, although that is the place where everything starts once the artworks leave the studio; consequently, artists want to be shown in art fairs, which creates a lot of pressure on the gallerist because fairs are becoming increasingly expensive to attend.

There are some artists which I have been representing for 27 years now – Martin Assig, for instance. He was never a hyped superstar artist; he is a serious artist. From the beginning, his works were being picked up by very good collections, and he did a lot of museum shows all over Europe. He is a much more quiet artist, and a more sophisticated personality, than this new generation of “loud and glamorous event”-type artists.

I think that in the last 10–15 years, the world has been divided into two parts: We’re used to saying that there is “serious music”, and then there is “entertainment music”; that was never the case in the [visual] arts. But now we can say that we have “serious art”, and we have “entertainment art” – the latter being loud and, in a way, even aggressive. Sometimes it can be a problem for artists who are quiet, intellectual, and more sensitive – they need to exert more effort to get attention. I’m more into this kind of an art world. 

Is it more difficult to sell this kind of art?

It is, but one way [to succeed] is to always stay ahead, so that you can survive even in difficult times. I have some good friends amongst the blockbuster galleries, and I admire how they do it. I’m not the kind of person who can do that, though. They have galleries in Berlin, London, New York, Los Angeles, Hongkong, all over the world now, with 50, 100 or more people working for them. I tried once in Moscow; I failed, and it was a good lesson that taught me that I’m just not like that; I can’t do it. I try to be myself and to stay authentic. I have a much smaller gallery now; I have much less people working for me, and I don’t like to do art fairs (with few exceptions), even though I have founded two art fairs myself together with partners – Art Forum Berlin in 1996, and Cosmoscow in 2010.

One exception where I exhibit is the Vienna Contemporary art fair because it is focused on Eastern Europe and Russia. But generally speaking, I’m happier without fairs.

I try to be straight and honest with myself, and also with my work and gallery programme.

In our world, lots of people are running after something without realising it. Running after a projection, which is very dangerous – artists are running after something that they call “fame”, and gallerists are very often running after what they call “success”. It is very often a falsification – a kind of Fata Morgana – you see something that isn’t really there.

What about Russian art – how did it become an interest of yours?

Russian art was always something that interested me. It actually started more with literature and music. I was living in Berlin during Perestroika, and there was something about Perestroika, Glasnost and Gorbachev in the news every day; it was also being widely discussed in society. As a positively-thinking person, I became more and more interested; I believed in Gorbachev’s visions, and I thought, too, that our future would be a better world.

Along with Perestroika and Glasnost, the first artists came to the West. One was Sergey Volkov, who was invited by a collector in Berlin. I saw his works, I loved them, and I did my first exhibition with his paintings before the Wall came down in the spring of 1989. Six months later, the world was different; I took it a little bit as an omen.

At that time I also met the first Russians – like Aidan Salakhova, with whom I became very close friends. I personally admire her a lot. She brought me to Moscow in the mid 1990s, and I simply became very interested in the country and the city [ chuckles ] – in its artists, in its galleries, what was going on, etc. I did several more exhibitions in Berlin in the 90s – such as with Blue Noses , Alexey Kalima, Erbossyn Meldibekov from Kazakhstan, then Olga Chernysheva, Sergey Bratkov, and the young artist Ivan Gorshkov. I think Russia always had good art, but they didn’t have the necessary infrastructure. 

I remember that there was a period during which all of the big Russian art stars were showing all over the world – artists like Kulik, Mamishev-Monroe, Dubosarsky & Vinogradov...

But it was always a difficult business, I think. Most of those artists don’t have strong representations in the West; there are a few exceptions, like Olga Chernisheva, who has one museum show after another: she was in the Biennale di Venezia last year, she is in Manifesta now, she’ll be at The Drawing Center, in New York, in October. Sure, you can see the older masters – like Kabakov, Bulatov, also Pepperstein – in Western galleries, but Russia is the largest country in the world, so in comparison, the art scene there is tiny.

So, in your opinion, a successful artist is one who is represented by a good gallery in the West.

Like it or not, you need a kind of infrastructure around you if you want to be successful – whatever “successful” means. I don’t mean money, but having visibility in galleries and museums – that’s what an artists needs. And here in the West, the art world is perfectly organised on all levels. Not only in terms of galleries and museums, but also with such things as curators, foundations, collections, art magazines, art fairs, etc., etc...

Nowadays there are more and more art consultants emerging onto the scene, and most of them advise their clients to view art as a financial investment. What do you think about this?

It is very easy to call yourself an adviser. Anybody can do that after visiting a few art fairs, and a lot of people also call themselves curators [ laughs ]. When we started in the 80s, it was not very sexy to be a gallerist. People would smile and ask you what you do for a living. But with all of the money involved in the art world today, there is more opportunity for speculation and investment, and it has become very attractive to a lot of people, not just serious art collectors.

There is a completely new generation of advisers and consultants out there now. 

Where do you think this will take us?

I don’t know. Good question! If I knew, I could sell that information for a lot of money [ laughs ]. No, but seriously, I’m sure that like with everything in our world, you have ups and you have downs. For some years now, the art world has been driven by economics. And the more money there is in the market, the more bad art moves into the market. I think that’s even more dangerous than the speculation aspect because bad art always shows its true face sooner or later, and that will hurt the market much more than any speculation. There is a lot of art which gets produced just because of the market, not because the artist wants to do the art. The gallery calls the artist and says – I’m doing this art fair, I need that kind of artwork. So the artist starts to produce a projection of something – something which he never would have done if there hadn’t been this pressure of the market and the art fairs. I like it when artists say “no”, and when artists create works because they just feel the need to do them, not because the works will make them another 100 000 dollars... At the end, every artist still has the right, and every gallerist still has the possibility, to say “no” to speculation. But there is a lot of opportunism in the world; people are weak, they don’t say “no”. 

How can one say what is bad art, and what is not? What are your criteria?

It will become clear in time – what is good, and what is not. For now, we have to deal with it.

When you do something as a favour, or if you do it just for the money – I think that is a very weak position, one that creates something which has a kind of dishonesty around it.

I try to work with people who are outside of this circus. There is always wonderful art you can find. It depends on you, on me, on every single person – you just have to work for it, believe in it. Don’t run after something that has the so-called “hype”. Most of the time, it doesn’t last very long.

Martin Assig, Die Nacht, 2010, encaustic and tempera on wood, 200 x 260 cm. Photo: DIEHL gallery

Recently we had a discussion and an article in our online magazine about the Baltic art situation in the art world – why we are relatively unknown internationally. There are some artists who work with galleries in Western Europe, but they are few. For example, it is different with Russian art – people who are interested in art know about Russian art.

Yes, but how many people live in Latvia? It is a very small country. Even if you put all three Baltic States together, you really don’t have many galleries.

Read in the Archive: Why Is Baltic Art So Little Represented On The International Scene?

Do you think this is the main reason behind our invisibility?

… it’s one of the reasons. You need more galleries, you need more collectors, more small institutions, curators, etc. – a working infrastructure.

In Germany we have the system of Kunstverein [art associations – ed. ], a 200-year-old model. Every city has a Kunstverein supported by members. They do very important work – organize solo shows of young artists, support interesting exhibitions along with galleries and museums. This is only one example, but you need a system with many mosaic parts. Something like that does not exist here. 

I would say there are several exhibition openings every week in Riga. Some bigger, some smaller, but there are exhibitions.

But we don’t know about them. [ Laughs ] I didn’t know that. Is it good art?

All sorts of art.

But all sorts of art is not enough. You have to be a little more selective. I don’t know many Latvian artists.

I saw the exhibition of [Miervaldis] Polis. I think he has some interesting aspects in his work. I met him in Berlin in the early 90s.

I saw Jānis Avotiņš – I liked his works. I already knew of him because he shows with some Western galleries. The other artist I liked was Paulis Liepa. Jānis Zuzāns showed me his paintings.

This country has a lot of potential. You have a few good collectors already. And I personally like these places that are a little bit “unfinished” – where you have the feeling that people need your expertise and your knowledge. Nobody needs me in New York, but when I come to Riga or Moscow, I always have the feeling there’s something to be done. That’s the interesting part. You can create something.

If you have good artists, then they can change the world in a very short time. If you don’t have really good art, you can do whatever you want with your gallery, magazine, museum – but it won’t succeed. Sometimes you need one good artist who can change the art scene. The English art world was dead in the 1980s, but then the Young British Artists came along. Like it or not, but they did something very interesting and very strong, and they changed the whole art world in England in just a few years.

We should keep that in mind.

People will always judge the artwork, which lasts longer then the person who created it.

That is the power of art.

That would be a good title – At the end, the artwork survives.

Maybe people will say I’m too romantic, but I don’t think so. I think it is the truth. We have seen so many falsifications in art history. There were artists who were super famous in their time – like Hans Makart in Vienna, or Franz von Lenbach in Munich in the 19th century. When there is a lot of money involved, you always have this masquerade. What Makart did is, he had masquerade wagons with costumes driving through the city; he was like a king in those days. And now very few people even know his name.

There are always artists who celebrate themselves, making a lot of money and thinking they are the centre of the world. And then there are artists who are hiding away with a little drawing somewhere – and in the end, that little hidden drawing turns out to be the strongest one of all, the most powerful work. Somehow, I believe in that.

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Crafts Museum set up originally in 1956 at the Regal Building, Janpath by the All India Handicrafts Board. Museum was later moved to Thapar House, Janpath, New Delhi. The Village Complex, set up in 1972 as Rural India Complex for Asia Trade Fair. The complex became permanent open air exhibit as the part of the Crafts Museum after it was handed over to the Crafts Museum in 1975 The museum was shifted to the present location at Pragati Maidan in phases from 1977 to 1980.

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Hon’ble President of India dedicated the museum to the nation on 21.12.1991

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Study for ‘Painting with White Border (Moscow)’ was one of the studies that Kandinsky completed over five months before he finally arrived at the culmination of his efforts, Painting with White Border (Moscow). This study consists of bold color strokes that are shaded by various colors to highlight the planes formed by them. Kandinsky’s use of colors emulated his idea that colors corresponded to different sounds, and he wanted to capture the sounds of Moscow. The sounds he sought to visualize was the sounds of a three-horse sled (which can be seen in the three intertwining lines on the bottom of the painting) and the story of St. George (shown through the jagged lines on the right of painting emulating a dragon back). These stories and sounds and traditionally passed on orally, and the recognition of them visually gives the painting a sense of place of Moscow.

SKU: 8370 Creator: Vassily Kandinsky Date: 1913 Original Medium: Watercolor, india ink and black crayon on paper Original Size: 11 7/8 x 9 1/2 in. Location: Lenbachhaus

Study for ‘Painting with White Border (Moscow)’

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