Peter Nagy: End of An Era

 (Peter Nagy)

Peter Nagy of Nature Morte is no more. One cannot separate Nagy from Nature Morte, a gallery that changed the behavioural and exhibition complexion of Delhi. Passing away at the age of 67 sounds too early for an art professional (in that case, for anybody in today's world). The reasons for his passing are not known. He was a silent man, but he knew how to raise his voice whenever he felt it was needed. He came into the Indian art scene when oil on canvas was the only thing people understood and appreciated. Nagy revolutionised that outlook and gave space to artists who dared to move out of the comfort zone of oil on canvas and work with other materials.

I met Nagy in the late '90s. He had just found a place to run his gallery, Nature Morte, which he had established a decade earlier with one of his friends in New York. Sources said that he was disillusioned with the US art scene and, like many people who sought spiritual solace, he too decided to travel eastwards and make Delhi his home. Initially, like Jerry Saltz, he was trying to push his art. But when he understood the primitive nature of the Indian art scene, he thought he stood a chance of donning the gallerist's garb. Saltz went on to become a truck driver and then a polemical art critic, while Nagy went on to become an artist and then a successful gallerist.

Nagy had found a controversial site for his gallery: Qutub Colonnade. It was not a happening place, and Nagy rented it for the 1998–99 art season, presenting Shibu Natesan's solo exhibition titled Missing. It was there that I met Nagy for the first time. He was welcoming but spoke little. He served red wine, and I drank until I puked. I was writing art reviews for most of the newspapers then, and I reviewed the show in one of my columns. I couldn't say that we became friends.

When Mrinal Kulkarni and I curated Small but Significant, an experimental exhibition, Nagy was the first to walk in on the opening day. At the same venue, we held another conceptual art exhibition titled Dreams: Projects Unrealized in 2004. Once again, Nagy was the first to arrive and appreciate the show. He had an eye for non-mainstream art, though he became mainstream later. So did the artists who used to participate in our early shows. That's why I always say that experimental art is the mother of all mainstream art.

Without stepping on the toes of Delhi's mainstream galleries, Nagy created his own niche in the capital, and people started streaming into Nature Morte at Neeti Bagh. The location was precariously placed, right next to a T-junction with a traffic light. Turning the vehicles into the address was a task. But art people came there, taking all the trouble, because Nagy presented interesting exhibitions. It was there that I saw Subodh Gupta taking baby steps towards stardom. Nagy was very conscious about his selection of artists. He exhibited Jitish Kallat, Subodh Gupta, Bharti Kher, Pradeep Puthoor, Atul Dodiya, to name a few.

Interventions in institutional spaces and museum displays were unheard of in India in the '90s and early 2000s. Nagy got an opportunity to work with the Chandigarh Museum and its displays, and he made some interventions there with Anita Dube. Later, this became a model for Vivan Sundaram to intervene in the history of the Victoria Memorial in Kolkata. Much later, when the Bhau Daji Lad Museum was revived, Tasneem Zakaria invited artists like Jitish Kallat and Sudarshan Shetty to make aesthetic amendments to the museum's history through their works.

Nagy was not alone in creating an alternative art scene in Delhi in the late '90s. At Masjid Moth in South Delhi, Eicher had started a gallery with Pooja Sood as its institutional curator. It had shown the works of Anita Dube and other cutting-edge artists of the time. Parallelly, right next to the Siri Fort Auditorium, in Shahpur Jat, Prima Kurien was running her gallery, Art Inc., which too was showing cutting-edge artists. Pooja Sood moved out of the Eicher Gallery to start the artists' collective Khoj, which later became Khoj International Art Workshop, aka Khoj International, and eventually just Khoj, operating out of downmarket Khirki Extension, near Malviya Nagar and Saket.

Together, the Indian art scene in the capital changed slowly, with Nagy silently holding one of the reins of its forward momentum, in the typical American way. Talwar Gallery was a quiet supporter of Nagy's efforts. Functioning from a few blocks inside Neeti Bagh itself, Talwar has maintained a 'touch me not' attitude while promoting Balasubramanyan, aka Bala, Ranjini Shettar, N. N. Rimzon, and others. Then, in 2008, the India Art Summit started at Pragati Maidan. It soon became the India Art Fair and moved to the NSIC Grounds in Okhla, with Nagy's artists often stealing the show. There again, Nagy played a silent role in almost deciding the complexion of the fair, even as its directors, owners, and sponsors kept changing. He also had an aborted stint as one of the curators of the second edition of the United Art Fair in 2013, which was the only failure in his long career as an art organiser. There were other contributing factors, which I shall leave for another detailed article.

Nagy entered into a partnership with Aparajita Jain and retained the Nature Morte brand. The gallery moved to Dhan Mill near Chhattarpur, an old mill space now converted into upmarket boutiques and eateries. I visited it a couple of times, only to realise that those who visited Dhan Mill for pleasure never stepped into this capacious gallery space. That's why, even when Ai Weiwei was exhibited there, the show did not considerably shake up Delhi or Gurugram, just a few kilometres away.

Nagy always asked questions whenever he attended a seminar. But I have never seen him take an interest in the answers. He was just performing his role as an intelligent participant in the event. The Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) in Delhi invited Delhi-based curators for a discussion at its headquarters in 2023. I was surprised to see him there because I had never thought he had anything to do with an organisation like the ICCR, which has been famous for choosing the worst to represent India elsewhere. We exchanged some pleasantries and, as expected, nothing came out of that meeting.

Peter Nagy's passing marks the end of an era, in a way. While Amit Judge of Bodhi was making stars out of struggling artists by raising their prices and giving them lavish solo shows and openings, Nagy was slowly and steadily finding a way forward for Indian artists who worked away from the walls. He built several bridges for them to cross over to foreign galleries. I do not know the facts; however, I could say that it was the confidence he showed in Indian contemporary artists that made gallery majors like White Cube, Hauser & Wirth, Lisson Gallery, David Zwirner, and many others take an interest in Indian artists.

Peter Nagy will be missed.

JohnyML