Academy Of Fine Arts

The Academy of Fine Arts is a non-governmental cultural institution which was formally established on 15 August 1933 as “The Indian Academy of Fine Arts” in the Indian Museum at the initiative of Lady Ranu Mookerjee. It was registered as a “Society” under the Societies Act, 1860 on 18th September, 1946. The Academy then had no building of its own. Its annual exhibitions were held on the first floor of the Indian Museum building on Chowringhee Road. The activities of the Academy were limited to holding annual exhibition and occasionally organizing exhibitions of guest artists or old masters Paintings. In the fifties, at the invitation of the then Prime Minister, Sri Jawaharlal Nehru, Yehudi Menuhin, the celebrated violinist, visited India. At his concert at the new Empire Theatre, Calcutta, there was a discussion between Sri Nehru and Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy. It was felt that there should be an art gallery in Calcutta to show contemporary paintings and sculptures etc., to distinguished visitors. Dr. Roy entrusted Lady Ranu Mookerjee with the task of choosing centrally situated land for that purpose. Dr. Roy sent his home Secretary and Police Commissioner to assist Lady Mookerjee to choose a suitable site. The present site at Cathedral Road was chosen by her. The premises of the Academy was built during 1959-60, with funds donated by her husband, Sir Biren Mookerjee, who was the son of Sir Rajen Mukherjee, the owner of Martin Burn Co. Ltd. and the most famous industrialist in India in those years. Sir Biren Mookerjee was the first Chairman of the Academy’s Board of Trustee. The Academy started its journey in the new building with an exhibition of fifty paintings by Nandalal Bose on 11th September 1960. The first President of the Academy was Maharaja Prodyot Coomar Tagore, a philanthropist, art collector, an active patron, an artist and photographer who belonged to the Pathuriaghata branch of the Tagore family. The Academy was under the stewardship of this keen art connoisseur for ten long years.

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