This December, the Gandhi King Plaza at the India International Centre hosts a rare sculptural confluence—Three Moderns, an exhibition uniting three towering figures of Indian modernism: Himmat Shah, Krishen Khanna, and Thota Vaikuntam. Presented by Namtech Fine Arts and curated by Uma Nair, the show features 12 sculptures that explore the poetic interplay of material, memory, and the human form.
For curator Uma Nair, the exhibition is an emotional return to a space she has shaped through five landmark sculptural projects. “Curating Three Indian Moderns at the Gandhi King Plaza is about creating an energy—a dialogue formed through the synergy of great artistic minds,” she reflects. “When masters like Himmat Shah, Krishen Khanna, and Thota Vaikuntam come together, time becomes witness, and sculpture becomes language.”
Beneath the expansive sky and verdant canopy of the Plaza, the sculptures appear as moments suspended in thought and space, reflecting humanity’s rituals, labour, devotion, and quiet endurance.
Krishen Khanna, marking his 100th year, presents four monumental works from his celebrated Bandwallah series, elevating the everyday musician into a symbol of community, celebration, and cultural memory. The pieces resonate with invisible music—felt rather than heard.
Himmat Shah, India’s senior sculptor, contributes four stone works that meditate on time, tactility, and presence. His heads archaic yet contemporary stand as sentinels of journey and belonging, turning the ordinary into the extraordinary, and silence into eloquence.
Thota Vaikuntam introduces bronzes from The Sacred Gaze, where patinated surfaces evoke the earth tones of Telangana. His forms celebrate spirituality, rhythm, and rural rituals—festooned foreheads, steady postures, and serenity that is both timeless and immediate.
Marble, bronze, and resinated fiberglass serve as vessels of identity—solid yet vulnerable, figurative yet abstracted. As viewers move among the works, the experience becomes almost choreographic: a meditative journey through modern India’s artistic lineage.
The exhibition honors the vision of the late Prof. M.G.K. Menon, longtime IIC member and champion of Indian sculpture, who believed the Gandhi King Plaza should remain a home for India’s most significant sculptural voices.