Chandigarh Lalit Kala Akademi, India

The first Prime Minister of independent India, Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru conceived and established a few major agencies of culture. The Lalit Kala Akademi is one of these agencies responsible for the development, preservation, promotion and dissemination of visual arts in the country. There is one National body known as Lalit Kala Akademi, Delhi and various State and Union Territory academies representing different states and Union Territories of India.

Chandigarh Lalit Kala Akademi represents the Union Territory of Chandigarh, capital of the states of Punjab and Haryana and focuses its activities in the field of visual arts such as Paintings, Drawing, Sculptures, Graphics, Photography, Ceramics, Installation Art and other arts allied to the field of fine arts. The Akademi is an autonomous organisation with its own constitution fully funded by the department of culture, Chandigarh Administration.

Featured Artist

Nek Chand

The untutored genius who built a paradise.

Nek Chand Saini is an Indian self-taught artist, famous for building the Rock Garden of Chandigarh, a forty-acre sculpture garden in the city of Chandigarh, India. His family moved to Chandigarh in 1947 during the Partition. At the time, the city was being redesigned as a modern utopia by the Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier. It was to be the first planned city in India, and Nek Chand found work there as a roads inspector for the Public Works Department in 1951.

One day 36 years ago, Nek Chand, a humble transport official in the north Indian city of Chandigarh, began to clear a little patch of jungle to make himself a small garden area. He set stones around the little clearing and before long had sculpted a few figures recycled from materials he found at hand. Gradually Nek Chand's creation developed and grew; before long it covered several acres and comprised of hundreds of sculptures set in a series of interlinking courtyards.

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