The idea of national art gallery germinated in 1949 and was nurtured by then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Maulana Azad, bureaucrats like Humayun Kabir and an active art community. Finally, on March 29, 1954, Dr Radhakrishnan, the Vice-President, inaugurated the National Gallery of Modern Art in the presence of Pandit Nehru. Sir Arthur Bloomfield built this butterfly-shaped building in 1936 as a place of residence for the Maharaja of Jaipur, hence given the name of Jaipur House. The concept of central hexagon devoted by the maker of Delhi, Sir Edwin Lutyens was used in the styling of this building. The famous architect gave the building distinctive features of harmony.
The National Gallery Of Modern Art in Delhi started its operations with the displaying of sculptures. The prominent sculptors of that time such as Ramkinkar Baij, Debi Prasad Roy Chowdhury, Sarbari Roy Chowdhury, Sankho Chaudhuri, and Dhanraj Bhagat, actively took part in this exhibition. Gallery's first curator Herman Goetz later added more facilities like Art Restoration Services, and art reference Documentation Centre and Library. Since then, the gallery hasn't looked back and have presented with world's best paintworks and sculptors. Later, two branches were added to NGMA in Mumbai and Bangalore respectively.
In 2009, a new wing of the NGMA was set to operate. It added almost six times space to the existing gallery making it larger than before. At present, it includes a new auditorium, conservation laboratory, a preview theatre, cafeteria, library and academic section and museum shop.
