Gulam Rasool Santosh

Acquired from Kumar Gallery, New Delhi, 26 November 1971

Collection of Marcia Gilmartin

Marcia Gilmartin lived in Delhi during the late 1960s and early 1970s, while her husband, William M. Gilmartin ('Gil'), served in India as the Resident Representative of the World Bank. There, Marcia developed a wide circle of Indian friends, and hosted many visitors from abroad, including the head of the World Bank, Robert McNamara. She developed an active interest in the contemporary art scene in Delhi. At the heart of this was her friendship with Shami Mendiratta and his wife, Mini, who ran Gallery Chanakya, which had first opened in Chanakyapuri in Delhi in 1969. At that time, there were relatively few art galleries in Delhi and Gallery Chanakya quickly gained a reputation that attracted several influential patrons, including visitors such as the Indian Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi. It was through the Mendirattas that Marcia came to meet many well-established, and many still not very well-known, artists in Delhi. She acquired a fine collection of contemporary Indian art during her time there, which she hung on the walls of her home in Friends Colony, Delhi, and later in Maryland in the United States.