Garhi

The studio at Garhi established in the year 1976, was named Kala Kuteer to meet the needs of practising artists. The entire complex is located on the premises of a heritage site, locally
known as Village Gargi Zharia Maria, Delhi. The existing land of four acres was allotted to the Lalit Kala Akademi for establishing its Regional Centre at Garhi. The land for the Centre
was allotted by the Delhi Development Authority for promotion of Art activities. The Centre undertakes art activities of the surrounding regions of Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh,
Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Delhi from this Centre.

The Garhi studio was given a Regional Centre status in the year 2000. The first Director of the Centre was Prof. Sankho Chaudhuri, and the first Regional Secretary was Mr. Ramakrishna
Vedala.

Heritage Meets Art | Go Explore Garhi Lalit Kala Artist Studio in East of Kailash

So Delhi FOLLOW

Thu, 02 Jun 2016

The busy Kalka Devi Marg near the Kailash Colony metro leads you to the interiors as the
swanky metropolis gradually disappears and you increasingly get the feel of a provincial
town, still busy but far less shiny and polished and far more congested and squalid. This is
not surprising as all the urban “villages” within Delhi are the same. But there’s something
that makes Kalka Garhi different. It’s a small park well protected by walls from all sides and
inside those walls, you’ll find one of the most important art studios of the country, one of the
6 regional centres maintained by the Lalit Kala Academy, the apex institution of fine arts.
Heritage meets Art
The artist studio at Garhi was established in 1976 to meet the requirements of practising
artists. The studio is located on a heritage site that was once known as Garhi Zharia Maria.
Around four acres of land has been allotted for this purpose. The sign of the glorious past can
be seen on the main entrance where an age old building is located. Inside, there is a well
maintained garden surrounded by buildings that serve as workshops and quarters for the
artists. The Centre organizes various art activities and caters to the artists of neighbouring
regions of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, J&K and of course those in
Delhi.
The Studio

The centre is equipped with facilities required for various artistic disciplines. It is aimed to
help the artists who cannot afford such equipment themselves and to encourage graphic arts,
sculpting, ceramics and painting. The studio has quality equipment for printing, metal
casting, welding as well as pottery and also stocks raw materials needed for these activities. It
operates as a non-profit institution and charges only a basic amount for its facilities to keep
functioning.
The studio also acts as a major facilitator for art related activities and organizes various
events such as exhibitions, seminars, symposiums, demonstrations and discussions related to
various events. The complex also houses a restaurant and the pathways around the garden are
lined with artefacts like statues and sculptures created by the artists working there.
Bear in Mind

Outsiders can also visit it but they must be careful. It generally remains closed during
weekends and public holidays. Also photography inside the premises requires prior
permission. Besides, the artists are secretive about their artwork. So you need to be careful
before taking out your camera. There is no entry fee.
Location
Reaching the studio is not difficult but it may be tricky. You need to keep walking straight
through the Kalka Devi Road from Kailash Colony as stated earlier. Eventually the road will
come to an end and you will see the signboard for Kalka Garhi Village on the right side. At
the same point you will also notice high walls of the Studio. If you go a few yards inside the
village, you will locate the main entrance.

Garhi Art Studio - Delhi

Garhi, the artists’ haven will continue to make news in value based art history.

Located in South Delhi it came into being in 1976. The Lalit Kala Adademi provided the Delhi Development Authority (DDA)
with funds to set up these studios. The inspiration was the ‘City of Art’ in Paris where individual artists are provided with studios
and lodging. Garhi followed the setting up a similar art fortress, ‘Cholamandal’, in Madras.

However, Garhi has some distinctive features. Only qualified professional artists can apply to the Lalit Kala Adademi. Their
work is evaluated, and those with talent and education are admitted. It has studios for both – groups of artists, and for
individuals. The range od disciplines is impressive – painting, print-making that includes etching and silkscreen painting, pottery
and sculpture in clay stone, fibre glass, wax and plaster of Paris. It accommodates artists, young and not-so-young. It is always
well populated and has the advantage of a genuine art fortress in fencing out non-artists, while allowing insiders full play for the
exercise of their creativity. To all of them the village has been both inspiration and sustainer.

Garhi, provides four community studios for graphics, sculpture, pottery and painting and seven individual studios. Eight to 10
artists can work at a time in a community studio. The painter’s studio has partitions, but the others are just large halls where
artists work in their own selected corner. Each community studio has a supervisor, a crucial person, for he is in charge of
making materials available to the artists at cost price, and for maintaining the studio.

The common factor that unites the artists, men and women painters and sculptors in various media is need-cum-commitment,
so that the atmosphere of professionalism is genuine and reflects both the quality of entrant and evidence of individual and
collective artistic growth.

What may seem a disadvantage – the fact that Garhi is in the centre the city’s life and movement – is in fact an asset. There
are only a few artists who are in search of a Shangrila far from the madding crowd. Garhi become a heaven for several artists
who point out that when you are busy “the doors of your mind are automatically closed to all other thoughts and distractions.”
Its sights and smells (chiefly of clay) area accepted without comment and constitute welcome evidence of an artistic oasis.

It is this composite of several allied arts each represented by a professional at work that is possibly among the most fascinating
aspects of Garhi. Here, for instance, is a sober-looking young woman with a palette and a brush in her hands, busy at work.
She has been painting for several years and displays the confidence of someone about to arrive. Then, close by, is a graphic
artist, a young man, who has been hard at work for eight years. He could not have done as well at home – Garhi has offered
him the necessary facilities. Here again are “potters” working, one perched on a stool with a wheel moving in front of her,
another surveying his work, head on one side, critically. And then, again, there is an artist busy with a wooden frame, who feels
better working alone than in a team, but is, nevertheless, better off at Garhi than he would be at an isolated studio in town.
There are others – bronze casters, people working in metal with welding equipment near furnaces, ceramics specialists – every
variety of art-cum-craft that achieves beauty with utility.
The image of the artist’s village in the midst of an average community persists and seems healthy. The voices of children at
play, a ground of artists sharing lunch, an old woman talking to two young people even as her hands are busy wiping some
etchings, and near them all, brightly coloured dahlias swaying in the breeze, tall Ashoka trees providing a benevolent shade, a
couple of cycles leaning against the wall, at these cohere and jump to constitute that casual everyday image of a world of art
within a world of ordinary people, that is as it should be.

Perhaps most important within this atmosphere, is the opportunity that Garhi provides for the exchange of ideas and the
contagion of innovation. Interaction with artists is important because art cannot be pursued in isolation. A visual artist may
indeed move from one medium to another.

Garhi has become so popular through its 13 years that other artists coming from all over India, and even form abroad, are
curious about what’s going on. So clearly, more Garhi’s have to be set up.

It is relevant to ask: Can artist work together for long without explosive quarrels? The creative process does create tensions.
This is one of the administrator’s most difficult problems, to get them to live and work, not necessarily in perfect harmony, but
without getting in one another’s way. And this is where additional space becomes vital. The insistent demand for space is an
indication that the original Garhi has thrived