The Brooklyn Rail

Padmanabh Singh and Noelle Kadar are at the forefront of a cultural effort to invigorate public interest in contemporary art in Jaipur, India. The Jaipur Centre for Art is the primary venue for their ambitious vision, which includes supporting creativity and innovation amongst art practitioners as well as celebrating the rich cultural heritage of Jaipur. Recently,

Singh and Kadar joined Guggenheim President Emerita Jennifer Stockman and Rail Consulting Editor Joachim Pissarro to discuss the unique history of arts patronage in Jaipur, the importance of color to the city and its culture, and their exhibition now on view, Annotations of Colour. 

Joachim Pissarro: So Padmanabh and Noelle, I would like to start by asking you a question about the relationship between art and power, in the grand scheme of things. You each represent a major feature of the Indian fabric, one being the head of a major state and the other running an important art institution. How would you approach this topic?

Padmanabh Singh: Well, that’s a great question, Joachim. The relationship between the arts and the seat of power, or patronage around it, has always been interesting here. The obvious thing to notice is how the state has historically patronized the arts. However, what’s unusual is that, contrary to the common belief that art requires peace, and is most patronized in peaceful times, you find exceptions—especially in Jaipur.

Jaipur is going to be three hundred years old in 2027, which isn’t to say that our community did not start building here even earlier. We actually arrived about one thousand years ago. However, the capital shifted towards Jaipur about three hundred years ago and in that period, we’ve had about thirteen different Maharajas. The Maharaja during whose reign the greatest amount of art was patronized, and the most amount of creation occurred was a gentleman called Sawai Pratap Singh. Incidentally, his was also the most troublesome reign, a time where we had the most battles and wars. The interesting way that our city and he responded was through patronizing different forms of arts. Incredible architectural contributions were made to the city of Jaipur. That is an example that exists in our history that is hard to find elsewhere in the world.

Connected to this story, the founder of Jaipur was a gentleman called Sawai Jai Singh II—the city was named after him—and he saw the creation of Jaipur as an opportunity to build not only the world’s most ideal, functional city, but also the most beautiful.

His study of astronomy guided the building of the city to a great extent, but he also made it a community project. By that I mean that while the palace took years to build, he invited artisans from all around the country to come and settle down here—everybody from engineers to plumbers to electricians—and they got paid for whatever they did. Further, the way in which the palace was built ensured there was going to be ongoing restoration requirements. So, not only did he create a community project where the people felt ownership for the palace, he also created an ongoing, forever-project for the patronage of the arts. We continue to extend that vision, where hundreds of people are employed every year at the city palace for various tasks. It’s important to recognize that this is how Sawai Jai Singh II envisioned it. It is not a consequence of the deterioration of the architecture.

Jennifer Stockman: Thank you for that wonderful overview Padmanabh. Jaipur indeed has such a rich history, having been established for almost three hundred years—and it is so beautiful. I’m interested in when Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II was the ruler and his accomplishments? Is it correct that the ruling Singh family has remained in power throughout these three hundred years?

Singh: Yes, Jennifer. Sawai Jai Singh II laid the foundation stone of Jaipur in 1727, which will mark three hundred years in November of 2027. We’re going to kick start our celebrations of the major milestone in 2026. We’ve got different projects in the pipeline. But yes, he started building it in 1727 and obviously, it’s an evolving city, so various different contributions were made up until now. My mother, Diya Kumari, is now the Minister for Tourism, Art, Literature & Culture, and Archaeology, and she talks about intervening in buildings and palaces and public infrastructure that her ancestors built all of those years ago. Unlike a lot of the other ministers we’ve had in the past, she feels the weight of the responsibility she carries, and of course executes the mandate with that much more respect and that much more responsibility.

Pissarro: Very interesting. I would like to turn to Noelle, considering what you just said. The nickname of Jaipur is the name of a color, and I know that Noelle has done a lot with color. Noelle, please tell us, what is the relationship between this so-called “Pink City” and what you’ve been introducing in the Jaipur Centre for Art (JCA)?

Noelle Kadar: Everything that Padmanabh and I look at with JCA is through the lens of legacy building. Jaipur really is an exercise in urban planning. It’s a city that was thought through in India at a time when that wasn’t really happening. I like to think about how, when the city was being built and planned, a call was put out throughout India for different craftsmen to come and help build the city and make it what it is today.

We talk about soft power a lot in art. I think that this was a departure from former systems of finance to more merchant-oriented systems. So when we talk about Jaipur as a city that is performing at the highest level of craft and different artisan skills, it’s not random or by mistake. It was planned to be that way. It’s all very intentional. What we look at with the JCA is really an extension of that, focused on contemporary art. For us, the JCA was born out of many conversations around the future of Jaipur and what story we’re telling now.

And so to answer your question about color, the show we have on now is something that we’ve been interested in doing since before JCA was built. We love the idea of making exhibitions in the city that reflect the city. I think when you can look at contemporary art against a specific historical context, if the show’s done well, you leave thinking about an artist’s practice in a different way. Group shows do that in a different way than a singular artist presentation. So for us, color in Jaipur is a noun, and not an adjective. The show runs alongside Holi which is a festival of color, welcoming the spring. The work that ties our show together in the most interesting way possible is this work by Alejandro Campins, a Cuban artist, whose contribution, supported by Galleria Continua, is a depiction of a terracotta mountain.But the earth in this specific part of Cuba and the earth in this specific part of India are the same. Our city is pink because our soil is pink. It was painted uniformly in—when was the city uniformly painted?

Singh: It was the second half of the nineteenth century.

Kadar: And that was a diplomatic decision, because the Queen of England was coming. But it wasn’t like the city was a bunch of different colors. It has always been pink.

The show is grounded in that story. And for me, bringing Daniel Buren’s work into the show—also supported by Galleria Continua—was very important, because of the way he uses color. Color is the thing. It’s not about anything else. It’s about the viewer’s experience in relation to color. When we speak about that in Jaipur, it has a different meaning, more specific meaning than it might when seeing Buren’s work in another place.

Pissarro: Thank you for taking the time to answer so precisely. Now for the benefit of the audience at the Brooklyn Rail who have not been to Jaipur, myself included, unfortunately, Jaipur is in the central northern part of India, north of Mumbai. It’s almost equidistant from Pakistan and Nepal, roughly speaking. I’d like to do a very brief circle of circles: you mentioned Cuba. What’s interesting is the fact that, indeed, India and the subcontinent itself, and Jaipur in particular, seems to be at the center of many centers. You’re between Hong Kong and Doha, or between Europe and China. People often refer to India as the subcontinent. It is indeed a continent in many ways, and according to reports, India has become the most populous area in the world, bypassing China.

Kadar: It feels that way, for sure.

Stockman: We’re always intrigued by how a museum director’s background and personal journey has shaped their current role. You identify as a Jewish Buddhist from New Jersey, which is truly unique and adds a fascinating dimension to your personal story. Your education at Rhode Island School of Design also provided you with a strong foundation in design and art. Could you share how these elements of your background contributed to your current work in Jaipur with Padmanabh? Additionally, I’m curious about how you and Padmanabh initially met and how your mutual inspiration led you to collaborate on this significant project.

Kadar: Well, I went to college and decided to study weaving in Varanasi for a little while. And I think you make decisions in your early twenties, and don’t realize that they’re setting the course for the rest of your life. Essentially, that’s what happened to me. I did one thing and it led to another. I was very involved in the India Art Fair, which serves a unique and significant role in India. While many art fairs are largely commercial, the India Art Fair for many years, along with the Kochi Biennale, were among the only places for the public to see and interact with international art. The Kochi Biennale in particular is so amazing because you’re contextualizing work in this old port city that has so much history. Alongside this, institutions such as the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art have been critical in shaping the discourse around modern and contemporary Indian art.

Singh: I want to quickly touch upon the point Joachim made about how Jaipur, but also India, is emerging as a new center with a lot of activity. And I want to connect that to what Noelle just said, that this is not happening in a passive way. It is absolutely intentional. Maybe for the rest of the world at that point, it seemed normal to be doing that sort of a modernization, but India is a very different place, with a very different rooted culture, and there was a lot of restraint with which communication was exercised with people who are not from here, for various reasons.

So for this gentleman to want to create a center for excellence for the arts and crafts, to open up his city to people who are not from here—that was very unusual. We’ve recently been looking at his old manuscripts, and he invited astronomers from all around the world to come and advise him on how he should build this planned city.

I often tell Noelle that people like her, who have built extremely successful careers and had so much success in their own lives, generate incredible amounts of exposure and bring an intangible value to our city. For you to come and make this your home, to find somebody that you love here, and to really love the city—is no small thing. India is not an easy place and coming from the States requires a process of adjustment. However, the fact that Noelle chose to do that is very much a full circle manifestation of Sawai Jai Singh’s vision for this center for excellence, where communities from all around the world can come and create very high-quality standards for anything that they do.

Now to return to this conversation around how JCA started. It was three or four years ago when I fully completed the move from my own adventures and returned to Jaipur, and came into contact with this incredible, rich history that we possess. My family talks about it, and many historians guide this conversation, so it occurred to me to ask, what is my generation doing to contribute to this dialogue?

And unfortunately, what Noelle said about India Art Fair, which is an incredible platform, is exactly how I felt. We were resting too much on our historical laurels, and consequently we neglected opportunities to be active contributors to the world of contemporary art. This is something Noelle and I discussed. She had been feeling the same sort of frustration, and as soon as we shared it with each other, ideas started multiplying. We started with a very clear vision that this is not a gallery. It’s not about doing a fair, a festival, a particular exhibition, public art or residency. We look at it as a movement. Fifty to sixty years down the line, I want people to look back at this period as a movement. Like the way I talked about Sawai Jai Singh II, I’d like people to look back at this moment as a period that really inspired the world to take a new look at Jaipur. I also want the people of Jaipur to feel the pride in the incredible amounts of creativity that we have.

Personally, my most emotional moment came from an accident I had a couple of years ago. It helped me think a lot about how in certain cases, our lives are insignificant in the larger scheme of things. To have this contemporary art project in the middle of a one thousand year history really reminds me of that. I think the most moving part for me is when you see the attendance numbers. We get more than two million visitors, sometimes more, each year. And a lot of these visitors are domestic, I’d say close to seventy percent. For a lot of the domestic tourists, this is the first time they’re visiting a palace in their lives. And this is certainly the first time they’re coming into contact with contemporary art. When you’re able to see these large numbers of people being moved by what they’re seeing, that’s a fulfilling experience which just makes it all well worth it.

Stockman: I’m so sorry to hear that it took an accident for you to re-evaluate your journey, Padmanabh, although life often presents us with these bittersweet challenges that require deep personal reflection. Many Americans, including myself, are fascinated by how royal dynasties function from generation to generation. And it’s very interesting that since India’s independence in 1947, royal titles have ceased to exist, and the concept of royal families has diminished. However, the legacies of the palaces and the Maharajas seem to remain deeply embedded in the culture. How has the role of the Maharaja evolved since independence, and is this shift part of the reason you’ve chosen to redefine the palace and its vision?

Singh: Yes, it’s a very interesting history. Jaipur is three hundred years old, and the one thing the Maharajas of the time were very clear about is that they were never overlords of the people. They were always first among equals, and it was in that context that they ruled. In a certain way they were practicing a form of democracy, and often the line of succession was not direct. It tended to go to the most able candidate, and it was always a group discussion.

My grandfather was the former Maharaja of Jaipur, and he was the last recognized Maharaja of Jaipur because the titles were taken away in the seventies. So when we got independence, there were about five hundred plus Maharajas of India and in a certain sense, they were all pretty independent in their own remits and operations. The idea of India is fairly new. Five hundred years ago nobody looked at this subcontinent as one country. If you ask certain historians, they’ll tell you that people would have laughed at the idea of one subcontinent because there were just so many different religions, ethnicities, castes and languages—just so many different barriers.

I think that the organization of India into one country in itself is a pretty unique project that was realized in 1947 when the British left.

But in the context of Jaipur, like I mentioned, the spirit with which the power was held was one of being first among equals. And it was in that context that when we finally did get independence in 1947 my great-grandfather was the person who led the movement for independence for all of the twenty-one princely states in Rajasthan. In a lot of cases, he went ahead and encouraged some of the other princely states to follow his lead and join the independence movement. And of course, a lot of things were said about India being ruled by Indians for the first time ever, because before the British, we had the Mughals. And before the Mughals, we had other dynasties come to India and exercise power.

And so he was pretty instrumental in that reorganization of our political entities, bringing Rajasthan together as one, into the independent union of India, or rather, Republic of India. And he also then became the first Rajpramukh, which translates to the first governor, in the independent Indian state of Rajasthan. It was actually about thirty years into our independence, or something like that, that Mahatma Gandhi, who was a very strong leader at the time, amended the Constitution and took away the titles of all the Maharaja and privileges that were promised at the time of independence or in the time of merger.

But given what was going on, the son of the governor, my grandfather, decided to go ahead and join the Indian Army and serve the Indian Army for a very long period. He retired with the second highest military honor, which is the Maha Vir Chakra, a medal he earned for the Indo Pak war.

As you can see, various members in my family have taken that spirit of serving the people very seriously, and that includes my mother, who’s a three-time elected representative and the deputy Chief minister. In a certain context, I see the work I do as a continuation of that spirit.

You know, we’re one of the world’s youngest countries, with an average age between twenty-seven and thirty. While we’re moving into this new era of robotics and quantum computing and artificial intelligence, I feel that there’s a certain part of the young people in our country who are losing touch with their culture. I’m twenty-seven years old, and so if I can use my age and whatever little influence I have to redirect some of the attention of the young people of our country into things that have stood the test of time over here into their own history, I see this as service.

Kadar: I’ve had a lot of time to think about this project and what I keep coming back to is, like Padmanabh said, India is moving so fast. What I’ve experienced being able to move around India, is that the city of Jaipur is the best example of how a city can maintain its identity and still move forward into the future. Unlike some of our tier-one cities that are moving so fast the girls don’t know how to tie a sari anymore, and the men aren’t doing the rituals—here we have this beautiful, historical city where we’re moving forward without losing our past. And I just think that is so exceptional.

At The Sculpture Park, where we partner with Saat Saath Arts, one of our upcoming projects is the JSW Garden designed by Studio Zain Masud, supported by our patron JSW, and our first artist commission. We’re planting a garden, and the garden is an artwork. I can’t go into it much more, but when Padmanabh and I began to talk about this idea—I thought a lot about the criticism and impatience I knew we were going to face, but we’re going to plant this garden, and gardens take time to grow.

It’s not going to be a revelation, like the Ai Weiwei sculpture we have out front. But what I love about everything we talk about is the understanding that we have time, that we are patient. We’re not in a rush. We’re a young institution telling a story that spans thousands of years. And so while everyone’s rushing at this incredible pace, we’re slowing down, and we’re planting a garden, and we’re just going to wait. We’re going to wait for it to tell us what it is. And so this contemporary project in some ways could be seen as old fashioned, because it’s slow and it’s steady.

Pissarro: Noelle, you’ve been in charge of three institutions: the India Art Fair, which we mentioned before, The sculpture Park, and now the Jaipur Centre for Art. Is there a relationship between the three? Obviously, through yourself there is, but can you take us a little bit through this sequence, if you don’t mind?

Kadar: To clarify, I wasn’t formally in charge of the India Art Fair, but I played a leading, front-facing role. The same is true with The Sculpture Park, a collaboration with Saat Saath Arts. I acted as director, but it was not my founding idea. This is the first project that Padmanabh and I can take credit for as something that’s truly ours. The other things I was just very lucky to be involved in but I think it all led me here.

The art fair was interesting because I had the opportunity to bring both participants and viewers into a narrative of India that I think was newer for people. I think I was very lucky to have experienced India at its highest level across many dimensions, and I wanted to tell that story. It’s a very specific version of India, not the full story, but within the context of the art fair, it was the story that deserved excellence.

So I learned a lot from the India Art Fair by being able to have these conversations, and I also got to see how interested people are in being here and working here. I started working there in 2014 and it’s grown exponentially since then, reflecting the interest that people have in our country for various reasons. And with The Sculpture Park, having the opportunity to work site-specifically, it’s been fascinating to see how eager artists are to create work here. We would approach artists and say, “You know what, we’re interested in this body of work.” And they’d be like, “I don’t want to ship anything, I want to check it out, and I want to see what I can do.” It just showed me what an opportunity we have to create meaningful exchange in a way that, as Padmanabh explained, has always existed, but maybe in the last sixty–seventy years has been passed over for other opportunities or interests. And so I think that my story goes back to this Jewish Buddhist thing. I’ve just allowed things to happen to me. I hadn’t planned to do any of this. Opportunities came and I said yes. It’s hard for me to put into words how meaningful it is to be part of this project.

Stockman: It’s fantastic to hear how grateful you are—and even your awe about being as involved as you are and having the opportunity to work with Padmanabh at such a high level. You are truly fortunate, Noelle, to have found India as the place you now call home and where you feel you belong. I fell in love with India during my first visit about twenty years ago and have returned several times since. It’s quite coincidental that we are speaking today, as I was actually supposed to meet you in person last month at the India Art Fair in New Delhi—this was even before I knew about our Brooklyn Rail interview. I was in Doha for the inaugural Art Basel event, and many attendees went on to the India Art Fair. I had planned to join them, because DMINTI, the company I co-founded with your good friend Carola Jain, installed a beautiful presentation featuring several artists at the fair. However, I had to cancel my plans at the last minute. But I’m always amazed by how small the art world is—and that our paths have intertwined anyway, highlighting just how inter-connected we all are.

Kadar: Right, I had to cancel our call for this interview.

Stockman: You mentioned karma, which stems from Indian philosophy, and it resonates with this experience and so many others. While I was zooming with Carola about the New Delhi Art Fair, I received a text from Cal McKeever asking if Joachim and I could interview you and the Maharaja the next day. I felt an immediate sense of fate; it seemed meant to be. I knew we had to ensure this interview took place because there must be a larger reason and purpose behind it.

Kadar: Right, none of us really had a choice. I mean, Padmanabh didn’t have a choice. As I said, my opportunities just happened to me. I mean, we’re all sort of—

Stockman: I’m particularly eager to learn more about your inaugural exhibition, titled A New Way of Seeing. You featured mainstream, widely recognized artists at the Jaipur Art Center, and it garnered considerable attention. Could you share more about that experience?

Kadar: What Padmanabh and I have always discussed is that Jaipur is an international city that deserves an international standard of exhibition making. So it was really important to both of us to open with a recognized Indian and international show, in which the works spoke to each other beautifully. Peter Nagy did an excellent job as the curator. It was important to show the international and domestic community what our intention was for this space, and to do that with Anish Kapoor, Hiroshi Sugimoto, and a Sean Scully painting that is the same colors as the flag of Jaipur. It was just so fabulous to bring these things together with artists like Manjunath Kamath, who deals with vernacular figurations. We wanted to make sure that anyone coming to our exhibition has something to understand, something to begin to hold on to, or some sort of language that will help them go the rest of the way. For Padmanabh and me it’s all intentional.

Pissarro: As a former director of an art school, I was struck by a recent pedagogic function you brought to an art fair experience. Correct me if I’m mistaken, but you brought Bhasha Chakrabarti, who was at the time doing her MFA—not yet a graduate from Yale University—to host a group of young people, students I believe, through an art fair. I mean, that’s such a brilliant idea. I don’t know whether you are translating this today within the Jaipur Centre for Art, but I love the fact that you have very intentionally put an emphasis on youth. Is this something you would like to comment on?

Singh: I mentioned already that our focus is on the young people of our country and of our city, and our desire to redirect some of their attention towards the vibrant cultural history of our home. But sometimes when one looks at some of the statistics that the world is living in, especially the global South, when it comes to levels of education and levels of employment, it sometimes seems like a privilege to talk about creating art and exhibitions.

In that context, I recently met an architect who works mostly in Saudi Arabia. He’s currently involved with The Line—that new city that’s coming up in NEOM. He’s doing the public infrastructure, everything from street lights to benches to footpaths, and when he came here and met me, he said something that I think about all the time.

I told him this feeling I had of being unsure whether I should talk about these things or not, and what the priority should be. And he said, one of the reasons why it’s so important to know your culture is because the city was built with an intention, and what you see today is a new layer which has enveloped the city. The city was built, like I mentioned earlier, to give birth to enterprise, which then gives birth to employment and revenue generation, and so forth. And he said that what he sees is a layer that has enveloped the original layer of the city, just because of lack of awareness. Culture is a sort of thing that can’t miss a generation. It has to be continuous. I’m grouping everything under the larger umbrella of culture—it obviously has various different tenets.

It’s important to know and be familiar with your culture because it’s going to happen whether young people like it or not. This layer is going to continue to develop. But if they know about it, and if they know and are aware of this layer, then they can decide whether they’d like to retain the original layer, or whether they’re happy for new layers to develop. And for that reason, it’s extremely important to be talking about these things then. So we are unapologetically trying to connect the youth to these projects and to this dialogue.