Dates: June 1, 2024 – July 14, 2024
Place: Mumbai, India
Apply here! For questions contact Sharifa Halimi at shalimi@sas.upenn.edu
Mumbai (formerly called Bombay) is a densely populated city on India’s west coast. A financial center, it's India's largest city. On the Mumbai Harbour waterfront stands the iconic Gateway of India stone arch, built by the British Raj in 1924. Offshore, nearby Elephanta Island holds ancient cave temples dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva. The city's also famous as the heart of the Bollywood film industry.
Internship Coordinator: Mallika Sagar
Mallika Sagar is a specialist in Modern and Contemporary Indian art and is Pundole’s auctioneer. Mallika began her career at Christie’s and held the first sale of Modern Indian Art in New York in 2000 and was Christie’s first Indian woman auctioneer. She continues to work as an independent art consultant with collectors both within India and abroad.
Internship Structure:
The fist 4 weeks to be spent at the Jehangir Nicholson Art Foundation (JNAF), a small private museum located within the Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (formerly the Prince of Wales Museum).The JNAF is one of the most important collections of Modern Indian Art, collected during the lifetime of Jehangir Nicholson, the former sheriff of Mumbai. More information is available at www.jnaf.org. The project will include researching the artists and the works in the collection as well as working on archiving material.
The interns will then move to Pundole’s (profile attached) for the remaining two weeks and work on the upcoming auction in August / September. They will also research and do some more banal work including photography, layouts, cataloguing, etc. Parallel to this, they will have the unique job of interviewing Dadiba Pundole to try and document his journey over the last forty years in the business.
Dadiba Pundole remains one of the most respected gallerists for Modern Indian Art. He is well-known for his in-depth knowledge on the Modernists including V.S. Gaitonde, Akbar Padamsee, S.H. Raza, Ram Kumar, M.F. Husain and F.N. Souza. Pundole Art Gallery began representing these artists in the 1960s and Dadiba worked them for several years. In addition to gaining a unique understanding of their body of work, he had the privilege of spending a significant amount of time with some of them, developing relationships that extended well beyond the professional artist-gallerist equation. Dadiba was a consultant at Sotheby’s for their Modern Indian Art sales from 2005 to 2010.
Host Institution: Pundole, The Auction House. (Other opportunities may well be explored including working in a gallery environment, spending time with a Museum / Foundation, doing research with leading academics or visiting artist studios.)
Mentor: Mallika Sagar, Specialist & Auctioneer will guide the internship in consultation with Sonal Khullar.
Program Dates: Summer 2024
Program Length: 6 Weeks
Housing: Students will be placed in one of South Mumbai’s three clubs – The Cricket Club of India, The Malabar Hill Club or The Yacht Club
Internships Available: 2 students will be selected. FULLY FUNDED
For questions, contact Sharifa Halimi at shalimi@sas.upenn.edu
APPLICATION DEADLINE: March 1, 2024, 11:59 PM EST