There can be no doubt about the pre-eminent position that the Birla Academy of Art & Culture occupies in the city’s cultural world, its flaws notwithstanding. It needs no grandstanding to establish its position. It became a household name during the big Rodin exhibition, which attracted phenomenal crowds. And as the exhibition titled Odyssey (till February 12) — “a journey into time” — with the collection to celebrate its 45th anniversary demonstrates, it is a vast repository of ancient, medieval, contemporary and international works that can hold their own against any museum anywhere in this country.

However, the same exhibition also reveals that the institution does not seem to be aware of its vast potential, and the evidence is in the lackadaisical manner in which the show was organized. If Birla Academy took the problems of security, lighting (appalling now), display and air-conditioning seriously enough, it would have solved the problem, in part at least, of holding international exhibitions in this city. It seems it did not invest as generously in infrastructure and trained personnel as it did in its rich, varied and abundant collection. The problems that beset it become evident when one takes a close look at the current exhibition.

One problem stems from the word “curate.” According to the Oxford dictionary, the verb “curate” means “to select, organize and look after the objects or works of art in a museum or art gallery, etc.” But here, as in the rest of the country, thanks to globalization, anybody who has heard of Van Gogh, or better still, of Louise Bourgeois, is convinced that s/he can successfully organize an exhibition even if s/he is incapable of stringing a straight sentence either in English or in the vernacular. Knowledge of art history becomes incidental so long as one is wearing the right accent and togs.

The exhibition covers five floors of the building, with ancient and medieval Indian occupying the ground and third floors, contemporary the first and second, and “international” the fourth. The problem with the sections on contemporary and international art is that wheat and chaff have been lumped together. The academy has some gems of contemporary Indian art and Ramkumar, Gaitonde, Ganesh Pyne (picture), G.R. Santosh, Anjolie Ela Menon and Bikash Bhattacharjee, to name a few, have been herded together without allowing their placement to throw light on their position in art history.

Thus, the exhibition provides no fresh insight into the evolution of Indian art, as did the path-breaking exhibitions on Bengal art organized by Ganesh Haloi, who had retrieved invaluable art work lying forgotten and uncared for in various archives, and thereafter by CIMA gallery in the not-so-distant past. While it is a pleasure to see the works of Altaf, Husain, Souza, H.K. Hebbar, Tyeb Mehta, N.S. Bendre, K.H. Ara and Sailoz Mukherjee all in one space, and even more so to rediscover a great watercolourist like Sawlaram Haldankar, there are perhaps far too many works, small though they are, of some Bengal artists. By cutting down on the number of exhibits, instead of maximizing it, things could have been seen in a clearer historical perspective.

One would have thought that this is a celebration of the art of senior artists, with the cut-off age being 70. But that perhaps was not the criterion as Shuvaprasanna and the sculptor, K.S. Radhakrishnan, have found a place here. Then why leave out Alok Bhattacharya, known for his excellent figurative drawing, and others of the same vintage?

The international section too is blemished by this inclination to pack everything into a limited space like the proverbial sardines, irrespective of the quality and eminence of the artist. Can Rodin, Jean Arp, Lautrec, Frank Kupka, André Masson and Louise Bourgeois be placed on the same pedestal as Kanak Champa Chakma, as was done here, however strong the curator’s faith in egalitarianism may be? The Bourgeois piece is lit inside and trailing behind it is a coil of wiring. Was there any need to exhibit the electrical connection?

The ancient and medieval section is better categorized and displayed perhaps because the collection, though large, is not overwhelmingly so like the contemporary art collection.

One noted with concern that the small Raja Ravi Varma painting was moth-eaten in some places. It is mentioned in the publicity material that the international works were displayed after conservation. One hopes works of such value were not left to the care of some local charlatan without any awareness of what he was handling. Lack of professionalism is the bane of this institution.