The 53rd National Exhibition is being organized by the Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi. The event will be inaugurated by His Excellency, Shri Surjit Singh Barnala, Governor of Tamil Nadu, on Saturday, 27th August, 2011, at 6.00 p. m. at the Lalit Kala Akademi Regional Centre Gallery, 4 Greams Road, Chennai – 600006, in the presence of Shri K R Subbanna, Vice Chairman, Dr. Sudhakar Sharma, Secretary, other officials of the Lalit Kala Akademi and members of the art fraternity.

The event, being held annually, since 1959, is a major public face occasion of the National Academy of Art. In recent years, in keeping with its national character, the choice of venue for this event has been shifted from New Delhi to centres of art located in the Regional Centres of the Lalit Kala Akademi as well as tier II cities pan-India.

In previous years, National Exhibition venues have been at Hyderabad, Guwahati, Kochi, Lucknow, Bhopal, Chandigarh, and Panjim (Goa). The current showing of the National Exhibition has generated unprecedented support from the art community. A record 7723 exhibits from 3048 artists were received. Of these 117 entries were short listed for display and the National Exhibition Awards. Artwork entries were received from all parts of India, including areas of the north east, where the earlier track record of participation had been somewhat slim.

The selection of artworks for the exhibition were made on the basis of the quality of execution, freshness of images, innovative use of materials, novel application of colour and freshness of stylistic markers in the works. These broad-based guidelines thus do not take into consideration any particular school of thought or execution and define contemporary art as a shared human heritage with an Indian orientation.

The Screening Committee for the National Exhibition comprised senior and established names of the fraternity. The five-member panel consisted of Prof. Prem Singh (Noida), Prof. Pankaj Panwar (Santiniketan), Prof. Vijai Bagodi (Baroda), Shri Anandamoy Banerjee (Ghaziabad), Shri Vimal Kundu (Kolkata), and Shri Anil Kumar (Gwalior). The finalists for the National Award were selected by members of the jury consisting of artists of eminence. Prof. Jai Kishan Agarwal (Lucknow), Prof Prabhakar Kolte (Mumbai), Prof Jai Zharotia (New Delhi), Shri A Viswam (Chennai), and Prof Hanuman Kambli (Goa).

National Academy Award Winners 2011