Jagdish and Kamla Mittal at their home in Domalguda in 2008.
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The artworks collected by Jagdish Mittal and his wife Kamala travelled the world as loaned art objects, including this Pahari painting showing Drunken Musicians.
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Jagdish Mittal executing a mural at the Shantiniketan in 1947.
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ARRANGEMENT
Jagdish Mittal receiving the Padma Shree Award from the President R. Venkataraman in 1990.
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ARRANGEMENT
The Jagdish and Kamala Mittal Museum brought out a range of books on Indian art including on Pahari Paintings in 2014. At the launch in New Delhi, (L to R) Nitin Bhayana, William Dalrymple, Jyotindra Jain and Jagdish Mittal.
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ARRANGEMENT
Aesthete, art collector, connoisseur and artist Jagdish Mittal passed away on Tuesday (January 7, 2025) at a private hospital at 4.54 p.m. in Hyderabad. He had celebrated his 99th birthday on September 16, 2024. “He had congestion in his chest and cold. Today it got aggravated in the morning and we rushed him to the hospital. The doctors announced his passing at 4.54 p.m.,” informed a family member. His wife Kamla Mittal pre-deceased him and passed away in November 2012.
Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy took to X (formerly Twitter) to express his condolences over the death and said that the immense efforts made by Jagdish Mittal to preserve and promote Indian arts and heritage were invaluable.
Hailing from a working class family with his father as an engineer, Jagdish Mittal moved to Hyderabad in 1953 after studying in Shantiniketan and was the founder-member of Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage. As his collection of art objects grew, he and his wife decided to create a public trust named Jagdish and Kamla Mittal Museum of Indian Art and bequethed their collection to its care in 1976.
“His immense contributions to preserving and promoting Indian art and heritage will forever remain invaluable. May his soul rest in peace, and may his family and loved ones find strength during this difficult time. His legacy will continue to inspire generations of artists, art lovers, and historians,” said well known artist Laxman Aelay.
“He had inaugurated not just Daira Center for Arts And Culture he opened several avenues for innumerable artists. He lit so many lamps in the city that every member of the art fraternity will have something special to share. I remember the day he had come to open an exhibition at Daira. The Minaz Art Gallery and Daira were just a lock apart (we shared a wall and a door which was always locked). That particular evening he insisted that we break the lock immediately and join both the galleries. Unfortunately, due to technicalities we couldn’t do this but this escapade is clearly etched on my mind when all of us (just before the inaugural) were hammering the lock away,” recalled curator Atiya Amjad about Mittal and his love for the arts.
Mittal and his family were in the process of preparing for the annual international seminar called Dakhan scheduled to take place from January 9–11. Called Studies in Indian Painting and Textiles, the 3-day seminar, hosted by the Jagdish and Kamla Mittal Museum of Indian Art had the pick of Indian and foreign specialists among the invitees.
”He collected exquisite artefacts that are now housed in the Jagadish and Kamala Mittal Museum of Indian Art. This remarkable collection of artefacts is a testament to the passion and dedication to Indian history and culture and has brought immense pride and recognition to Hyderabad,” said filmmaker B. Narsing Rao on the demise of Mittal.
Published – January 07, 2025 11:59 pm IST
