Government Museum and Art Gallery, Chandigarh, Art and natural history museum in Chandigarh, India.
The Government Museum and Art Gallery is a three-level building in Chandigarh designed by Le Corbusier with Manmohan Nath Sharma, Pierre Jeanneret and Shiv Dutt Sharma. Its long facade sets reddish-brown brick panels and a recessed glass section with vertical white fins above a white concrete band carried on cylindrical columns, forming a ground-level colonnade. Inside, the 33,000 sq ft first level holds the reception, textile section, child art gallery and auditorium, while the upper levels hold the sculpture, miniature painting and coin galleries.
Following India's partition in 1947, the museum received forty percent of the art collection from the Central Museum in Lahore, forming its foundational holdings. This transfer established it as a major repository for Indian artworks.
The museum's name reflects its dual role as a government-run collection and an art gallery. Its Pahari miniatures were added by Dr. M. S. Randhawa, the Chief Commissioner who inaugurated the museum in 1968, alongside modern and contemporary Indian art. The reception area holds a mural by Satish Gujral, and the adjacent auditorium hosts lectures, film screenings and cultural events.
The museum is in Sector 10, open Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 AM to 4:40 PM, and closed on Mondays and national holidays. Wheelchairs are provided for visitors with physical disabilities, and organised school groups and senior citizens enter free. The building has three levels: reception, textile section, child art gallery and auditorium on the first; Gandhara sculpture, miniature painting, sculpture, coins and contemporary art on the second; the library on the third.
The museum is one of only three built to Le Corbusier's designs, alongside Sanskar Kendra in Ahmedabad and the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo. Its pivoted entrance door, fixed furniture and exposed-concrete gargoyles carry that same Chandigarh vocabulary, and a mural by Satish Gujral colours the reception area.
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