Face to Face: A Portrait of a City

Event Name: Face to Face: A Portrait of a City
Artists: Multiple historical and modern portrait artists including Frank Brooks, V. B. Pathare, M. V. Dhurandhar, M. F. Husain and others
Curated By: Presented by DAG (curator not listed)

If the many faces of a city could tell its story, Face to Face: A Portrait of a City steps into that conversation by charting 30 portraits that reveal Bombay’s evolving social fabric, cultural history and artistic landscape from the 19th to the 20th century. Through portraits of rulers, reformers, artists, everyday citizens and community leaders, the exhibition shows how Bombay—shaped by empire, commerce and migration—repeatedly reimagined itself across time.

The works in this exhibition range from academic realism introduced by colonial institutions to more expressive approaches developed by Indian practitioners, highlighting shifts in style alongside the city’s changing identity. Figures such as Dr B.R. Ambedkar, Parsi philanthropists, Maharashtrian theatre icons and other influential personalities appear alongside lesser-known but equally vital contributors to Bombay’s civic life.

The exhibition invites visitors to see portraiture not merely as likeness but as a way of reading history and collective memory, where each face operates as a doorway into social, political and cultural worlds. By bringing these portraits together, the show offers a layered visual biography of the city and a reflection on how identity, belonging and aspiration have taken shape in one of India’s most dynamic metropolises.