Zapurza Museum of Art & Culture

Zapurza Museum of Art & Culture is a museum located in Kudje village, located 25 kilometers from the city of Pune in Maharashtra, India. it opened to the public in May 2022. The museum was inaugurated by flautist pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia. The museum depicts an extensive collection of family heirloom of Maharashtra coupled with a collection of Indian painters and historic artifacts.
The museum displays the collection of Ajit Gadgil, accumulated over the period of 25 years. He is the sixth generation of a family of jewellers from Pune and when people came to pawn of their family heirloom, he admired the craftsmanship and knew how invaluable the pieces are, he did not have the heart to melts them, hence he started collecting the interesting pieces. Apart from the jewelry, people also brought paithani sarees with real gold jari, the process to attract the gold from the jari included burning the sari, however, Gadil never burnt these sarees and added it to his collection. Thus, Gadgil started his journey of collection sculptures, paintings, artefacts, textiles, lamps, prints and silverware. He has collected around 1500 objects and only 30-35 percent can be displayed at time, museum rotates its collection, so, all the pieces could be displayed.
The concept behind the museum was to display the tradition and culture of Maharashtra, the museum is designed by Shirish Beri, from Kolhapur along with the Dilip Joshi. The museum has a perfect setting, it is situated overlooking the Khadakwasla Lake with Sinhagad Fort in the backdrop. It covers an area of 7.5- 8 acres. The campus includes ten galleries, 195 seater auditorium, amphitheater by the lake, multiple studios for various activities and a café.
During an interview Raju Sutar the curator of the museum said that the ides behind the museum was to make it welcoming and open to all, in contrast to an intimidating grand facade generally portrayed by the museums. The colour pallette of the museum is composed of earthy tones, by using traditional materials such as stone masonry, pitched roof with terracotta tiles.
The museum consists of eight galleries, gallery one exhibits work of modern and contemporary artists including Rabindranath Tagore, FN Souza, S.H. Raza, Jamini Roy, Tyeb Mehta, M. V. Dhurandhar, and Raja Ravi Varma. Gallery two is called "light of world", dedicated to fire, it depicts the history and objects of fire starting from lighting fire in a forest to modern day electric lamps. Gallery three, talks about the history of printing and how it had change the mode of communication and transfer of knowledge. Gallery four is dedicated to neo tantric artist Prabhakar Barve, his works range from abstract to surreal. Gallery five, displays the Indian tradition of weaving its own fabric ranging from silk to cotton , which was also imported to Roman Empire, the gallery consists of a large collection of Paithani sarees. Gallery six has a display of jewellery from Maharashtra, which has a unique deign combining chatai (mesh work), beads and embossing. Galley seven is representation of Maharashtra school of thought, which mainly dedicated to Bhakti Movement, most of the art originated in Maharashtra was dedicated to religion, paintings and sculptures were created to decorate the temples and pilgrimage areas and music kirtan was believed to be a form of worship. Gallery eight is an exhibit by Jayant B Joshi.
Gallery seven displays the works of artists from Sir J. J. School of Art which includes The Bombay School, such as S. L. Haldankar, known for his watercolours and Abalal Rahiman, pioneer of Kolhapur School of European Naturalism. A painting by MV Dhurandhar displays a woman with a saree pallu over her head, holding three spherical fruits and staring out of the frame. The work was credited to Baburao Painter, although during conservation the signature of MV Dhurandhar was revealed.
Gallery of imprint displays black stone used in the workshop of Raja Ravi Varma to create oleographs. Oleograph is a traditional means of mass printing, and Ravi Varma used them to print images of gods and goddess depicting popular scenes from mythology.