Seventy-one years of unbroken tradition met a single evening's spotlight on Tuesday, 29 September 2026, as Union Culture and Tourism Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat presided over the closing ceremony of the 65th National Art Exhibition 2026 at the Lalit Kala Gallery, Rabindra Bhavan, New Delhi — honouring talented artists from across the country in one of India's oldest and most prestigious platforms for contemporary visual arts.

Seven Decades of the National Art Exhibition

The National Art Exhibition has been held every year since 1955 — making it one of the longest-running state-backed showcases of Indian visual arts in the country's post-independence history. Organised by the Lalit Kala Akademi, India's national academy of fine arts established in 1954 under the Ministry of Culture, the exhibition was conceived as the primary annual platform for contemporary Indian artists to gain national recognition. Seventy-one editions later, that mandate remains unchanged.

Minister Shekhawat, posting on X in Hindi, described the exhibition as 'भारतीय दृश्यकला का अप्रतिम मंच' — 'an unparalleled platform for Indian visual arts' — underscoring the government's view of the Akademi's role as a cultural anchor, not merely an administrative body.

A Catalogue and a Monograph: Documenting Indian Art

Beyond the award ceremony, two publications were released at the event: the official catalogue of the 65th National Art Exhibition and a monograph on artist Abdul Aziz Raiba. The dual release signals the Akademi's continued emphasis on documentation alongside celebration — ensuring that the works and the artists recognised at the exhibition enter the permanent record of Indian art history.

Abdul Aziz Raiba is an Indian artist whose practice is now the subject of this dedicated monograph, a form of institutional recognition that the Lalit Kala Akademi periodically extends to significant figures in the visual arts landscape.

Rabindra Bhavan: The Address of Indian Culture

Rabindra Bhavan in New Delhi is the cultural complex that houses the Lalit Kala Akademi galleries alongside other national academies, making it one of the most symbolically loaded addresses in India's institutional arts world. Holding the closing ceremony here — rather than at a commercial venue — is itself a statement about the exhibition's standing within the government's cultural framework.

The Ministry of Culture's consistent support for Akademi events reflects a long-standing post-independence policy architecture: national academies as the state's primary instruments for nurturing, documenting, and projecting Indian artistic identity. The 65th edition is one more chapter in that architecture — and, if the pattern holds, the 66th is already on the calendar.