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Time of India
a day ago
- Business
- Time of India
Vitrum Studio's Legacy in Glass and Giving
In 1957, a writer in The Times of India made a fleeting remark: "In Kemps Corner, something quietly dignified has been attempted in glass and tile… One hopes it does not go unnoticed. " It didn't quite catch fire in its time, but today, that quiet dignity is finally receiving the recognition it deserves. At the Jehangir Nicholson Gallery at CSMVS, the exhibition 'A Glazed History: Badri Narayan and the Vitrum Studio' (on view till August 31) rekindles the memory of that modest yet radical design collective that once operated in the heart of south Bombay. Vitrum was born from displacement. Polish Jewish émigré Simon Lifschutz, a glassmaker who arrived in India during the Second World War, turned to glassmaking not only as livelihood but as expression. With his wife Hanna, he established Vitrum Studio in 1957 as a philanthropic offshoot of their industrial glass factory. Their aim? To marry craftsmanship with artistic vision—and to make art functional, beautiful, and within reach. You Can Also Check: Mumbai AQI | Weather in Mumbai | Bank Holidays in Mumbai | Public Holidays in Mumbai So strong was Simon's sense of belonging that he even took the effort to learn Urdu as a gesture of respect and connection to those around him. As his son, architect Alex Lifschutz, recalls: "He had experienced such a warm welcome in India after two years as an impoverished refugee moving from Poland through Russia, China and Burma. He felt so at home." Artists from Mumbai's modernist circles—Badri Narayan, Vijoo Sadwelkar, and others—were invited to paint on ceramic tiles, create mosaics and design objects like tabletops, lamps and trays. The aesthetic was tactile, vibrant, and quietly radical: neither elite nor mass-produced, it was art that could live in the everyday home. For Badri Narayan (1929–2013), Vitrum was more than a studio. As its first and eventual chief artist, Narayan brought with him an idealism shaped by Ruskin, William Morris, and the Arts and Crafts movement. Drawing inspiration from Diego Rivera and the US Federal Art Project, he advocated for murals and public installations across Indian cities. His most visible contribution remains the glass mosaic mural for Charles Correa's Gandhi Darshan pavilion in Delhi—a surviving testament to what Vitrum aimed for: art woven into architecture and into civic identity. In the 1960s and '70s, Narayan's handcrafted tiles sold for just 10–15, reflecting his belief that art should be accessible, democratic, and embedded in daily life. He envisioned a public art movement—ambitious, perhaps even idealistic, as the exhibition text acknowledges—but one that championed the social application of art. Curated by Puja Vaish, 'A Glazed History' is as much archaeology as it is an art show. It pieces together fragments—tiles from private collections, rare photographs, Films Division clips, architectural commissions—to reconstruct the life and legacy of a studio nearly lost to time. One of the richest sources was collector Haresh Mehta, who preserved dozens of original Vitrum pieces and shared long-forgotten anecdotes and materials. The exhibition places Vitrum within the wider context of post-independence cultural nation-building. Supported by the Central Cottage Industries under Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, Vitrum's work stood at the confluence of craft revivalism and modernist aesthetics. For Narayan, this confluence also meant engaging with tradition while forging a contemporary voice—drawing on mythologies, folklore, and literature to create a symbolic vocabulary. Vitrum Studio was also, as Alex Lifschutz recalls, a deeply personal endeavour. "Art was very important to my mother and father," he says. "Both had a hand in the Studio although my father was much more responsible for the factory." Simon, an engineer trained in industrial glass, also saw art as a civic commitment. "He wanted to create value—not just economic, but cultural, social and aesthetic." That ethos extended to their charitable ventures, like teaching child beggars to make delicate glass animals. The studio's design itself embraced passive cooling, recycled materials, and thoughtful provisions for women workers—making Vitrum a forerunner of today's ethical design studios. "There isn't a single 'right time' for overlooked histories to surface," says Vaish. "But this one reminds us that art can be civic, democratic and collaborative." Vitrum's legacy, as Alex sees it, was always about creating value—not just economic, but social, cultural and aesthetic.
India Today
21-06-2025
- General
- India Today
A glazed history: Badri Narayan and the Vitrum studio
Currently on view at the Jehangir Nicholson Gallery in Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, A Glazed History: Badri Narayan and the Vitrum Studio explores the crossovers of art and design in post-independence India. The short-lived Vitrum Studio (1957–1974) was founded by glass expert Simon Lifschutz, a Jewish war migr from Poland. The studio invited artists to paint on ceramic tiles and create tesserae (Venetian-style glass mosaics) as affordable art and home dcor objects such as coasters, trays, tabletops and lamps.
Hindustan Times
15-06-2025
- Business
- Hindustan Times
How a WW II Polish couple's Kemps Corner studio introduced Mumbai artists to glass mosaics and painted ceramics
MUMBAI: During World War II (1939 to 1945), a number of Jews fleeing Nazi persecution in Europe found refuge in Bombay, and enriched the city's culture and its arts. Musician Walter Kaufmann influenced Indian musicology, Austrian dancer Hilde Holger (later Boman-Behram) established the School of Art for Modern Movement in Fort and Rudolf von Leyden became a prominent art promoter, especially of the Ganjifa cards. In this mix were Simon Lifschutz and his wife Hanna, a Polish-Jewish refugee couple who established the city's foremost glass and ceramic studio in Kemps Corner. They introduced Mumbai's artists to glass mosaics and painted ceramics, making a significant impact on the art and design scene in Mumbai then. Yet, Lifschutzs and their Studio Vitrum (glass in Latin) have been mostly unknown until now. A new art exhibition, 'A Glazed History: Badri Narayan and the Vitrum Studio', by the Jehangir Nicholson Art Foundation (JNAF), at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS), is reintroducing Mumbai to the studio, its artists and their art. It's a culmination of an intensive two-year research and investigation into Studio Vitrum, which took Puja Vaish, the director of JNAF and curator of the show, to archives and art collections across India, to piece together Studio Vitrum's story. 'The exhibition revisits two overlooked chapters in Modern Indian Art—Badri Narayan's legacy and Vitrum Studio's cultural role—as entry points into broader debates on art, design and public space,' says Vaish. Studio Vitrum (1957-74) was a philanthropic project of the Polish couple's glass factory in Vikhroli called Vitrum. It manufactured glass bottles for pharmacy and cosmetic companies, including Ponds and Nivea. The studio specialised in hand-painted ceramic tiles and glass mosaics, and was later renamed Hexamar Studio. It invited artists to paint on ceramic tiles and create Venetian type of glass mosaic tesserae, as affordable art and home decor objects such as coasters, trays, tabletops and lamps, says Vaish. These seldom seen objects and a few paintings make up the 102 works displayed in the exhibition. They are sourced from JNAF's collection and from private collectors such as Dadiba Pundole, Pheroza Godrej and Haresh Mehta. Most of these were made by artist Badri Narayan (1929 – 2013). He was, in many ways, the lead artist of the studio, promoting it and getting other artists to work there as well. Narayan's city scape -- a glass mosaic -- makes for the exhibition's centre piece. Small blue, yellow and red pieces of glass are stuck together to represent a city dotted with big and small, wide and narrow buildings, all fused together, without any breathing room between the structures. 'The work shows Mumbai's suburb of Chembur,' says Dadiba Pundole, an art expert who runs the Pundole gallery and Pundole's auction house. Around the 1970s when the work was made, Narayan was living in Chembur, home to thousands of Partition refugees. The work is from Mehta's collection. Dadiba, though, has a few ceramic plates and bowls on which Narayan has etched similar paintings, which are also displayed in the exhibition. Another prominent work in glass mosaic by Narayan is based on the theme of the Last Supper, while his painted ceramic tile work showing a watermelon vendor in the foreground of those fused buildings is placed alongside a painting on the same subject. A wall in the exhibition is dedicated to works of unknown artists – hand-painted, glazed ceramic tiles that depicts a village scene by S.A.M Kazi, another village scene showing women in ghaghra choli by VM Sohoni and a black and white figure of a lady wearing colourful jewellery by Anjali Das. All of these are from 63-year-old businessman Mehta's collection. In the interim, however, many established artists such as KH Ara, KK Hebbar and AA Raiba worked in the studio. 'It used to be a buzzing space,' says Mehta. He has hundred-plus objects in his personal collection created there, including a ceramic plate of FN Souza. Mehta also published a book on the studio titled 'Vitrum' at the opening of the exhibition on June 13. In its foreword, Pheroza Godrej writes that her family's friends, the Capadias, had rented the ground floor of their Ratton Villa to the studio. She saw artists experiment with glazes, paint tiles and fire the kiln. In the foreword, she says, 'It was not just a space for ceramics, it was a gathering place, a place where parties were held, where friendships were made and where the essence of creativity filled the air.' Another interesting discovery is that of glass mosaic murals at prominent buildings in Mumbai. 'Many architects would visit artists to make glass and ceramic murals on building facades,' says Vaish. MF Husain did a few – one for the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, another for LIC building in Nariman Point and one for Hindustan Unilever in Churchgate. Where – JNAF gallery, CSMVS, Kala Ghoda Date – On view until August 31 Timing – 10.15 am to 6 pm Museum entry – ₹200 for adults.
