[2][page needed] This institution, initially registered as Delhi Fine Arts Society in 1929, was founded by artist–brothers Barada and Sarada Ukil who were students of Abanindranath Tagore.

[3] Though the idea of the National Gallery was floated in 1949, the state-supported NGMA was formally inaugurated by Vice-president Dr S.Radhakrishnan in 1954, in the presence of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

[5] The Gallery opened with an exhibition of contemporary sculpture, apart from showcasing its initial collection of around 200 works, which consisted of paintings by Amrita Sher Gill, Rabindranath Tagore, Jamini Roy, Nandalal Bose, and M. A. R. Chugtai, among others.

[6][7] The collections of NGMA and its regional centers comprise around 17,000 art objects - paintings, drawings, sculptures, prints, photographs, and installations, essentially by Indian artists, built over the years through gifts, purchases, and permanent loans.

The National Gallery of Modern Art finally opened at the Jaipur House, on 29 March 1954, under the administration of the government and with an inaugural ceremony by Dr. Humayun Kabir, the then secretary of the Ministry of Education.

Academic Realists, Raja Ravi Varma, and those trained in the British art schools like M. F. Pithawala, Pestonjee Bomonjee, Hemen Majumdar amongst others contribute to a substantial presence.

The next important phase of modern Indian artist, the Bengal School which countered the values of academic realists, is strongly represented by Abanindranath Tagore and his followers M. A. R Chughtai, Kshitindra Majumdar and others.

The Santiniketan movement explored new aesthetic dimensions in its celebration of the environment, and its masters are Nandalal Bose, Ramkinkar Baij and Benode Behari Mukherjee.

Following the spirit of group activity, K. C. S. Paniker along with S. G. Vasudev, Paris Viswanathan and K. Ramanujan set up the idyllic artists' commune in Cholamandal, near Chennai.

The new artistic expressions are represented in the NGMA collection in the works of Biren De, G. R. Santosh, V. S. Gaitonde, Tyeb Mehta, Satish Gujral, Akbar Padamsee, N. S. Bendre, K. K. Hebbar, Sailoz Mookherjea, Krishen Khanna and Ram Kumar.

The museum has a collection of graphic prints of artists such as Jyoti Bhatt, Somnath Hore, Krishna Reddy, Anupam Sud, and Laxma Goud.

[18] The NGMA holds a rich and varied collection of works of the major sculptors of the country with D. P. Roy Chowdhury, Ramkinkar Baij, Pradosh Das Gupta, Shankoo Chaudhuri, Meera Mukherjee, Amarnath Sehgal, Piloo Pochkhanwala, A. Davierwalla, Mahendra Pandya, Nagji Patel, Balbir Kat, Latika Kat, P. V. Jankiram, Nandgopal, and later contemporaries like Himmat Shah, Madan Lal, Mrinalini Mukherjee, Sudarshan Shetty, Subodh Gupta, Prithpal Singh Ladi, and Karlo Antao amongst other eminent sculptors, tracking the developments in the plastic arts.

The collection also includes sculptures, graphics and paintings by international modern artists such as Jacob Epstein, Giorgio de Chirico, Sonia Delaunay, Antoni Tàpies, Robert Rauschenberg, Se Duk Lee, D. C. Daja, Peter Lubarda, Kozo Mio, George Keyt and Fred Thieler.