The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) that I visited last month, is one of my favourite places in New York. In fact, while researching for the Satyajit Ray, His Contemporaries and Legacy retrospective that I curated for the Toronto International Film Festival’s TIFF Cinematheque last month, I came across fascinating information on the MoMA website that made me see my work as a curator in a different perspective. MoMA screened Satyajit Ray’s debut feature Pather Panchali on May 3, 1955. Prepping for their exhibition on Textiles and Ornamental Arts of India, Edgar J Kaufmann, Jr, MoMA’s Director of Good Design, happened to see Ray’s work-in-progress in Calcutta, and was so impressed, he persuaded Edward Steichen and Monroe Wheeler, then MoMA’s Director of Exhibitions and Publications, to actually send Ray finishing funds to complete the film, so it could be shown during the textiles exhibition. That’s how Pather Panchali had its world premiere at MoMA, immediately establishing Ray’s international reputation.

It was only the following year that the film was shown at the Cannes International Film Festival, in 1956, where it won the Human Document Prize, which consolidated his reputation. So Edgar J Kaufmann,Jr, a curator or rather Director of Good Design, MoMA, played a crucial role not only in discovering Ray and firmly establishing his career internationally, but also consolidating the place of Indian cinema globally. The MoMA team had the expansive vision to offer funding for a then-unknown debut filmmaker, and even include his film for an exhibition on Indian textiles and ornaments.