The Kerala Museum celebrates the people, history and the arts of Kerala. Philanthropist and entrepreneur Madhavan Nayar founded the Museum in Kochi in 1986. Originally, it had only one gallery, the Museum of Kerala History, which was dedicated to key episodes and personalities in the state’s past.

Between 1990 and 1993, Nayar collected nearly 230 works by iconic modern Indian artists such as Raja Ravi Varma, Jamini Roy, MF Husain and KG Subramanyan. These works form the core collection of Kerala Museum’s Art Gallery, formally inaugurated in 1993. It continues to be the only comprehensive collection of modern Indian art accessible to the public in Kerala.