The black horse is long gone, yet the name Kala Ghoda persists thanks to peoples collective memory. The area in south Bombay was named after a grand 12-foot-9-inch bronze equestrian statue of King Edward VII that once stood here. Sculpted by Sir Edgar Boehm and then worth over 12,500, the statue was donated to the city in 1876 by industrialist and philanthropist, Sir Albert Sassoon to commemorate the Kings visit to the city as Prince of Wales in 1875. In the mid-60s, this statue along with many others of British personalities were damaged and removed by political activists. The Kala Ghoda was then placed in the zoological gardens of the Jijamata Udyan in Byculla.
In 1940, Kekoo Gandhy became the first Indian to be appointed Honorary Secretary of the Bombay Art Society. As interest in contemporary Indian art grew, the artists and art patrons in the city increasingly felt the dearth of a gallery where art could be exhibited throughout the year. This lacuna led to the formation of the Bombay Art Society Salon later called the Artists Centre in 1945 at premises in Ador House on Rampart Row. Soon thereafter, Mrs Walter Langhammer inaugurated artist M F Husains first major exhibition in this small gallery.