Kalighat Painting www.craftcanvas.com
Craft Manual by
Table of Contents • About Us • Introduction • Mythology • Material Used • Process of Kalighat Painting • Motifs • Additional References • Image Source
www.craftcanvas.com
Craft Manual by
About Us CraftCanvas is a link between rural artisan communities and the urban customer, translating an ages old craft into something that is relevant today. It is based on the idea of contemporizing Indian Handicrafts through a common platform and canvas where stake holders of the craft community like artisans, designers, craft practitioners, etc can come together to create unique products and experiences suited to modern day living. India has a rich handicraft heritage and we owe this to generations of artisans who have blended tradition, religion, social norms and functionality to bring craft where it is today. However, there has been a significant shift in sensibilities of present-day craft patrons thereby highlighting a need for Handicrafts to adapt to these changes. We believe that there is a place for India’s traditional crafts even in the most modern of spaces and this process of evolution is what CraftCanvas facilitates. Handicraft patrons like you can express your requirements ranging from wall murals, soft furnishings, paintings, furniture and lighting among many others. Our team will assist you in transforming their ideas and aesthetic preferences to final products with a high level of artistry. On the other end, we are constantly forming collaborations between the craft and design community through which an interesting blend of experiences and products are developed. Working with designers, traditional artisans are trained to adapt to this new design scenario. For designers, it gives them an opportunity to create solutions that embody the essence of the craft. Subsequently, these innovations are marketed by CraftCanvas through channels like online store, workshops, exhibitions etc. Please feel free to browse through our site for specific information on our various initiatives and we look forward to welcoming you to our world of crafts.
www.craftcanvas.com
Craft Manual by
Introduction
Kalighat Painting of Gods and Goddesses
Kalighat painting or Kalighat Pat originated in the 19th century Bengal, in the vicinity of Kalighat’s Kali temple, Kolkata, India. Being items of souvenir taken by the visitors to the Kali temple, the paintings over a period of time developed as a distinct school of Indian painting. They are done by the group of artists called
‚patuas‛. Their appeal is direct but complex. With their bold simplifications, strong lines, vibrant colours and visual rhythm, these drawings have a surprising similarity to modern art. Yet their subjects and intentions are very localized. Part of their mystery lies in the fact that they are a hybrid of east and west, combining traditions and techniques which were both Bengali and British.
www.craftcanvas.com
Craft Manual by
Mythology
Kalighat, Kolkata- shown with the Kalighat Temple and the river, Adi Ganga
By the early 19th century, the Kalighat Temple was a popular destination for local people, pilgrims and a few foreign visitors. With the rise in popularity and fame of the goddess Kali, many of the artisans and craftsmen flocked to the Kalighat area to capitalize on the new market by selling cheap religious souvenirs to the visitors. Soon after that a number of skilled artists moved to Kolkata from the rural areas of Bengal especially from 24 Paraganas and Midnapore to set up stalls outside the Temple. In the villages they had painted long narrative stories on scrolls of handmade paper often stretched to over 20 feet in length and were known as pattachitra. Each section was known as a pat and the artists therefore became known as patuas. The patuas would travel from village to village, unrolling the scroll a section at a time and singing the stories to their audiences. However, the visitors to Kalighat did not want to buy long scrolls which would take a lot of time to paint. The patuas therefore started painting single pictures involving just one or two figures that could be painted quickly with simple forms leaving the background plain and eliminating non- essential details.
Kalighat paintings were in vogue not earlier than 1850. However, the paintings attained its pinnacle in between 1880 and 1890. Most of the Kalighat painting collections at museums in different parts of the world can be attributed to this period. The glamour of Kalighat Paintings decayed gradually after that, as the www.craftcanvas.com
Craft Manual by
market was flooded with cheap printed reproductions of the themes of Kalighat paintings. Cheap oleographs from Germany and Bombay, some of them blatant imitations of Kalighat paintings substituted the real ones. These cheap copies have practically killed hand-painted art production as a business and with it the artistic instincts and creative faculty of the painters of Kalighat. Not being able to cope with the competition of machine-made productions cheaper than hand-drawn and hand painted pictures, their children have now taken to other professions. The Kalighat paintings were categorised into three broad phases which can be expanded to the entire genre of Kalighat paintings. Phase I: Dated between 1800 and 1850, which attributes the origins of the genre, and the formation of essential Kalighat characteristics. Phase II: Dated between 1850 and 1890, this set depicts many variations between style, composition and colour This was the peak period for Kalighat paintings. Phase III: Dates from 1900 to 1930, which shows the end of the tradition with the infiltration of cheap lithographs.
www.craftcanvas.com
Craft Manual by
Materials Used
Natural Colours used in Kalighat Painting
Kalighat paintings are produced with variety of water based, opaque colours on paper. The papers are either handmade or machine made. Several colours like blue, indigo, red, green, yellow, carbon black etc. are used in Kalighat paintings. Some of these colours were made of indigenous ingredients. For example, yellow was produced from the Turmeric root, blue was made from petals of Aparajita flower, and black was produced from common soot by burning an oil lamp under a pot. Silver and golden colours were also used for ornamentation. Kalighat artists used colloidal tin extensively as a substitute of silver to embellish their paintings and to replicate the surface effects of jewels and pearls. Along with the colours, gum of Bel fruit or crushed tamarind seeds was used as binder. Later on, imported factory-made water colours were available from Britain and patuas took full advantage of these cheaper materials, avoiding use of home-made colours. Earlier brushes used were made of Goat’s tail or squirrel’s hair.
www.craftcanvas.com
Craft Manual by
Process of Kalighat Painting
A patua painter painting Kalighat painting
The method of drawing is very simple and a family affair. One artist copies in pencil the outline from an original model sketch, and another would do the modeling, depicting the flesh and muscles in lighter and darker shades. Then a third family member puts in the proper colours in different parts of the body and the background, and finally outlines and finish is done in lamp black. The colours are mixed with water and gum and moulded on a round stone with a granite muller.
www.craftcanvas.com
Craft Manual by
Motifs The themes in Kalighat paintings had wide variety from the pantheon of Hindu Gods and Goddess to the religious and contemporary social events. Kalighat Paintings: Religious and Mythological themes
Kalighat Paintings of Goddess Parvati and Lord Krishna
Kalighat paintings were mainly sold as items of religious souvenir taken back by the visitors to the Kali temple. It was thus obvious that the prime focus were given to religious and mythological characters. From the depiction of Hindu gods & goddesses, episodes from Ramayana and Mahabharata, scenes from the life of Krishna to the other mythological characters, the Kalighat paintings are developed to reflect a variety of religious themes. Amongst the deities, Kali was the favourite and apart from that, Shiva in the form of Panchanan or sitting alongside Parvati on Nandi or carrying Sati, Lakshmi herself or in the form of Gajalakshmi or Chandi as Kamalekamini, Durga as Mahishasurmardini, and other gods and goddesses like Kartikeya, Ganesha, Saraswati, Jagadhatri etc were the popular themes of Kalighat paintings. Different incarnations of Vishnu like Parashurama, Balarama, Krishna, Rama etc. and series of scenes from life of Krishna like milking a cow, killing Putana, affair with Radha, Kaliya daman etc. were represented in Kalighat repertoire.
www.craftcanvas.com
Craft Manual by
In the village, unrolling the sequential frames of pictures of two great epics while chanting the story was part of the traditional performances of patuas in Bengal and Kalighat paintings were no exception in portraying the episodes of two great epics. The Kalighat patuas painted stories from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata in quite a fashionable way. The interesting thing in Kalighat painting was the presence of Islamic and Christian icons. The painters sought to capture all slices of the truly cosmopolitan market available to them. One famous representation in Kalighat Paintings was ‚Duldul Horse‛ on which Husain, the younger grandson of Prophet Muhammad, was killed in the battle of Karbala. There were many such instances which pertained to Islamic mythology. Kalighat Paintings: A portrayal of Society
Kalighat Paintings depicting Babu Culture
‚The folk art of Kalighat did not keep itself divorced from life. Events of burning interest, social oddities and idiosyncrasies, follies and foibles of people, hypocrisies and meanness-these never escaped the Kalighat painters. There are number of examples that attributed that patuas were keen observers of life. Wealthy zamindars spending their money on wine and women, foppish babus spending their day and night at nasty places. These would not escape the searching eyes of these artists and they would draw the caricatures in such a way as would repel ordinary people from such activities‛.
www.craftcanvas.com
Craft Manual by
The rise of ‘Babu culture’ in late eighteenth century was well envisaged sarcastically by the patuas in series of Kalighat paintings where, the ‘babus’ were illustrated as high class rich gentlemen who were typically identified with nicely oiled hair, pleat of his dhoti in one hand and either chewing the betel or smoking a hukkah in the other hand, flirting with courtesans.
Kalighat Paintings of Tarakeshwar murder case
In 1873, the Tarakeshwar murder case was a public scandal in Calcutta based on an affair between Elokeshi, the young attractive wife of Nabinchandra Banerji and the mahant or chief priest of the Shiva temple at Tarakeshwar. Upon discovering the affair, Nabinchandra Banerji cut Elokeshi's throat with a fish knife (bonti). In the trial, Nabin was sentenced to life imprisonment and the Mahant was fined and imprisoned for 3 years. Various scenes related to the Tarakeswar affair were portrayed in Kalighat repertoire: the meeting of Elokeshi and the mahant at Trakeswar Shiva temple; Elokeshi offering betel and hookah to the mahant; mahant offering her childbirth medicine; Elokeshi embracing Nabin and asking his forgiveness; Murder of Elokeshi by Nabin with a fish –knife (bonti), courtroom trial of Nabin and the mahant and the rigorous imprisonment of the mahant.
www.craftcanvas.com
Craft Manual by
Kalighat Painting of Shyamakanta Banerjee wrestling with tiger
During 1890s, Shyamakanta Banerjee became famous for wrestling with tigers while performing in circuses. This subject was also reproduced many times in Kalighat paintings. Kalighat Paintings: presence of fish, birds and animals
Kalighat Painting of Pigeon and cat
The Kalighat patuas showed an interest in portraying domestic pets which might be an influence of Mughal as well as contemporary British artists. Several scenes of animals like cat etc., birds, prawns/lobsters, fishes like Rui, Shol etc. were the popular themes in Kalighat paintings.
Being a contemporary adaptation of Jadu patuas, there were no examples available online of further contemporization. www.craftcanvas.com
Craft Manual by
Additional References • http://chitrolekha.com/kalighat-paintings-review/ • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalighat_painting • http://www.penn.museum/documents/publications/expedition/PDFs/423/Kalighat.pdf • http://www.chitrolekha.com/V3/n1/02_Kalighat_Paintings.pdf • http://chrestomathy.cofc.edu/documents/vol11/slaughter.pdf
Image Source • http://www.mapinpub.in/book_images/Kalighat-Paintings-04.jpg • https://s-media-cacheak0.pinimg.com/236x/55/60/d0/5560d0a1488d8ce9de0087dbf947339b.jpg • http://www.harekrsna.com/sun/features/04-11/design62.jpg • http://www.dollsofindia.com/images/products/kalighat-paintings/mother-andson-durga-and-ganesha-CE08_l.jpg • http://media.vam.ac.uk/media/thira/collection_images/2013GN/2013GN4151 _jpg_ds.jpg • http://en.banglapedia.org/images/a/a3/KalighatPainting1.jpg • http://mediacloud.saffronart.com/saffroncatalogue/2012/bnb/kalighat_12_084 38_big.jpg • http://www.oldindianarts.in/2012/09/kalighat-paintings-on-tarakeswaraffair.html • http://www.thehindu.com/multimedia/dynamic/01065/27ndfrKalighat_GO_1065656g.jpg • http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelprestype/prdraw/asianprintsdrawings/poppai ntings/india7a.jpg
www.craftcanvas.com
Craft Manual by
Designed by Surpritkaur Dang
www.craftcanvas.com
Craft Manual by