Exhibits from the Bengal school

'Images from a changing world: Kalighat paintings from Calcutta' was the theme of an art show held recently at the Los Angeles Museum. It featured 129 pieces executed in a variety of media, including lithographs, says R. NAGASWAMY.

THE transition of the art of Indian painting, from tradition to modernity, was the theme of an exhibition organised recently by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Visitors were presented a vivid picture of trends during the 19th Century in the field of Bengal art, an aspect that brought village artists to Calcutta to compete with the colonial school. This move saw the birth of a new school - the Kalighat paintings. The Great Mughal school of paintings, which diffused with the decline of the Mughals, could hardly find support and soon merged with local idioms. The only school that flourished in Bengal was the religious art of scroll paintings on cloth - patas - which were used by story tellers at village gatherings especially during festivals. The traditional art was widespread in the rural areas, presenting conventional images of gods and goddesses in their puranic narrative settings.

But first an introduction to the two schools.

The Kalighat artists were originally itinerant story tellers, carrying their scroll paintings and singing the scenes from the epics depicted. They were called Patuas, i.e. painters on cloth (patas). They were said to belong to a hybrid caste (half Hindu and half Muslim) and professed Islam. They toured the rural areas carrying with them scrolls that depicted the Ramayana. The version of the Ramayana was based on the Rama-Charita-Manas of Tulsidas, greatly revered in Bengal.

On the other hand, the British, after establishing themselves politically, moved on to other areas like literature, art and music.

The Calcutta School of Art, which was established during this period, imparted a European style of academic training to Indian artists. Similar institutions were started in other places. This move naturally attracted traditional artists to Calcutta, who were initially concentrated around the Kalighat temple, as there was a demand for religious art. Gradually, they found that they could learn from the new trends, which would enhance their earnings. This gave them the impetus to produce new forms of art that were gradually accepted by the local population. Called the Kalighat painting, it was, in effect, an agreeable blend of the Occidental and Oriental schools in a new identity. Artists like Jaimini Roy were attracted and influenced by this school as it depicted pictures that captured the essence of every day life. In addition to religious themes, the scenes, depicting different professions, costumes and interesting life stories, were popular with tourists. The Kalighat artists also made drawings and simpler paintings and made reproductions possible by lithographic prints, that were hand coloured subsequently. This trend continued from the 19th Century to the early part of 20th Century. Soon the paintings found their way into museums and private collections.

Among the Hindu deities the Kalighat artists painted, the "Picture of Kali" was the most popular. There was a marked preference for the paintings of goddesses like Durga, Saraswati, Lakshmi, Parvati and Annapurna especially during the Durga festival. Among the Vaishnavite themes that were depicted Radha- Krishna and Sita-Rama were predominant. Intimately connected with this movement was the portrayal of the figures of Caitanya Mahaprabhu and his disciples, a theme dear to Bengali ethos. The exploits of Hanuman were another subject.

Among other subjects done were secular themes and personalities like Tipu Sultan and Rani Lakshmi Bai. In the process, the Patua artists played a role in the independence movement. A painting on show in Los Angeles was one of Rani Lakshmi Bai painted as early as 1857, a year before her heroic death.

The exhibition, titled "Images from a changing world: Kalighat paintings from Calcutta" featured 129 pieces executed in a variety of media including lithographs. Sixty-nine of them belonged to the Chester and Davids Herwitz Collection, Worcester, Massachusetts. Others were from private collections in the United States and London while the Los Angeles museum had nine of its own works.

The show was in three sections as a) the art of 19th Century Calcutta, b) the world of Kalighat paintings and c) the Kalighat legacy.

The first section formed an introduction to Calcutta - former capital of British India - the Kali temple, Hindu Calcutta, the Patuas and the traditional art of Bengal. It was a depiction of the same subject in different techniques.

The second section included religious, historical and social themes. Contemporary events like crime were material for the painters. One such case was the murder of a young beautiful housewife, Elokesi, who had an affair with the chief priest of Tarakeswar temple. She was stabbed to death by her husband in 1873, which soon attracted publicity because of judicial proceedings. Newspapers took the lead and a number of plays were based on the incident. One such painting, titled the Tarakesvar murder, was an exhibit.

The influence of Kalighat paintings on great artists formed the third section. There were three works by Jaimini Roy and Vinod Dave. Embroidered textiles and painted wood were also on show.

The Los Angeles museum has one of the finest collections of Indian art. It is headed by Stephen Markel, a Sanskrit student with a doctorate on the role of the Navagraha in Indian art.

The museum has a fine collection of Indian sculpture, artefacts, paintings and bronzes. It includes treasures from almost all schools of Indian art. The museum lays emphasis on educating students by encouraging visits at special rates of concession round the year. Other incentives include museum membership, unlimited free admissions, admissions to all special exhibitions, a magazine subscription and a calender. But what is noteworthy is that the museum is a patron of Indian art and this show was a step in the right direction.

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