Kalighat painting or Kalighat Pat originated in the 19th century Bengal, in the vicinity of Kalighat Kali Temple, Kalighat, Kolkata, India, and from 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.
Cheap oleographs from Germany copied the Kalighat Paintings and started marketing them in huge quantities. This was followed by prints from Pune some of them blatant imitations of Kalighat paintings. These cheap prints killed hand-painted Kalighat Paintings with it the artistic instincts and creative faculty of the artist.
Annada Prasad Bagchi (1849-1905), founded Calcutta Art Studio in 1878. Other Studios like Chor Bagan Art Studio, Kansaripara Art Studio, Imperial Art Cottage and Individuals like K P Hazra set up printing press. Here they started to produce Prints of Hindu Mythological pictures.
The expensive lithographs of this studio were quite different from the woodcuts of 'Battala' and other 'Bazar' prints mass produced in Chitpur and Garanhata in North Calcutta as they were created by artists who had a sound grounding in the principles of Western Art techniques.
These prints became a statement of preserving our own culture. It originated from a deep fear of losing Indian culture to British influence would soon use these prints as a tool for elite nationalistic self-determination, setting in motion the culture of patronage that would both support and take forward this popular print art into the 21st century. The potential that lay in harnessing popular mythological images for a nationalist cause.
At the end of the 19th Century, a printing industry devoted to the production of pictures of deities and mythological themes was established. Being mass produced, they were the most visually influential medium of visual communication of the then socially and culturally fragmented Indian society, subsequently becoming a vehicle for political propaganda as well.
The show unfolds a fascinating narrative in terms of iconography and ideas, techniques and styles. There are a few realistic portraits in monochrome from the late 19th century that reveal sound training and are printed by Calcutta Art Studio. Art is preserved so to say, by other presses, too. Like Chorebagan Art Studio, Kansaripara Art Studio and Imperial Art Cottage which seem to have catered to different taste, both religious and pop.
So while Radha and Krishna in shimmering clothes with improbably lavish folds are placed in landscapes that quote miniature stylisation, the curvaceous Pramada Sundari in a diaphanous sari preening herself before a hand-held mirror ‘ a gesture enshrined in the lexicon of the Indian arts through sculpture, painting and dance-brings to mind Ajanta and Ellora.
With time these prints started to be valued as art and found its place in history as Bengal Prints.
