Patachitra Painting

A panel in the Orissa patachitra style comes next on the Outer walls of Crafts Museum. Akshaya Kumar Bariki, and fellow artists, Sushanta Kumar Mohapatra, Narayan Pradhan and Mahindra Malik, have chosen to depict the 64 arts (kala) of the Hindu tradition.

Each kala, depicted in a separate frame, displays the much vaunted ‘continuous line’ that was supposed to be a distinctive feature of traditional Indian painting. A closer look however reveals the ironic humour in the choice of themes as the artist plays with the idea of tradition by depicting gambling, cheating and the different arts of thievery, alongside the more conventional arts, such as dance, drama, painting, adornment, etc.