Kalighat Painting by Kalam Patua (India)

Kalighat
painting developed in the mid-19th century in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) to
illustrate the Hindu gods and goddesses and respond to topical social and
political events affecting the local people. At this time, many Patua artists —
itinerant storytellers who travelled from village to village, slowly unrolling
and singing from scrolls in exchange for food and other goods — migrated to
Kolkata because selling their illustrated Kalighat paintings gave them a more
secure income. In
contrast to the linear narrative style of the scrolls, Kalighat paintings
depict a single scene with graphic, simplified forms and often satirical,
contemporary content. As
cheaper wood prints and then machine-printed images became more desirable to
tourists visiting Kolkata, Kalighat painting declined. 

The scroll painters from West Bengal who opened shops in the Kalighat district and began painting religious subjects in the Kalighat style also became known for their satirical portrayals of Kolkata society — English sahibs riding elephants, wealthy Calcutta babus (liberalists) immorally squandering wealth, and charlatan sadhus (holy men) succumbing to base desires.

Kalam Patua upholds the Kalighat tradition of observing contemporary society, showing here diners at a local restaurant, with obsequious waiters, bearded intellectuals, a blue-skinned business man, and dreamy young women.

'Nirbhaya' commemorates Jyoti
Singh Pandey, a young woman from Delhi who, in 2012, was abducted along with
her male friend by a gang of men on a bus and was brutally raped. Pandey died
from her injuries and she later became known as ‘Nirbhaya’, meaning ‘fearless’.


The
case sparked a mass public outcry calling for the protection and rights of
women in India, highlighting the high number of uninvestigated rape cases and
the victim-blaming by authorities and perpetrators. 

Unable to take part in the protests that swept the city, Patua created a small group of paintings to honour Nirbhaya and to portray the chilling brutality of her attackers.

Women
are often represented by trees in Hindu iconography, as they symbolise shelter,
fertility, growth and possibility. Because Kalighat painting originated near
the temple of the goddess Kali, female subjects are often shown as strong, in
her honour. Kali embodied Shakti – the female active principle of Hindu
philosophy. Women are also idolised as goddesses, such as Saraswati the goddess
of knowledge and the arts, rather than being portrayed as objects of desire. In
contrast, male suitors are often satirically portrayed as ‘lap dogs and
charlatans’. 

This painting shows the strength of human bonds — between mother and child, and between lovers. The central female figure is shown supporting her lover and an angelic child while she stoically gazes ahead, her body still and statuesque, straight despite the weight of a branch that grows out of her heart.

Kalam Patua created the work after the brutal gang-rape of Nirbhaya in Delhi in 2012.

‘It is about how we all seek out women as mother or lover, but respect still eludes her . . . I couldn’t be part of the protests or the candle march . . . so it is my way of registering a protest and contributing to the movement.’

Photography
and Kalighat painting were rival professions in the expanding metropolis of 19th
century Kolkata. Both pay attention to current affairs, or to capturing a
moment within the artist’s surroundings. Kalighat painting flourished from the
early 1800s for almost a century, but fell into decline after the advent of the
more easily reproducible lithograph and photograph. Eventually, the children of
Kalighat painters migrated to other professions, and the last Kalighat painter
is reported to have died in 1930.

 

Patua
has created a number of works and series about photography and the associated
ideas of self-representation. 

Here two female friends self-consciously pose for a photo, with New Delhi’s iconic Lotus Temple behind them. This painting is a statement on sexuality and the presence and acceptance of same-sex relationships in Hindu stories and art.

Here Patua explores the power of dreams and humanity’s desire for things that are out of reach. Inspired by the angel sculpture on the roof of the Victoria Memorial Building in Kolkata, Patua has imagined the angel coming to life, soaring above a kneeling tourist who tries to capture her with his camera.

This work is part of an extended series entitled ‘Photography’, which features the same small, blue-skinned figure holding a camera, often overshadowed by the larger-than-life subjects he encounters.

In Hindu iconography, snakes often represent divinity, and the legend of the snake goddess Manasa Mangala is especially popular in West Bengal. For Kalam Patua, the snake charmer also has a personal and historical dimension — his ancestors were patua or scroll artists, who often practised alternative trades to supplement their incomes, making clay idols (as did his uncle and aunt), performing magic tricks, making fireworks and snake charming.

Playfully exploring sexual attraction and union, Patua consciously mixes religious symbols with earthly ones in this painting. The male figure has the blue skin of Krishna, and the delicately painted sky with its stylised clouds also suggest divinity, contrasting with the balding, earthly figure who is trying to seduce the posing beauty.

Kalam Patua has worked in the Indian postal system for most of his adult life, mainly in remote West Bengal branches, only pursuing his passion for painting at night. He was once transferred to a branch far from home, leaving him no opportunity to paint. However, after the chief postal officer read a magazine article on Patua’s work, he was transferred back to his former office.

Here, Kalam Patua captures the excitement and poetry of the post office as it exists in his imagination, with love blossoming amid the sorting and stamping of letters.

‘In earlier days, runners would carry the daak (mail) from one area to another and would face enormous problems and dangers including wild animals. This work pays tribute to those runners who dedicated their lives to delivering mail at any cost.’

In this scene from his adult life, Kalam Patua captures the lively characters on a train, including a beggar, a snack seller, and the artist’s wife who has a toothache.