A Tanjore portray from 1889
| Photo Credit: particular association
Gods and goddesses have been half of South Indian properties in the most uncommon kinds since the late 19th Century. It’s not uncommon to discover a stray calendar, an invite card and even commercial pamphlets that includes the superb depictions of gods tucked right into a pockets or in the puja room of your grandparents’ home. Today, on Ashvita’s brick-laden partitions is an try and hint the pivotal factors that marks commercial art’s journey in the State, from Tanjore work typically commissioned by the royal courtroom to extra up to date variations of commercial artwork that includes cinema’s recognized faces. Spiritual and Vernacular Expressions from the South, presently on show at Ashvita’s Gallery, is thus a survey exhibition unfold throughout centuries of work.
A Tanjore portray with a picket body worn by time and dotted with specks of gold that speaks to the grandeur of this college of artwork, is the place to begin of this visible narrative.
One of the early calendars with religious artwork
| Photo Credit:
particular association
“It starts from Thanjavur with the palagai padams as they were called in Tamil Nadu, and moves to reverse glass paintings, and later to chromolithographs,” says Nafeesa Khaderkutty, curator. She factors to a hand painted lithograph from 1889 that depicts Rama’s pattabhishekam (coronation). Originally a black-and-white lithograph that was later crammed in with colors, this body is one of the highlights from the total assortment. Such scenes additionally communicate to the South Indian psyche.
The reverse glass work present a extra economical face of these commercial canvases with a religious bend, when in comparison with a Tanjore portray. Chromolithographs are what popularised commercial artwork to the extent to which we see remnants of the business even as we speak. The Raju group from Andhra Pradesh, of which the pioneer C Kondiah Raju and his college students have been half of, has been largely credited with South India’s interplay with commercial artwork.
This work by Aykan exhibits cinema’s affect on commercial artwork
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particular association
Though Raja Ravi Varma was admittedly extra well-liked, it isn’t improper to name them contemporaries. “Kondiah Raju set up photo studios and started painting the backgrounds for these studios. With the advent of the matchbox and firecracker industry in Sivakasi, he started to understand the market, and the demand for print material. That’s how these artists from the South forayed into religious art,” says Nafeesa. Most of the god figures of their work are modelled after their very own kin, which in flip makes them relatable. An unique Ravi Varma is a seamless addition to this wall of lithographs.
With offset printing, wider potentialities got here to the fore: “Late 1980s to 1990s is when offsets started coming to the southern part of India. They could now print on cardboard, plastic, and the scope of colours had also expanded with the CMYK scheme,” provides Nafeesa. Done by an artist from Thiruvarur, as the signage suggests, a print exhibits the banks of the Cauvery and the sculpture of a goddess, probably Kaveri amman. In some circumstances, such specifics assist find the print.
A yesteryear commercial that includes commercial artwork
| Photo Credit:
particular association
Slowly these religious figures began seeping into the enterprise world with commercials. One of the oldest prints on show from the 1980s, is a calendar by Hiralal & Co., a diamond service provider then in China Bazar, Madras. The wall devoted to religious figures in commercial print throws up some fascinating observations: “The gallery had all these prints which pushed us to research further. All these prints are testament to how religious art influenced even marketing,” says Nafeesa.
In its ultimate piece, commercial art’s extra up to date manifestations (1940s to ‘70s) take over the wall. Here, one cannot miss cinema’s indelible mark on the business as up to date artists like Aykan, Maniam, Ramaa, R Natarjan and the like, created work that gave a visible identity to journal covers, comedian panels and adverts of the time. A selected canvas by M Syamasundara Rao has actor NTR resembling the 10-headed demi-god Ravana, every face a special character, distinct with emotion.
M Syamasundara Rao’s up to date work
| Photo Credit:
particular association
Spiritual and Vernacular Expressions from the South is on show until February 20 at Ashvita’s Gallery, Dr Radhakrishnan Salai.