Tamil Nadu’s Kovilpatti, residence to India’s conventional calendar artwork revolution

Vyjayanthimala clad in an incandescent inexperienced saree teases a look as a fish bowl and its silvery-gold inhabitants within the background stand witness. This canvas is signed: M Ramalingam.  An archetype of 1980s Tamil cinema and its dramatic attract, this body frozen in paint, speaks volumes: of an excellent time of hand-drawn abilities that later morphed into the thriving business of calendar artwork in South India. Ramalingam was considered one of its most prolific stars.   

As we speak, within the bylanes of the dusty, metro work-laden Arcot Street in Chennai is Chithiraalayam, an unassuming gallery brimming with acquainted canvases and prints. By acquainted, I don’t imply within the type of Razas and Husains. Moderately, it’s the sort of familiarity you affiliate with an expensive object at residence that you’ve identified for many years. Within the gallery are many ‘saami padams’ (as they had been identified within the 1940s) by among the stalwarts and pioneers of the calendar artwork business, all hailing from the varsity of C Kondiah Raju. Suppose Muruga with a smile on his face in opposition to a glittery backdrop, and different Hindu gods and goddesses, other than scenes from well-liked Indian mythology like that of the churning of the ocean. 

Chithiraalayam is a research on this faculty of artists that by no means obtained its due and of an business that pale across the finish of the 20th Century. Part of the gathering is on show right now at DakshinaChitra, as an ode to its forgotten masters. 

Painted historical past 

Calendar artwork discovered house in most Indian households within the early 20th Century, as they had been typically distributed free of charge by retail shops promoting textile, jewelry and sweets ordering calendars to provide to clients. However little was identified in regards to the fingers that drew them. “It’s an business that by no means obtained registered in artwork historical past,” says KR Jayakumar, the youngest son of Ramalingam whose imaginative and prescient for this business artwork gallery is consciousness greater than income: for now, all of the works listed here are just for show and documentation. 

As Raja Ravi Varma, one of many pioneers of well-liked artwork within the nation, earned regular popularity of bringing European educational artwork types onto Indian themes, and portraying characters from The Mahabharata and the The Ramayana, a quieter revolution was underway within the sidelines, impinged on portraying divinity.  

The legacy goes again to the 1940s when well-liked artwork in Kovilpatti obtained a reputation underneath C Kondiah Raju who began out by portray backdrops for travelling theatre corporations. Shortly after, he arrange photograph studios (Sri Ambal Arts in 1944 and Devi Artwork Studio in 1946) that may see a rush for portraits, which had been typically drawn in or completed up by the tremendous hand talent of his college students: TS Subbiah, S Meenakshisundaram, TS Arunachalam, M Ramalingam, G Shenbagaraman, M Sreenivasen and TS Rajagopal Raju.

Then got here Muruga purnas (completely different manifestation of lord Muruga) and Hindu mythological scenes, plenty of them dominated by goddesses. “There has all the time been a rigidity and thus an attraction to the feminine as a deity and as a magnificence,” says Stephen Inglis, a professor at Carleton College in Ottawa, Canada. “As an anthropologist finding out potter communities in Madurai/Ramnad, I noticed well-liked imagery all over the place: in temples, faculties, outlets, and other people’s properties. I wished to know extra,” says Stephen, who can also be the curator of the present at DakshinaChitra. 

It was the ubiquity of distribution and the use and juxtaposition of images that invited Stephen to have a look at calendar artwork particularly. The arrival of printing presses in Sivakasi (identified for its dry local weather which made it an excellent location for printing other than matchstick manufacturing) meant a rise in each manufacturing and demand. 

“Yearly, across the month of aadi, nearly 120 printers would choose up certain albums with pattern artworks to point out their purchasers,” says Somasundaram, artist and oldest son of Ramalingam as he flips by a vibrant assortment of pattern artworks from 1997. It holds some Christian iconography, work of mosques other than landscapes and footage of actresses: from Madhuri Dixit to Urvasi. 

Over time, influences of images, superimposition, cinema and even the appearance of spray cans will be seen on these canvases. A lot so {that a} Muruga with a pink-and-golden, patterned backdrop had, imagine it or not, a crystal bowl for inspiration. The cut-glass sample behind the type of Muruga grew to become very fashionable within the late 1980s, says Somasundaram. Pictures of ornate temple gopurams had been one other well-liked trope for backdrops. 

Ramalingam created over 1,400 items in his time, and over 1 lakh prints of every have been circulated over time. “Our father handed away in 1993, however his prints had been nonetheless in circulation till 2003,” says Jayakumar. TS Subbiah adopted intently. “Each artist had their very own set of challenges,” says Marieswaran, artist and son of TS Subbiah as he seems at a black and white portrait of the artist reclining on a crescent moon, maybe a prop from a drama set: he was impressed by the grandiose of theatre.  

“And, with non secular topics, there’s an unstated assure of each piece being a reverent memento. Until right now, some family prayer rooms are residence to those calendars,” says Marieswaran. 

The street forward

The earliest authentic work in Chithiraalayam is dated to 1955. It took Jayakumar nearly eight years to seek out and supply not less than a few of his father’s authentic works. ”I approached the presses that my father was recurrently in contact with. The primary contributors had been Coronation, Orient and Das printers who had among the originals intact,” says Jayakumar. Whereas prints had been simpler to gather, the originals, of which nearly 60 are on show, had been laborious to identify.

The business started to fade out on the finish of the 20th Century. Says Stephen, “The presses that sometimes acquired the unique work had a quantity that, with some retouching, may meet their wants. The digital ease with which work and pictures might be equipped made the portray section out of date. Calendars had been changed by cell telephones.” 

As we speak, a few tall wood easels stand guard to a low plank on which is an unfinished canvas: the chair is empty, but carries the load of an business that revolutionised business artwork. This was Ramalingam’s workspace: the gallery hosts a reproduction of the workspace because it was within the early 20th Century. Jayakumar reminisces, “There would all the time be a small bowl of off white or ivory paint close to the canvas, on the desk. On a regular basis after faculty, I’d watch his pace in putting the paints on the primary coat.”

Now, efforts are on to have fun the printed image as a key artform of the 20th Century, says Inglis. “It’s by studying in regards to the artists and their work, and celebrating their contribution that any revival is feasible.”