Kalighat paintings and drawings

The video documents the popular art form of Kalighat painting. The Kalighat painting emerged as a unique style of painting in the 19th century Kolkata. These paintings recorded the fast changes that were occurring in the lifestyles, values and technology. The paintings were developed by traditional scroll painters called patuas. They brought a change in their visual language as there was a rising demand among the urban buyers for Western style images. So the linear narratives of their paintings changed to single images with one or two figures. It became a hybrid form where traditional techniques and iconography were deployed alongside Western techniques and mediums like watercolours and Western academic shading.