Babu on Twitter

Description

The Kalighat patachitra was born of a collective mind. Parented by the folk-art tradition of rural Bengal, it soon developed an identity of its own due to the popularity of the Kali temple and its throngs of pilgrims demanding souvenirs. These small single sheet works with their sweeping, paint- laden brushstrokes, simplified figures and happy disregard for perspective became the collectors’ obsession. When Calcutta became the capital of the British Empire, Kalighat paintings too became socio-political and scathingly satirical, especially of the English-speaking Bengali ‘babu’. Alas, the arrival of the printing-press rang the death knoll of this art form for almost a century. Today, we have just a handful of Kalighat artists with Bhaskar Chitrakar being the last one in the area around the Kali Temple. Inspired by his grandfather, he began replicating old works, giving them a contemporary twist. “Babu on Twitter" is a work created in isolation, where the artist portrays a traditional dhoti-kurta clad Babu following a very contemporary trend. As he tweets about his life and his predictions, giving advice freely to all his 'followers' three little twitter birds flutter above his head symbolically. They seem to be teasing him too!