Collaborations
Poto Chitra Painting (Scroll Painting) Workshop in Collaboration with Lalit Kala Akademi Regional Centre, Kolkata, Ministry of Culture. Venue: Khwaabgaon, Date: 26th to 30th August 2019. Invited Artists: Shri Dukhu Shyam Chitrakar, Shri Bahadur Chitrakar, Shri Manu Chitrakar, Smt. Swarna Chitrakar, Shri Mantu Chitrakar, Shri Sanuyar Chitrakar
Patachitra is an art form that is passionately pre-Aryan in its glorious heritage. Through its form, content, tradition, and narration it captures the diorama of thousands of years across varied (yet intimately interlinked) cultures, languages, religiosity, and artistic gharanas. Be it the patuas of Mallabhum, Manbhum, Birbhum, Dhalbhum, Utkala or Kalighat, pata-painting captures the syncretic ideals of the timeless lokayata being. Folklores, mainstream religions, contemporary socio-political stories, etc. everything finds their own unique niches herein. Once this art form was the tool for Buddhist bhikkhus, pandits, and wayfarers to describe the cosmos and its transience through the act of unfurling a pata-scroll. Yet today this art form is facing the dire pangs of abject poverty and a neglect thrust upon by a westernised urban culture. Thusly to rejuvenate this tradition Chalchitra Academy, along with Kolkata’s Lalit Kala Academi, organised a workshop from the 26th to 30th August, 2019, at Khwabgaon, an art-village in Jhargram currently taken up as an humanitarian project by Chalchitra Academy. Headed by the artist Mrinal Mandal, Bipin Bihari Martha (Reg. Sec. Lalit Kala Akademi, Kolkata), Ramakrishna Vedala (Sec. in-charge, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi), and Uttam Pachame (Chairman, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi), this workshop was attended by countless artists, students, performers, and amateur enthusiasts. The traditional patachitra artists who formed the heart and soul of this venture were Manu Chitrakar, Swarna Chitrakar, Bahadur Chitrakar, Dukhu Shyam Chitrakar, Mantu Chitrakar, and Sanuyar Chitrakar.
Babu Putul Workshop in collaboration with Pancharathi Group, Konnagar. Venue: Konnagar High School, 30th December 2018
Babu-putul is a curious art-form where the urban energy and the rustic ethos meet. Started by Kalicharan Das over 250 years ago when he migrated from Jessore to the Majilpur region of the then-undivided 24 Parganans, babu-putul entails a wide range of subjects. These snippets of life act as a counterpoint to the erstwhile Babu-culture of colonial Calcutta. Figurines of Barra-thakur and Banabibi from the deltaic lokayata culture, figures of sahebs, memsahebs, drunken babus, parvati-ganesha, burqa-clad women, all crowd up in the cornucopia of this little known tradition. Following up after their earlier workshop on this art form, Chalchitra Academy organized a second event under the able stewardship the artist Mrinal Mandal at the Konnagar High School on the 30th of December, 2018. Helped by the enthusiastic members of Pancharathi, a local organization, this workshop saw the return of the artists Shambhunath Das and Gautam Das. Scores of school children and their parents, along with many others, took part and infused their undying curiosity and energy into this fading art form.