Hand-Painted Bollywood Poster vs Indian Calendar Art

ボリウッド手描きポスター / インドのカレンダー・アート

Hand-Painted Bollywood Poster comes from Regional Graphics and Indian Calendar Art from Popular Prints. Both are read here as style. They are reached for with some of the same intent, which is where they get confused.

Hand-Painted Bollywood Poster

Hand-Painted Bollywood Poster — インド映画最初期のポスター 1913 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainHand-Painted Bollywood Poster — 映画『アナルカリ』ポスター 1953年 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainHand-Painted Bollywood Poster — 映画『アマル・ディープ』ポスター 1958年 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

Mumbai's poster workshops painted film advertising in oil on giant canvases. Saturated color, montages of several scenes and exaggerated star faces ruled the Indian street for half a century, until digital printing arrived.

Indian Calendar Art

Indian Calendar Art — ラヴィ・ヴァルマのオレオグラフ — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainIndian Calendar Art — 『ムルガン』オレオグラフ — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainIndian Calendar Art — カーリヤの頭上で踊るクリシュナ バザール・アート印刷 1950年代 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

The mass-printed gods begun at Ravi Varma's press: oil-painted mythology delivered to homes as oleographs, still printed today as bazaar art shaping India's visual everyday.

Hand-Painted Bollywood PosterIndian Calendar Art
Era1930s–1990s1894–
FamilyRegional GraphicsPopular Prints
KindStyleStyle
CuesOil-paint brushwork / Saturated color / Exaggerated faces, multiple scenes / Hand-painted Devanagari letteringThe frontality of gods / Oil-style shading and ornament / Saturated festival color / Calendar and advertising frames
Best used forAnnouncements for film or music that need the heat of a painted hand · Interiors for restaurants and events that want street painting densityFestival and devotional prints meant to hang in any home · Shop calendars and wrappers where a deity image doubles as a blessing
TypeTitles painted by hand with shadow and outline, sitting in frontText confined to top and bottom frames, the name set symmetrically
CompositionThe star's face largest, with smaller scenes swirling around itThe deity frontal to the waist, offerings and halo fixing the center
MaterialOil laid thickly on cloth, saturation high and brushmarks visibleOrnament lit with oil-style shading over saturated flat grounds
CautionFaking the brushwork by filtering a photograph skips the step of recomposing as painting, so the scale of faces and scenes stops meaning anything.Cutting and pasting the imagery as decoration breaks the premise that it is something to pray before, leaving a picture no wall will take.

Put these two together

Regional Graphics ／ Popular Prints

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