Indian Calendar Art

インドのカレンダー・アート / 1894– / Style / Popular Prints

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.

Indian Calendar Art — Oleograph by Raja Ravi Varma — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain — Oleograph by Raja Ravi Varma — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

Indian Calendar Art — Murugan oleograph — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain — Murugan oleograph — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

Indian Calendar Art — Krishna dancing on Kaliya, bazaar art print, 1950s — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain — Krishna dancing on Kaliya, bazaar art print, 1950s — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

At a glance

Visual cues

The frontality of gods
Oil-style shading and ornament
Saturated festival color
Calendar and advertising frames

Best used for

Festival and devotional prints meant to hang in any home
Shop calendars and wrappers where a deity image doubles as a blessing

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Dictionary entry

Type: Text confined to top and bottom frames, the name set symmetrically
Composition: The deity frontal to the waist, offerings and halo fixing the center
Material: Ornament lit with oil-style shading over saturated flat grounds
Caution: Cutting and pasting the imagery as decoration breaks the premise that it is something to pray before, leaving a picture no wall will take.
Further study: the Ravi Varma Press / bazaar art distribution / citation by contemporary artists

Related entries

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Link: https://indexstyle.org/styles/indian-calendar-art
Markdown: [Indian Calendar Art — IndexStyle](https://indexstyle.org/styles/indian-calendar-art)
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