Homage to Kalighat

'Homage to Kalighat' record Sakti Burman's fascination with the powerful demotic imagery of the Kalighat ethos, which humanized the gods. For a century, around this temple of Kalighat in Calcutta, a shifting coalition of painters, toy-makers, sculptore and print-makers reinvented Hindu iconography by reference to ritual exemplars as well as Mughal and Christian iconography and contemporary events. Here, Burman presents Krishna as the child flautist with the peacock for his totem and vehicle. This work gains strength from its bifid symmetry: to the other side stand a human father, mother and child. Both the celestial and the terrestrial figures render homage to Krishna, in his role as preserver of the universe.

-Ranjit Hoskote