[BIRTH OF SRI RAMAKRISHNA PARAMHANSA]

19-3/4 x 23” in [50.2 x 58.4 cm]

India, signed ‘Pranab’ / ‘Pranah’ (?), 1995, polychrome gouache on board

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Depiction of the birth of Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa as an event of cosmic proportions. The scene takes place in two levels: the heavens and the earth, with the final ‘result’ of it, the adult Sri Ramakrishna himself, seated to the bottom right corner, in front of the birth scene. This composition indicates that the events of his miraculous birth are ‘behind’ him, in a temporal as well as spiritual sense: he is beyond birth in the sense of his birth having evidently happened in his past, but he is also beyond birth in the sense of having transcended the cycle of rebirth itself.

The upper level of the action depicts god Vishnu, to whom Kali at his left pays homage, as he blesses through a ray of visible words (most likely representing speech) a lying Chandramani Devi, the saint’s mother. The words read: ‘Victory to the Mother!’. Clusters of clouds behind the gods swirl and are contorted, as if moved by violent events, and between two lighting rays appear the words ‘OM’ (in white) and ‘MAA’ (in orange); the last one indicating particularly the devotion to Kali as Divine Mother that Ramakrishna practiced throughout his life. Meanwhile, in the lower level of the action and next to his lying mother, an infant Ramakrishna symbolically sees towards the heavens with open eyes, in contrast to his mother who seems asleep. To the left of the lying figures, and behind the seated Ramakrishna, is a golden depiction of the Dakshineswar Kali Temple, the place where Ramakrishna performed functions as a priest for the last thirty years of his life. Signed by the artist in the image.

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‘Calendar Art’ Paintings of India are the original artworks from which commercial printers created mass-produced popular images. The artworks can be grouped into major themes; religion, alluring women, patriotic national heroes and political leaders, movie stars, divine cherubic babies.

Functioning as pin-ups, calendar illustrations, and altar gods, the printed images can be found throughout 19th, 20th and 21st century India homes, schools, shrines, public halls and workplaces. Displayed within a wide range of contexts this art knows no class boundaries: in living rooms of the prosperous, on urban slum lean-to’s, in village thatched dwellings, framed in middle class kitchens.

The prints of specifically religious nature depict gods, goddesses, epic scenes, saints and sacred sites. Displayed in every kind of shop imaginable (tailor shops, tea stalls, grocery stores), transport (car and taxi dashboards, train conductors perch), upon persons (shirt pockets, wallets, purse), these iconic images are believed to act as talismans offering a means to worship, and, potentially access the divine.

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similar calendar art paintings and/or prints have been exhibited and/or archived at the following venues:

=> Gods in the Bazaar

=> Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia (Vancouver)

=> The British Museum