Kalighat Paintings: A National Artifact, the Folk and Counter Representation in the Making of Modern Art in Bengal
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- Catalogue identifier
- kali-0065
- Alternate titles and import identifiers
- KALI-0065; doi:10.21659/cjad.41.v4n104
- Author or attribution
- Anuja Mukherjee
- Record type
- Article
- Language
- English
- Date / edition
- 2020
- Source / repository
- The Chitrolekha Journal on Art and Design
- Access
- Open access
- Subjects
- Kali Library Research Catalogue; Academic Research and Peer-Reviewed Articles; Temples, Sacred Places, and Historical Worship; Art, Iconography, and Epigraphic Studies
Description and curator notes
Examines nineteenth-century Kalighat painting through changes in ritual use, urban audiences, national identity, and museum collection. Mukherjee follows the movement of artists and images through the encounter between folk practice and Calcutta’s changing cultural institutions. The article is relevant to Kali’s temple environment and visual circulation, while also dealing with Kalighat painting’s wider secular and social subjects. It is useful for understanding why devotional images became historical and national artifacts, and for locating temple-associated art within modern Bengal. Visitors should not assume that every Kalighat painting discussed depicts Kali.
KALI-0065 — Kali Library Research Catalogue.
Access and reliability assessments below are supplied by the curator's 4–5 November 2026 research release, not a new independent verification.
Author / attribution: Anuja Mukherjee
Publication: The Chitrolekha Journal on Art and Design · 2020
4(1), 1–13
Format / language: Journal article · English
Identifier: doi:10.21659/cjad.41.v4n104
Kali relevance: Contextual study of the artistic tradition associated with the Kalighat temple; includes devotional imagery.
Context: Bengal; Kalighat; visual culture and museum history.
Subjects: Academic Research and Peer-Reviewed Articles; Temples, Sacred Places, and Historical Worship; Art, Iconography, and Epigraphic Studies
Evidence / reliability: Peer-reviewed scholarly journal
Access / rights: Complete text checked 2026-11-04. Freely readable from the stated institutional or original publication host. Copyright retained; no general republication licence established. Link to the work rather than copying it.
Source and alternate access links:
Read complete text: https://chitrolekha.com/ns/v4n1/v4n104.pdf
Source access
Read or locate the original source at The Chitrolekha Journal on Art and Design
Rights and reading conditions
Complete text checked 2026-11-04. Freely readable from the stated institutional or original publication host. Copyright retained; no general republication licence established. Link to the work rather than copying it. This library links to the source and does not reproduce its full text.
Citation
Anuja Mukherjee. Kalighat Paintings: A National Artifact, the Folk and Counter Representation in the Making of Modern Art in Bengal. The Chitrolekha Journal on Art and Design · 2020.
This page supplies catalogue metadata and links. It does not reproduce the underlying source text. Historical, religious, healing and interpretive claims belong to the cited sources, not to an independent verification by this catalogue.