Popular Indian Art and Iconograp FROM THE PUBLISHER
This illustrated book traces the evolution of printing olcographs (display prints) in India, beginning with the establishment of the Ravi Varma Fine Arts Lithographic Press in Mumbai at the end of the nineteenth century. The authors assemble a large number of popular Indian prints from their rare and extensive collection, the only one of its kind available for this period.
Raja Ravi Varma Koil Thampuran (1848-1906), an aristocrat from Travancore by birth and a renowned artist, almost single-handedly created a revolution in modern Indian aesthetics with the establishment of the Ravi Varma Press. His paintings of gods and goddesses, epic heroes and heroines, virtually defined the new pan-Indian iconography. Using German printers and high-speed steam driven presses, Ravi Varma published millions of copies of these famous paintings as well as other religious icons. The pictures were also used to advertise goods and services, as indeed, for political propaganda, where heroes, gods, and national leaders merged into each other. The prints became the most influential medium of visual communication in what was then a socially and culturally fragmented Indian society.
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