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After PM Modi’s response on being gifted a Ganesha made by Brindaban Chanda, the revival started of an artwork type that was almost useless because of the lack of artists and patronage.
Two years in the past, shellac artist Brindaban Chanda — the final in his household to inherit the artwork and presumably the one in West Bengal to make a dwelling out of it — was all set to fade into oblivion alongside together with his craft.
That was when Prime Minister Narendra Modi occurred to go to West Bengal, and on the Kalaikunda airbase, a neighborhood BJP chief gifted him with a Ganesha made by Mr. Chanda. The Prime Minister’s response made it to the newspapers: “The Ganesha may be small but is big enough to represent the whole of West Bengal.”
Mr. Chanda, a resident of Paschimsain village in East Midnapore district, then started receiving requests for the same Ganesha — which got here to be known as ‘Modi Ganesha’ — and thus started the revival of an artwork type that was almost useless because of the lack of artists and patronage. Today he makes wherever between 10 and 15 ‘Modi Ganesha’ day by day — other than the standard collectible figurines of animals and gods and goddesses — and every prices ₹80-100.
“I was in Jhargram at the time, conducting a workshop, when a local BJP leader took a Ganesha made by me to receive the Prime Minister at Kalaikunda. Suddenly I found people getting interested in my work. Of late people from across Bengal, including galleries in Kolkata, have been coming to my village to buy my dolls. You can say I am better off than before,” Mr. Chanda, 64, informed The Hindu.
Brindaban Chanda. Photo: Special association
While he could also be higher off now, the identical can’t be stated of his artwork type. He is the final of the three generations engaged on this craft. His son has discovered different sources of livelihood whereas his daughter, although she is aware of the artwork, is married to a household that isn’t very captivated with her abilities.
“I learned the art from my parents, but my brothers chose other professions. When I am invited for workshops, I take along some nephew or the other — but they only help me, they haven’t picked up the skill. There is no one to carry forward the tradition,” Mr. Chanda stated.
His artwork type would have pale away way back — in reality, Mr. Modi would have by no means obtained his Ganesha — had it not been for the artist Mrinal Mandal who, for the previous 20 years, has been travelling throughout Bengal in quest of folks artwork and who, for the previous two years, has been tenting in a village known as Lalbazar in Jhargram to show wall artwork to its residents.
Since 2015, he has organised quite a lot of workshops and exhibitions in numerous cities on behalf of the shellac artist, and it was at a workshop performed by Mr. Mandal at Jhargram in 2019 that Mr. Chanda created the ‘Modi Ganesha’.
“I had to persuade Brindaban babu to slightly increase the prices of his dolls. Considering the cost of shellac and the effort that goes in, he was selling them for ridiculously cheap. He asked me innocently, ‘Who will buy if I hike the prices?’ I told him that those who appreciate art will. Today his demand is on the rise,” stated Mr. Mandal, whose Chalchitra Academy has now invited Mr. Chanda for one more workshop at Jhargram on January 23 and 24.
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