Kalamkari art by AP artist to be on display at Rajpath on Republic Day

Nellore: The Kalamkari art form is on the list of selected art forms for display at Rajpath in the national capital on the occasion of Republic Day this time.

The art form created by artist Sudheer from Srikalahasthi in Andhra Pradesh will also be on the scroll. A traditional Kalamkari artist who had won several awards, he has completed Bachelor in Visual Arts (BVA) in Painting from Kannada University, Hampi.

India’s varied folk art forms linked to tradition and history have narrated stories for centuries through vibrant visual representation and each one is culturally significant.

A few such traditional art forms that were part of the process of scroll-making in the Kala Kumbh at Chitkara University, Rajpura, Punjab, are to be showcased on the Rajpath during the upcoming Republic Day parade.

In an open gallery at Rajpath, the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) will showcase gigantic scrolls, each over 750 metres long and painted by over 500 artists from across India.

According to Sudheer, Kalamkari is an ancient style of hand-painting done on cotton or silk fabric with a tamarind pen, using natural dyes. The word Kalamkari is derived from a Persian word, where ‘kalam ‘means pen and ‘kari’ refers to craftsmanship.

This art involves 23 tedious steps of dyeing, bleaching, hand painting, block printing, starching, cleaning and more.

Motifs drawn in Kalamkari spans from flowers, peacock and paisleys to divine characters of Hindu epics like the Mahabharata and Ramayana. Nowadays, this art is primarily depended on to create Kalamkari sarees.