[GODDESS LAKSHMI]

21-7/8 x 24-7/8” in [55.4 x 63 cm]

India, signed, date unknown, polychrome gouache on board

verso: signed in pencil: Dhan Lakshmi/ Lakmi/ Lakri (?)

. . . . . . . . .

Full-body representation of the goddess Lakshmi, seated in a pink lotus, richly dressed and crowned, with a bright halo emanating from her head. The simple background, painted in lilac, represents the lotus-throne of the goddess leaning against two piles of grain, with the back of the throne being fashioned of long wheat stalks. On her left hand, the goddess holds a smaller pink lotus, which has a rich symbolism in Hindu culture as the representation of good fortune, spiritual wisdom and ultimate awakening. On her right hand, she holds a vessel of nectar and a handful of stalks of wheat. At the bottom of the image, next to her feet, are deposited offerings in lotus leaves; the spectator seeing also, at the right inferior corner, the vahana or mount of the goddess, an owl, standing on a shankha conch shell. This last symbol associates her, as his wife, with the god Vishnu, with both gods being said to have their residence in a shell of the same sort.

. . . . . . . . .

‘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.

. . . . . . . . .

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