India Bazaar: Vintage Indian Graphics

by Kajri Jain (Introduction), Samantha Harrison, Bari Kumar (Editor)

That's India for you! Known as 'bazaar' or 'calendar' art, these graphics are found throughout India on posters, packaging, advertisements and calendars.

The colourful prints depict secular, religious or even political scenes peopled with animals, Gods, children, women and heroes. Recently they have become a hot export and have made appearances on CD covers, clothing and fashion accessories around the globe.

See images of Krishna and Kali, Duldul and Baba Deep Singh, the Ideal Boy and Chandra Shekar Azad.

Genres: Art, India, Design, Nonfiction

191 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2003

Reviews

[7jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book includes many printed images of various sizes, of 'calendar/bazaar art'. Mass-produced from colonial period onwards, there is many interesting examples in this book. Stuff like matchboxes, incense boxes, but especially posters: religious, fireworks, people, health information, sponsoring good habits, human body, various types of birds, numbers, etc.

Very colorful and with great variation, it is visual beauty-food. :)

[Vaishali · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love! A nostalgic treasure of religious and commercial art circa 1800-1960. Some surprisingly titillating ads hail from Sivakasi's Standard Fireworks. It's a colorful walk back into a simpler, sincere past... and makes you wish we never left.


.

[Ian Laird · Rating 4 out of 5]

The subtitle of the book is instructive - ‘Vintage Indian Graphics.’ The period covered is not specified but the bulk of the illustrations appear to extend from colonial times through the period following independence on to the present day.

This colourful book is about the use of imagery to help sell domestic products. In the process we get a bit of an insight into Indian culture and history. A helpful introduction provides explanation and context.

There are vibrant, gaudily coloured posters and labels with gods and goddesses (Vishnu, Hanuman, Ganesh and Kali among them); voluptuous women in river and pool, and lots of children, often rather pale, animals and famous vistas all advertising boxes of matches, which predominate here. There’s even ‘Taj Mahal Matches’; fireworks, crackers and sparklers; but also toothpaste and medicines plus posters for health and education.

And to keep your hands ‘smooth and velvety’ there is Tibet Snow, which intrigued me. It is a skin care cream good for when you shave, keeping off dust and converting unpleasant odours. I understand it is still available. According to a current website ‘MakeupAlley.com’, this Kohinor product ‘makes your skin soft, beautiful and fairer’, so it is also a whitening cream. The ingredients are listed as follows: aqua, stearic acid, perfume, potassium, stearate, cetyl alcohol, sodium borate and methylparaben. I don’t think it has much to do with Tibet.

A colourful catalogue featuring incendiary products.

[Víctor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Es un libro que cuenta con una selección de gráficas antiguas de India de íconos religiosos (tanto hindúes como islámicos), cajas de fósforos, petardos y otros productos. Es una selección interesante, pero se queda un poco corta, es repetitiva, y además, no es tan llamativa como en otros libros de Taschen.

[Grace B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favourite books I own. Beautiful colourful imagery, posters, and matchboxes, that I just can't get enough of and I'm sure I'll be going through this book regularly. Recommended!

[Monica · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a wonderful collaboration between a collector, art historian and graphic designer. If you take the time to read Kajri Jain's essay and refer to each description in the index there is a wealth of of information explaining India 's beautiful graphic imagery, everything from match box covers to packaging labels, educational charts and devotional posters. Gods and godesses are identified and in most cases what is being depicted is explained. I think they're all beautiful but some of my favorites are: Gopi Vastraharan (Stealing Cowgirls' Clothes) pps 29-30; Navagraha (Nine Planets) p.50; Match Box Labels p. 101; Animal Chart 154; Children of India Educational Chart p. 157; Beaks and Paws of Birds Educational Chart p. 160; and those sexy round playing cards at the end of the book. I'll close wih an excerpt from Jain's essay: " Today you do not need to travel too far to encounter these Indian icons: their adoption by "global" culture has meant that Krishna and Kali, duldul and Baba Deep Singh, the ideal boy and Chandrashekhar Azad have appeared on CD covers, diaries, websites, clothing and fashion accessories from New Delhi to New York. These appropriations respond to the inescapable visual power of these images, with their vivid colors, bold graphic forms and obviously rich and complex symbolism. As they journey to these other contexts and take on new incarnations, inevitably something is left behind: the countless interwoven stories that these images represent, who creates them and the many mutable ways in which they have inhabited and animated millions of lives everyday."