A Nostalgic Canvas: The Kampani Kalam Story
At New Concept, crafting our annual calendar is a journey of passion and creativity, blending meticulous research with artistic flair. Each page is a labour of love, designed to inspire, inform, and captivate year-round.
The January leaf of our 2025 NCIS Calendar unfolds like a whisper from India’s colonial past—a tribute to the exquisite and often unsung art of Kampani Kalam, or Company School paintings. Imagine a time when India’s verdant landscapes and exotic wildlife captivated the imaginations of British officers stationed here. Without the magic of modern cameras, they turned to local artists to preserve these wonders—painstakingly rendered through brush and pigment.
This era gave rise to botanical masterpieces that married European precision with Indian artistry. The January leaf transports us to this intersection of science and art, where Indian artists adapted their regional styles to meet the demands of botanical documentation. These artists, with their magnifying glasses and watercolor palettes, became pioneers of a forgotten legacy.
Our illustrators paid homage to this history by recreating a watercolor, showcasing the very tools that enabled this remarkable art. Against a sepia-toned backdrop evoking the nostalgia of the 19th century, they’ve depicted a carved wooden magnifying glass—a lens through which history itself was observed and immortalized.
This page isn’t just an artwork; it’s a portal to a bygone era. A celebration of resilience, adaptation, and the melding of cultures, it marks a poignant and powerful start to the 2025 calendar.
Stay tuned as we unveil more leaves of this labor of love, each with its own story to tell. ?
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Further Reading
a. The Art & Science of Indian Botanicals; Ekta Balkishan; 11th March 2020; Sarmaya Arts Foundation. Link: https://sarmaya.in/spotlight/the-art-science-of-indian-botanicals/
b.?British and the Botanical Wealth of India; 2019. Curated by Annamma Spudich, PhD., supported by National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore, India. Google Arts & Culture. Link: ?https://artsandculture.google.com/story/sAVB52K8yIwqIQ
c. Exeter Museum's Company School paintings of Indian plants & animals; Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery; Google Arts & Culture. Link: https://artsandculture.google.com/story/exeter-museum-s-company-school-paintings-of-indian-plants-animals-royal-albert-memorial-museum-art-gallery/3AVBaAVabfooLw?hl=en
d. From temple walls to Instagram: The long and rich history of botanical art in India; Urmi Chanda-Vaz; 31st May 2019. Scroll.in Link: https://scroll.in/magazine/913816/from-temple-walls-to-instagram-the-long-and-rich-history-of-botanical-art-in-india
e.?The Weight of a Petal: Ars Botanica; Sita Reddy; December 2018-March 2019; MARG, Volume 70 Number 2. Link:https://marg-art.org/product/UHJvZHVjdDo1MTI0
Former Joint Secretary Ministry of Health & Family Welfare , Govt of India
1 个月Always look forward to receiving it
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Strategy - Social Impact & Behaviour Change; Operations, Monitoring, Learning & Evaluation, Processes and Program Management
1 个月Super :-)
Health Communication & Advocacy | International Development Consulting | Media Strategy | Former National Online Editor, MINT | Independent Director on Jamna Auto Industries Board | Probono consulting with nonprofits
1 个月The calendars brought out by NC every year are a poetic amalgam of tradition, art and culture. The themes are unusual and the attention to detail perfect, much like everything NC does and stands for!!! Know many people who look forward to receiving their calendar every year including yours truly.
Author at Hachette and Leadstart, Director (New Concept), social development consultant (health, education, child rights, child protection, policy, impact, feasibility), writer, human rights activist
1 个月Nostalgic indeed!