From Rajasthan to the Deccan - a range of miniature Pichwais

Those familiar with the tradition of Pichwai painting will know the majestic sizes that they come in, and in today's urban life, it is rare to find space large enough to accommodate them.
Now entrepreneur and art connoisseur Pooja Singhal has experimented with the dimensions of Pichwai to cater to the minimalist artistic tastes of the urban lifestyle, while in the process reviving the traditional art form.
Originating in Nathdwara in Rajasthan, Pichhwai is an art form that narrates tales from the life of Krishna through the medium of paintings, where the Hindu God is portrayed in different moods, body postures, and attires.

Almost recreating the Nathdwara haveli, is a massive collection of Pichwai paintings from Singhal's repertoire displayed at an ongoing exhibition here.
With over 80 pieces of exquisite art works in a variety of styles, encompassing the double-storey venue, the lower half exhibits the conventional form of the art while the other half has on display specimens of Singhal's innovation with the Pichwais.
"What I felt was first of all, today nobody lives in havelis anymore. Secondly a typical perception about Pichwais is that it is a big 12'x 4' painting with many boxes with the main composition in the centre. I wanted to change this perception and make it more relevant in the contemporary context," says Singhal.

She has thoughtfully created miniature counterparts as small as 12"x12" of the larger paintings, with the intricacies only getting finer and sharper.

"The size is something that I played with. So I intervened and brought it down to a miniature style. The intricacy is beautiful and it's become a whole new form of the art," she says.
One of the major and conspicuous objectives behind the exhibition, says the artist is the gradual elimination of the traditional art form.
"It has waned away rather rapidly in the last couple of years. There are no good Pichwais available. From the people that I work with, I have heard that earlier there were 3000 artists, today there are 200 and only 40 are good," she says.

What is bound to strike a viewer at the show is a repetition of the composition, that is, the story from Krishna's life that the painting seeks to narrate remains essentially the same, yet the two paintings are not duplicates.