Starry Night, which the artist painted in an asylum in 1889, serves as inspiration for the creation of the pandals of Durga Puja.
In a year when the festival is showcasing its global identity in the wake of its inclusion on the representative list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity, one painting has served as the inspiration for three pujas.
Three pandals in Kolkata, two in the south and one in the north, will use the Dutch post-impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh’s Starry Night as a point of reference.
At Bakulbagan Sarbojanin in south Kolkata, where seasoned artist Sanatan Dinda is in charge, the most noticeable interpretation permeates the entire pandal and the idol. The vibrant blue and yellow swirls in the centre of van Gogh‘s masterpiece run wall to wall among the bare steel frameworks, creating a sense of swift, flowing movement.
Looking down from the roof is a cluster of sunflowers, which is also associated with van Gogh. The goddess emerges from the swirl in golden yellow splendour.
“First, I think of the idol, then of the pandal. My job is not to imitate Starry Night, but to give it a sculptural interpretation,” said Dinda, who planned the project in 2019 and was looking for a pandal with enough space and a generous client. Long before UNESCO, he said, this was his attempt to present a global face of Durga Puja.
Outside, a large replica of the painting will be on display. Dinda began work on August 4 and kept the pandal open to visitors. Raju Sarkar remembered going to look at Dinda’s work after learning that he, too, was dealing with Starry Night.
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At Hindusthan Park Sarbojanin, the painting serves as the backdrop. The theme of the south Kolkata puja is tailors, whose dresses keep the Gariahat market next door buzzing.
Starry Night was inspired by the view from van Gogh’s window while he was in a mental asylum in 1889.
Van Gogh’s painting in Sarkar’s pandal, a tailoring hub with 14 sewing machines and numerous string reels, gets its hues not from paint but from crumpled clothes of the colour that can only be seen under close inspection.
Debabrata Singha, who works at Sovabazar Burtola Sarbojanin with Indrajit Roy, demonstrates how the internet has trapped people in a web. They tinkered with another van Gogh painting, The Bedroom, adding a couple lying on what was a bare bed in the composition, each with his or her phone.
Durga is seated for a meal at the table with the children, who are also busy on their phones, at the north Kolkata puja. And one can see a replica of Starry Night through the window in the bedroom. Sunflowers, another favorite of Van Gogh, bloom in a vase.
Sarkar stated that even if the three pandals used the same painting, it would not be considered duplication.
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