Gurupada Chitrakar, one of the finest West Bengal scroll painters of his generation passed away on June 29, 2021,  as the delta variant of the Covid-19 pandemic ravaged India.  Gurupada was a fine artist and transmitter of his patachitra tradition, who I was privileged to meet in Santa Fe in 2006 and 2011.  Rest In Peace.

In May of 2021 Gurupada was featured in an Indian newspaper article about the desperate plight of his fellow patachitra artists during the pandemic:  

“I watched a film in which the customer tells the milk seller that you are putting too much water in the milk to which he replies ‘no, we are not putting water in milk, we are putting milk in water. These days we also mix milk in water and give it to our grandchildren when they ask for it,” says 56-year-old Gurupada Chitrakar before bursting into laughter.

Gurupada is one among the 250 artists hailing from Pingla village in Paschim Medinipur district of West Bengal. One of the most senior Patua artists, Gurupada is sharing with us the dire situation he faces because of the Pandemic. Gurupada has 11 family members – his wife, three sons, daughters-in-law and their children out of which 8 members practice Patua art.

Not just Gurupada, 300 artist families in Pingla – once a sought-after tourist destination – are leading precarious lives today. This is the reality of not just Patua artists but lakhs of traditional artists all over India.  (https://thewire.in/health/west-bengal-no-end-to-patua-artists-financial-...).  

You may read a moving tribute to Gurupada by scholar and curator Frank Korom here.