A unique picture postcard collection from India’s leading artists

Nearly 300 fascinating postcard paintings form part of an exhibition, entitled ‘Card-o-logy’, conceived and curated by Jasmine Shah Verma.

Picture postcards are believed to have made an appearance first in 1900, considered 'the golden age of postcards'. Almost a century later, owing to SMS and the Internet, they seem to be losing their relevance.

Postcards carry their own innate charm coupled with a unique personal touch. A typical picture postcard carries an image on one side. Its reverse side is reserved for sender's address and message.

For this particular show, about 300 personalized postcards, made of acid-free archival paper, were given to the participating artists. For them, the challenge was to fit their unending chain of thought in a limited space.

For instance, instead of focusing on sensitive socio-political themes, renowned artist Sunil Padwal chose to depict the fragile nature of human life by deftly comparing it with a bewildering butterfly's fleeting existence. Narrating the experience, he was quoted as saying: "I was comfortable working on a limited canvas since I have worked on miniatures."

Some of the artists participating in the exhibit include Babu Xavier, Abir Patwardhan, Sonatina Mendes, Heeral Trivedi, Ravikumar Kashi, Aniket Khupse, Apurva Nandi, Nitin Dadrawala, Archana Hande, Amit Ambalal, Nikhileshwar Baruah, Nikita Parikh, Prajakta Palav, Minal Damani, Naina Kanodia, Prabhakar Kolte, Pratul Dash, Pandit Khairnar, Pradeep Mishra, Suneel Mamadapur, Indrapramit Roy, Smirin Mehra Agarwal, Sunil Padwal, Smita Baruah, Jehangir Jani, Karishma Dsouza, Kiyomi Talaulicar, Lalitha Lajmi and Kim Kyoungae.

One of the participating artists Brinda Miller summing up the essence of Postcards mentioned that in spite of technological advances, they would thrive as a collector's item, similar to old LPs.

The curator Stated, "The exhibit through these original works of art looks to offer a bit of history to the future generations in an intimate size." The idea behind these one-time originals (and not prints) is to draw attention to this dying medium.