While on our tour of the exhibition of postcards Hello & Goodbye at Museum of Art and Photography (MAP), Bengaluru, we discovered that the idea for postcards originated in Germany, back in 1865. However, it was the government of Austria that issued the first one on October 1, 1869. While postcards became a prominent mode of communication in the early 20th century, their popularity with the invention of faster communication channels surely dipped but never faded away.
Even in this generation, there are people who enjoy postcards. Now, they are mostly seen as souvenirs – as tokens of affection and appreciation. People often go to places and pick up a postcard for a loved one and hand that over without a message. “In that sense, the idea of exchanging postcards exists but we do not essentially communicate through postcards like before. Social media and messaging apps today definitely provide faster modes of communication but all of them stem from letter writing and postcards,” says Meghana Kuppa, who along with Khushi Bansal, has curated the exhibition Hello & Goodbye. The display features 80 postcards, most of which have been gifted by South Asian art collectors Kenneth X and Joyce Robbins.
The historical value of picture postcards are often overlooked, yet these objects serve as windows into the social, political, and cultural landscapes of the time they were produced in. In the early 20th century, for instance, European presses printed images in postcards that stereotyped Indians and disseminated propaganda of the Crown. Indian Presses, contrastingly, circulated imagery fervently supporting the burgeoning nationalist movement for independence. To understand more about this, we speak with the co-curator Meghna.
When postcards came out, communication was a bit stifled, delayed. Although they took two weeks to deliver a message, postcards were comparatively fast, fun and cool – pretty much like how Instagram is for us these days! You could have a picture on the front and a message on the back yet you didn't have to say much – just let another person know how you were doing and if you were safe. So, there are several reasons why postcards became a favourite.
Postcards were circulated amongst elite societies. Businesses also used postcards as a mode of conveying either deliveries. For instance, we have a postcard addressed to Ravi Varma Press, giving information about quantities of certain supplies that need to be delivered. There are also a few postcards within our collection that have been sent by Indians. There’s one going from someone in Amritsar to Francois in Paris. So there’s a network — a social network being built — and postcards are revealing that.
That happened post-independence and then you see a rise in postcards between 1970s-80s. During this time, postcards became cheaper and hence, the idea of having to collect them amongst elite societies also dwindled. After that, postcards became a lot bigger and then came a lot of standardisations with postcards; they took up more generic themes as well.
MAP has a beautiful collection of almost 1600 postcards and the idea was to showcase it. Our idea of postcards was more of a sentimental value but when you look at this particular collection, you start to see there is more of a political agenda that rests through the messages. We came up with a flow of looking at the image makers, addressing the European and Indian printing presses and their role in the circulation of postcards. Then we went into looking at how India became a souvenir, which addresses the inherent colonial aspect within this collection.
Embellished postcards! The idea of Indian artists taking control of their own narrative by embellishing postcards is a very creative way of using this medium. The imageries on certain postcards produced by Raphael Tucks and Sons are also worth mentioning. Another postcard features an illustration of the Indian Army during the colonial era. It gives a deep insight into how the British played a role in modernising India.
Entry free. Till August 18. At Museum of Art and Photography, Kasturba Road
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