Folk Traditions

There were artists even before there was an art world. They left their mark inside caves, and on the walls and floors of the huts they lived in, often in the form of drawings and paintings. Although made using the most elementary tools, such as twigs, brushes, natural dyes, and colours, their confident creations continue to act as clues to who we really are.

- Gautami Reddy

There is no one story of Indian folk art. Be it the canvas-filling geom tric shapes of ancient Warli art from Maharashtra, the dizzying dashes and dots of Gond and Bhil art from central India, or the playful yet precise paintings of Madhubani and Kalighat art from the east, each form has its own deep history and vocabulary, despite the many interactions and interconnections.

In the last century, industrial paper has replaced mud walls and floo s as the main canvas, and the sacred philosophies behind many of the folk traditions have become absorbed into the grand narrative of the country's race to modernize. Many of the self-taught artists, outsiders to urban art markets, have been compelled to take to daily-wage labour. However, a few have stood the test of time-sometimes by chance and sometimes through sheer will-radically opposing reigning ideas of industrial progress and art market trends, and inspiring younger generations of artists today.

SITA AND GANGA DEVI MADHUBANI

Here, we celebrate the greatest modernists of Indian folk art wall in the city for the grand wedding celebrations, starting with the kobbar ghar or the room made for the young bride and groom. Over the centuries, as the tradition flourished, it was artists such as Ganga Devi, Jamuna Devi, and Sita Devi who began to be celebrated and recognized as the modern pioneers of Madhubani art in the 1960s and '70s. "They were the first to transfer the traditional art form from mud walls to paper-provided by the Handloom Handicrafts Export Corporation-a medium that allowed the painted stories to travel to exhibitions and audiences around the world," explains Amit Kumar Jain, the director of Anant Art Gallery in Noida. Determined and driven to represent her community, Sita Devi, in particular, became the face of the ancient Indian art form, representing India at exhibitions across Japan, Europe, the USSR, and the United States.