The Gond standard

A family of Gond artists from Bhopal takes their tradition to the world

A family of Gond artists from Bhopal takes their tradition to the world
The intricate trees and mythical beasts that Gond art is renowned for have animated their dwellings for centuries. But their appearance in the international marketplace dates back to 1981. Thats when the late painter J Swaminathan discovered a talented 17-year-old,Jangarh Singh Shyam,decorating the huts of Patangarh in Madhya Pradesh. Shyam was whisked off to Bhopal,where he worked on murals in the Charles Correa-designed Bharat Bhavan. For the first time,the fine lines and near-pointillist dots of traditional Gond Pardhan motifs so far solely known to village walls were seen on canvases,silk-screens and ink drawings. Jangarhs career took off with his acclaimed exhibitions in Paris and Tokyo. His ascendancy ended,brutally and abruptly,with his suicide at the age of 37,in a village in Japan. But the fantastical flora and fauna that populated his canvases live on in the work of those he trained back home.

Like his nephew,Venkat Singh Shyam,who Jangarh mentored after he saw his accomplished charcoal drawings as a teenager. This April,Venkat had his first US solo at the Brookline Arts Center gallery,alongside a larger exhibition,Painted Songs & Stories: Contemporary Pardhan Gond Art from India,at the Davis Museum and Cultural Center in Massachusetts. For us,art is a means to record history, reflects Venkat,40. Traditional tales may not survive modern times.

Modern times,however,have their own tales to tell. Among the familiar images of purple-clawed beasts,winged elephants,and dragonflies from his village Sejohra were also some images chronicling the 2008 Mumbai terror attack. The ink-on-paper Burning Taj has clouds of smoke billowing over the Taj Hotel,while corpses covered with cloth are carried for cremation in The Final Journey. In the sketch,Tree of Terrorism,a face and a rifle are hidden behind a tree growing out of soil.
Rajendra Shyam also trained at Jangarhs Bhopal studio. Until three years ago,the artist painted part-time,in the evening,when he was done his day-job: working at the Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya. He wasnt alone in his artistic exertion. My wife Sushila used to fill colours in my canvas when I was at work, recalls Rajendra.

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In November,the walls of Nottinghams New Art Exchange gallery were covered with his paperwork depictions of tales associated with the deity Bada Devi. A month later,in London,he and Venkat painted a 70 kg fibreglass elephant,Udata Hathi,as part of the Elephant Parade Mela that concluded on June 30. They gave the pachyderm wings and pale yellow banana skin,reflecting the Gond belief that elephants could fly,until one misbehaved with humans,and was punished by god,who gave his wings to the banana and peacock.

Aside from experimenting with themes,Gond artists have also innovated with the medium. Venkat and Rajendra worked with a team of artists who painted cells for an animation film The Best of the Best,produced by Scotland based company West Highland Animation in 2006. Cousins Ram Singh Urveti and Bhajju Shyam were commissioned to paint a 2,000 sq ft wall mural in Islingtons Masala Zone restaurant in 2002. This art form invites more interest abroad,compared to India, notes Bhajju. People want to understand the technique as well as the narrative.

Bhajju had his first international exposure in 1998 as part of a group exhibition at the Musée des Arts Decoratifs in Paris. Solo shows in the UK,Italy and Holland followed,and the observations made during his two-month London stay were chronicled in a series of illustrations in the critically-acclaimed The London Jungle Book. The observations,which drew comparisons between life back home and in the West,were as lively as the artwork. In the book,London was transformed into a jungle inhabited by a host of wondrous creatures. People got around by elephant-airplanes,dog-buses,and earthworm-underground trains,while Londoners were likened to bats who come out only at night. Last year,he made Flight of the Mermaid,an Indian-flavoured retelling of Hans Christian Andersens classic tale The Little Mermaid. Mayank Shyam,Jangarhs son,is hard at work in his Bhopal home,preparing for his exhibitions in Delhi and Kolkata later this year. A few doors down,Bhajju is working on his solo exhibition in Reunion Island this October. Venkat and Rajendra are taking their art to Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery in London in November.
Meanwhile,the work of their mentor,Jangarh,now attracts handsome bids in auctions abroad. This March,at the Sothebys New York auction,his acrylic work came under the hammer for just over Rs 6.3 lakh.