Venkat Raman Singh Shyam

A Gond Artist who loves indigenous style.

- Suman Bajpai

Venkat Raman Singh Shyam is a second-generation Pardhan Gond painter. As such, his style is heavily influenced by his uncle Jangarh Singh Shyam’s style—also called ‘Jangarh Kalam’ and the bhitti chitra and digna style of painting found in Gond homes coupled with his own response to the contemporary world. He works with murals, etchings, mixed media and animation. Venkat has travelled extensively and exhibited his work in India and the world over. He was awarded with the Rajya Hasta Shilpa Puraskar by the Government of Madhya Pradesh in 2002. He was also the coordinator for an animated film on a Gond folktale made by Tara Douglas which won the Tallest Story Competition Trophy at the Inverness Film Festival, Scotland, in 2007.

Excerpts from an interview How and when and your journey of art start?

When I was 8 years old I found 30-40 charcoal drawings on A4 paper, which was done by my maternal uncle, who we lost some time back. My mother told me that he has taken rebirth in my form. After seeing those drawings I had started drawing with charcoal on wall and ground. Since charcoal is considered inauspicious among the Gonds, I was discouraged by my father. After that I worked on a range of jobs – including as house painter, screen printer and signboard artist. I was also fortunate to be guided by the pioneering, and one of India’s most influential artists, Jagdish Swaminathan. While working as a professional signboard artist,I was exposed to Bollywood film-poster style of painting. In my early years in Bhopal, I also developed a visual language comprising of vivid colours and broad bands of diagonal shading divided by narrow black-and-white striped bands known as lahr and lahardar – ‘waves’ and ‘choppy waves.’