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