Important Notice

In a country where art is typically approached with a pre-set notion of being obscure and remote, India’s indigenous arts and crafts remain veiled in mystery. Characterised by stylised figures, flat renderings, repetitive motifs, and themes immersed in ritual, religion, and festivity, they encapsulate and celebrate the traditions and way of living of India’s numerous communities. The most well-known of these arts include Warli, Gond, Saura,... In a country where art is typically approached with a pre-set notion of being obscure and remote, India’s indigenous arts and crafts remain veiled in mystery. Characterised by stylised figures, flat renderings, repetitive motifs, and themes immersed in ritual, religion, and festivity, they encapsulate and celebrate the traditions and way of living of India’s numerous communities. The most well-known of these arts include Warli, Gond, Saura, Madhubani or Mithila, Bengal scrolls, and Kalighat pats. They would be usually undertaken by one community, so they assumed a location or tribe-based identity. Traditionally, communities worked within limitations, using only what was available at the time. One can tell how laborious and time-consuming they are from their intricate details. Until the 20th century, they were restricted to very specific occasions, usually religious and celebratory, and were infused with a unique significance.

One of the largest tribes in Central India, the Gonds—who predominantly hail from Madhya Pradesh, as well as some neighbouring states—have a history dating back 1,400 years. The origin of the word “Gond” is rooted in the Dravidian expression “kond,” which means “the green mountain”. The present-day practitioners of Gond art belong to the Pardhan Gond sub-tribe, who were bards and court singers for Gond kings.

Jangarh Singh Shyam is synonymous with the Gond art form, so much so that Udayan Vajpeyi, in his essay, “From Music to Painting,” proposes that the art be called Jangarh kalam, or Jangarh style. (Sathyapal ed., Native Art of India, Thrissur: Kerala Lalithakala Akademi, 2011, p. 33) Hailing from the Gond tribe in Madhya Pradesh, Jangarh lived in the jungles of Mandla until a chance encounter with the modern Indian artist Jagdish Swaminathan in the 1980s. Swaminathan, who was leading an Indian collective on a study tour with the aim of creating a collection of tribal art in Bhopal, came across Jangarh’s house, where the walls were adorned with his art. Upon enquiring, they met Jangarh – only a teenager at the time, but with a striking style of painting.

Swaminathan took Jangarh on as his protégé, bringing him to the Roopankar Museum in Bhopal, where he learned to transfer his art from walls to paper. He created a series of works on paper and canvas which are displayed at Bharat Bhavan today. “His first large works on paper from the start of the 1980s contain highly expressive forms of great simplicity redolent of primitivism.” (Herve Perdriolle, Indian Art: Contemporary, One World, Several Worlds, Milan: 5 Continents Editions, p. 61)

Jangarh’s art was based on the deities and divinities of the Gond tribe, and the animist culture of worship surrounding them, as noted in lots 76-78. Suspended in space, he rendered them like silhouettes creating the effect of shadow puppets, with bright colours, dots, and hatched lines. The inspiration for using fine dots comes from the Gond tribe, in which the shamans go into a trance and imagine that the particles of their bodies disperse into space to join with those of spirits to form other beings.

In 2010, the Musee du Quai Branly in Paris held an exhibition called Other Masters of India showcasing large works on paper by Jangarh from the late 1980s and early 1990s, which according to Pedriolle, “reveal a development in the direction of a profusion of psychedelic colors and more elaborated forms. The second half of the 1990s was marked by an unusual refinement, pictorial maturity, and graphic mastery that resulted in some of his best works.” (Perdriolle, p. 61)

Jangarh worked with several mediums throughout his career, including drawing and silkscreen painting, rediscovering a new style and representation every time. He switched from murals to acrylics and ink on paper and adapted age-old imagery from the community’s visual imagination for a contemporary setting with remarkable deftness.

Jangarh’s journey forever altered the course of Gond art. As he achieved fame, Jangarh encouraged other artists in his community to paint as well and served as their bridge into the mainstream art world. His house doubled as a studio, where he provided his students with paper, canvas, and paint, and encouraged them to find and practice their unique expression within the Gond tradition. He passed away in 2001, while only in his early forties, leaving behind a rich legacy that is carried on by the artists he trained and encouraged during his lifetime.

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