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.

Madhubani painting, also known as Mithila or Maithili painting, is a traditional Indian folk-art form that originated in the Mithila region of India (in Bihar) and Nepal. Some of the earliest references to this folk-art form can be found in the Ramayana, when King Janaka (Sita’s father) requests his painters to create Madhubani paintings to commemorate his daughter’s wedding.

These paintings are traditionally made by the women of the region who would paint the walls of their homes to celebrate auspicious occasions, such as birth, marriage, and religious rituals. The works draw from a standard repertoire of stylised images, but every family and caste has its own pictorial tradition. This lends each painting a distinct style and character. “In the Maithili wall paintings... the figures are evenly distributed over the area to which they adhere with a clear colour spread within the circumscribing drawing.” (Stella Kramrisch, Unknown India: Ritual Art in Tribe and Village, Philadelphia: The Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1968)

Writing about paintings encountered on a visit to the Mithila region in the 1950s, cultural scholar Pupul Jaykar recalls that in some paintings, “vertical and horizontal arrangements were used to divide the paintings to indicate incidents separated by time and space. Devices used in miniature painting to convey vastness by placing minute figures of man, animal or bird in juxtaposition with towering forms, so suggesting and establishing scale, were visible in these paintings... [some] had the spatial quality of frescoes.” (Pupul Jaykar, The Earthern Drum: An Introduction to the Visual Arts of Rural India, New Delhi: The National Museum, 1980, p. 95)

Artists practising Madhubani painting now use paper in addition to the age-old tradition of painting on walls, as seen in lots 85 - 87.

Bimala Dutt, a first-generation Madhubani artist, has played a crucial role in the growth and popularity of this art form. She has been a practitioner of this style of painting for the last 50 years and is known for having pioneered the Kachni style of painting. Her unique works are recognisable by their fine line work, artistic figures, and interesting subjects.

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