Untitled
Signed in Devnagari and dated '1997' (lower centre)
1997
Acrylic on canvas
60 x 26.75 in (152.7 x 68 cm)
PROVENANCE:
Private Collection, Mumbai
Jangarh Singh Shyam is synonymous with this 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) Jangarh Singh Shyam lived in the jungles of Mandla until a chance encounter with the modern 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 Shyam's house, whose walls were adorned with his art. Upon enquiring, they met Shyam - only a teenager at the time, but with a striking style of painting. Swaminathan took Shyam on as his protege, bringing him to 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.
Shyam's art was based on the deities and divinities of the Gond tribe, and the animist culture of worship surrounding them. Suspended in space, he rendered them like silhouettes creating the eff ect of shadow puppets, with bright colours, dots and hatched lines. The inspiration for using fi ne 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, which carried large works on paper by Shyam from the late 1980s and early 1990s. Shyam worked in several mediums, including drawing, silkscreen and serigraph, discovering a new approach every time. He passed away in 2001, in his early forties and left behind a vibrant legacy which is carried on by the artists he trained and encouraged during his lifetime.
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Lot
25
of
68
LIVING TRADITIONS: FOLK AND TRIBAL ART
19-20 APRIL 2017
Estimate
Rs 3,50,000 - 4,50,000
$5,470 - 7,035
RESERVE NOT MET
Size Size
Height of Figure: 6'