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Gond artist Durga Bai’s paintings are known for their unique storytelling quality. Drawing from the folk art legacy of the adivasi Gond Pardhan tribe, Durga Bai paints tales inspired by the stories that her grandmother told her. Durga’s work is rooted in her birthplace, Burbaspur, a village in the Mandla district of Madhya Pradesh.
When she was six, Durga learned the art of the “digna” from her mother, which involved painting the...
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Gond artist Durga Bai’s paintings are known for their unique storytelling quality. Drawing from the folk art legacy of the adivasi Gond Pardhan tribe, Durga Bai paints tales inspired by the stories that her grandmother told her. Durga’s work is rooted in her birthplace, Burbaspur, a village in the Mandla district of Madhya Pradesh.
When she was six, Durga learned the art of the “digna” from her mother, which involved painting the walls and floors of houses during festive events and wedding using mud or cow dung. She found the process enjoyable, whether it was plastering walls with manure or collecting clay. This artistic style came naturally to her, and soon she found her works in demand.
Over the years, Durga married Subhash Vyam, an artist himself, and moved to Bhopal. The marriage proved to considerably fruitful to Durga’s artistic career. Vyam’s brother-in-law was the renowned folk artist Jangarh Singh Shyam, who encouraged Durga to paint and supported her ambitions. Durga’s repertoire of subjects were varied and almost always rooted in tribal folklore and mythology. She painted several goddesses: Ratmaimurkhuri, the guardian of the night; Maharalin Mata, who wardedoff ghouls from entering villages; Khero Mata, protector against evil people; Budi Mai, patroness of the harvest; and Kulsahinmata, a goddess invoked when crop was sown. Durga also painted the males gods, Bada Dev,the supreme god, and Chula Dev, who ensured that the household chulha (hearth) always burns.
In 1996, Gond artist Anand Singh Shyam invited Durgato exhibit her works at the Bharat Bhawan museum in Bhopal, where she sold on of her paintings, depicting young girls in prayer, to a collector from Chandigarh. Since then she has participated in almost every exhibition of Adivasi art in Bhopal, New Delhi, Dehradun, Khajuraho, Indore, Raipur and the Jehangir Art Gallery in Mumbai. In 2003, Durga Bai was invited to a workshop held by Tara Publishing in Chennai, and has since been illustrating books for many publishers.
In 2004, Durgawas honoured by the Handicraft Development Council. Four years later,Durga, along with two other Gond artists, Ram Singh Urveti and Bhajju Shyam, were presented the BolognaRagazzi Award in Italy for their illustrated children’s book, “The Night Life of Trees”. She hasalso received the IGNCA (Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts) for 2006-2007.
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Born
1972
Exhibitions
Selected Exhibitions
2003 Tara Publishing Workshop, Chennai
1996 Bharat Bhawan Museum, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh
Selected Exhibitions
2003 Tara Publishing Workshop, Chennai
1996 Bharat Bhawan Museum, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh
Honours and Awards
2008 Bolohna Ragazzi Award, Italy
2006 IGNCA
2008 Bolohna Ragazzi Award, Italy
2006 IGNCA
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