Important Notice

Born in the early 1960s in Patangarh village in Madhya Pradesh, Jangarh Singh Shyam became one of the first indigenous Indian artists to achieve international recognition. He developed a unique style of painting entrenched in the culture and folklore of the Pardhan-Gond tribe, to which he belonged, transforming their rich oral storytelling traditions into a distinctive visual language. This style and epithet later came to be known as Jangarh... Born in the early 1960s in Patangarh village in Madhya Pradesh, Jangarh Singh Shyam became one of the first indigenous Indian artists to achieve international recognition. He developed a unique style of painting entrenched in the culture and folklore of the Pardhan-Gond tribe, to which he belonged, transforming their rich oral storytelling traditions into a distinctive visual language. This style and epithet later came to be known as Jangarh Kalam and was embraced and carried forward by other artists from his community. Shyam was able to master various mediums and work across formats of various scales. In a career cut short by his untimely death in 2001, he created a remarkable and diverse body of work, ranging from illustrations for children’s publications to monumental murals, including ones in the courtyards of the Vidhan Bhavan, the legislative assembly of Madhya Pradesh, as well as numerous etchings and paintings.

Shyam’s exceptional talent was discovered in 1981, when he was about 19, by a scout working for artist Jagdish Swaminathan, who was looking to collect folk and tribal art for the soon-to-be-inaugurated Roopankar Museum at Bharat Bhavan in Bhopal. Captivated by his work, Swaminathan invited him to exhibit and create art at Bharat Bhavan, where Shyam was introduced to new materials and techniques, including poster colours, acrylics, and paper-tools that would help shape his artistic evolution. Swaminathan once remarked, “Jangarh is no ordinary artist, painting in any traditional manner or style. He is not just an icon maker. Inventive and innovative, he opens up vistas which perhaps have no parallel in Pardhan or Gond art…” (Jagdish Swaminathan quoted in Aurogeeta Das, Jangarh Singh Shyam: The Enchanted Forest - Paintings and Drawings From the Crites Collection, New Delhi: Roli Books, 2017, p. 25)

Gifted with an innate sense of colour, composition, and patterning, Shyam brought to life the flora and fauna around the banks of the Narmada river where he had grown up and gave form to the deities of the Gond pantheon. The present lot features some of his favourite subjects-birds and the hiran or deer-which he imbues with a sense of movement through intricate patterns, including his signature wave motif. The trees are shaded using a technique that Shyam devised in 1989, in which he created the effect of a dotted line by varying the pressure of his pen. The rhythmic repetition of mark-making in his drawings and paintings reflects his connection to the musical traditions of his community. Artist and writer Aurogeeta Das notes, “Fascinatingly, however, it is only when a viewer attempts to deconstruct Jangarh’s patterns that it requires effort to distinguish them. Otherwise, his unerring instincts at matching technique to content made his works in ink appear effortless- if the ‘wavy’ sinews of a deer appeared to embody its movements on the ground, then the cross- hatching or waves on a bird’s wings seemed to be a visual metaphor for flight.” (Das, pp. 67 - 68)

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