Madhubani Art: ‘The Most Rewarding Aspect Is the Sense of Belonging It Gives You to Express Yourself'

Source The Wire by Ashutosh Kumar Thakur
Born in 1962, Santosh Kumar Das is an acclaimed Madhubani painting artist. He pursued his Bachelor of Fine Arts at M.S.U, Baroda. Following his BFA, he made a conscious decision to return to his roots in the village and continue his artistic journey in the traditional style, using a basic nib and ink to create mesmerising artworks. Ashutosh Kumar Thakur, a Bengaluru-based management professional and literary critic, speaks with Santosh Kumar Das about his life and works.
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Art and Healing on the Anniversary of India’s Partition

Source Hyperallergic by Rhea Nayyar
Based in both Mumbai and New York City, Anagh Banerjee has pursued retellings of the Partition through his woodcut printmaking series The Other Side (2017–ongoing). Inspired by Käthe Kollwitz’s woodcuts born from the terrors of World War I and other such outputs of German Expressionism, Banerjee told Hyperallergic that the medium’s “gritty mark-making quality” lends itself to the subject of the Partition. The project began with Banerjee’s grandmother, who left her family behind in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh as of 1971) for India without returning for 15 years. Banerjee noted that she recalled her experience of the Partition in a very matter-of-fact tone — “There’s a sense of ‘what’s the point of talking about all of this now?’ that she and others I’ve interviewed for this project express,” he said. “I don’t think she or anyone else had the space or the time or the bandwidth to really grieve the loss of life, language, culture, and home, and they lack the vocabulary to talk about it because they haven’t ever been asked,” Banerjee continued. “I feel there needs to be a more nuanced way of talking about the individual experiences of this migration beyond the violence. I would like to balance the political narrative with the human story as the Partition generation is in the twilight of their lives.”
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