The Man Who Took Gond Art From Tribal Huts to The World’s Top Museums

Source The Better India by Surekha Kadapa-Bose
An image of Lord Hanuman was drawn with lime and charcoal by hand on the humble red mud walls of a small hut in the remote village, Patangarh, of Dindori district of Madhya Pradesh in 1981. The artist was 17-year-old Gond Pradhan boy Jangarh Singh Shyam. The simplicity, the clean lines and the innocence of the figure helped catapult the hitherto confined Gond tribal art and the artist onto the national and international art circuit. That was the year when the government of Madhya Pradesh planned to build a multi-purpose art centre, Bharat Bhavan, in its capital city Bhopal. Contemporary and well-known artist Jagdish Swaminathan was given the responsibility of establishing the centre where both urban and rural (folk and tribal) arts could be displayed. While scouring the villages of MP for tribal art, he saw the drawing of Lord Hanuman on the walls of a tribal home. That’s when he discovered the uninfluenced talent of Jangarh Shyam and brought him to Bhopal with the promise of work in the field he loved. Thus began the saga of Gond art coming out of villages to the mainstream. Swaminathan took it upon himself to introduce the young Jangarh to canvas and acrylic paints. The rest as they say is history. Without losing touch with his tribal roots or focus, the highly gifted boy soon learnt the new medium. His work, from being displayed on the walls of tribal huts, buffalo backs or kuccha roads, received a new stage in the galleries of Japan, the UK, Germany, France and the USA.
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In a Celebration of Craftsmanship, Dior Haute Couture Spotlights Indian Artists Madhvi and Manu Parekh

Source Artnet News
With her spring-summer 2022 haute couture collection for Dior, creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri is paying homage to the art of hand craftsmanship. Embroidery has been elevated from a decorative detail to a “three-dimensional conceptual act,” as it says in a statement from the brand, giving everything from silver lamé jacquard dresses to draped leotards and tights an avant-garde architecture by way of embellishment. It has also informed the large-scale, handcrafted textile panels that framed the collection’s presentation this week inside Paris’s Musée Rodin, where they will remain on display through Sunday (January 30), featuring works by renowned Indian artists Madhvi and Manu Parekh.
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Dior Couture Printemps-Été 2022: Ode à l’art du fil, Madhvi Parekh

Source Le Magazine du Luxe
C’est au coeur des jardins du musée Rodin que le célèbre cube Dior se dresse. Les guests sont invités à découvrir une galerie d’art aux mille et une broderies. Le décor multicolore, brodé par des jeunes femmes indiennes issues des ateliers Chanakya et de la Chanakya School of Craft, reproduit des oeuvres du couple d’artistes indiens, Madhvi Parekh et Manu Parekh. C’est une véritable ode à la création sous toutes ses coutures, un dialogue entre les arts. « La vision collective de cette collaboration a permis de créer une expérience immersive qui célèbre la culture artisanale, et tout ce qui peut nous relier à l’autre. Cette collaboration avec les artistes vise à effacer la séparation entre l’art et l’artisanat. Elle raconte leur histoire d’amour et nous montre comment l’un influence l’autre de manière authentique. » explique Karishma Swali des ateliers Chanakya. À travers cet atelier revisité, la directrice artistique des collections féminines souhaite conjuguer l’art et l’artisanat, le savoir-faire et la force créative. Ainsi, en collaborant avec les artistes indiens, Madhvi Parekh et Manu Parekh, Maria Grazia Chiuri met en valeur non pas la dichotomie masculin/féminin dans son opposition, mais dans sa complémentarité.
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Brothers from Warli tribe to show local art at exhibition in Mumbai today

Source The New Indian Express by Benita Fernando
Mayur and Tushar Vayeda used to travel for six hours everyday from their hometown in Palghar district to reach Mumbai to study there. Belonging to the Warli tribe of Ganjad village, their travel to their college showed them the “balance that existed between a traditional and modern life in India”. The experiences are captured in their paintings made in the distinctive Warli style which is art using white lines on a base made of cow dung. The brothers, who have received much fame around the world via exhibitions at the Setouchi Triennale in Japan and the Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, will be making their debut in Mumbai at Artisans’ Centre in Kala Ghoda today. The painting, titled “Our City: Regenerating Hope”, presents a sustainable idea of progress. “This is the future of Mumbai. We are trying to show hope,” Mayur said. “Sea turbines co-exist with an abundance of marine fauna — a different reality from the several infrastructure projects that are currently destroying coastal ecosystems in the city. It’s a philosophy borrowed from the Warli way of life, central to which are sustainable farming, co-existence with nature, and the worship of nature deities,” he added. Mayur and Tushar taught themselves to paint and like many others in their tribe, they also work as farmers and bee-keepers. > read more