JANUARY 2005
Museum of Craft & Folk Art, Bldg A
For centuries the women of the Mithila region of the Bihar
state in India have decorated the walls of their homes with
intricate paintings on the occasion of marriages and other
domestic ceremonies. Painting is a key component of a girl’s
education in Bihar, and by the time she has reached adulthood,
she has amassed a repertoire of imagery based on myths, folk
themes, and tantric symbolism. Before 1960, the artists were
restricted to these traditional themes and, because of the
limited access to the works, were largely unknown to the outside
world.
All of this changed when a terrible famine struck the region
in the early 1960s. National cultural leaders encouraged the
women to paint on paper in order to create saleable artwork.
These works were enthusiastically embraced by both tourists
and serious collectors of folk art. As the works became known
to a wider domestic and international audience, the themes
expanded to include images from daily life, local legends,
and national and even international events. In spite of this
deviation from tradition, the artists continued to use traditional
materials, painting with natural plant and mineral-derived
pigments and bamboo twigs rather than brushes or pens.
"Mithila Painting: The Evolution of an Art Form"
at the Museum of Craft & Folk Art includes paintings from
the 1960s to 2004. By the mid-1970s four distinct styles had
emerged in the genre of contemporary Mithila painting. These
styles were categorized by caste affiliations, techniques,
pigments, and imagery.
A fifth element had also emerged – as the women became
more and more successful as commercial artists, men began
to join the ranks of the painters. Interestingly, the subject
matter of the men’s paintings tended to be more secular,
focusing on village life, trips, farming activities, and the
like, while the women’s works continued to depict the
more mystical, sacred, and symbolic imagery.
It is also of note that in recent years, the painters have
developed a keen sense of individuality notably absent from
the earlier works. Contact with the outside world has changed
the artists’ perceptions of themselves as well as their
perceptions of the world. But, in spite of these changing
influences, the Mithila paintings retain their village identity
and remain a distinctive part of the art of contemporary India.
"Mithila Painting: The Evolution of an Art Form"
is on display from January 12 through April 24. There is a
free public reception on January
12. See Visual
Arts and www.mocfa.org
for details.
– Jovanne Reilly
Image: "Bus" by Gopal Saha
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