Folk traditions acquire modern interpretations in an exposition on Bengal’s patachitra art, says Uma Nair

Curator Anubhav Nath’s exhibition Satrangi is the stuff of folk tale niceties and love for India’s heritage. At Ojas Art is a plethora of folksy idioms woven into mythology in which the gods and goddesses take on new avatars and modern dayisms. While the works come in a riot of colours, we are also faced with questions about tradition and innovation that are interwoven with what “cosmopolitan impressions.” In a way the show also throws light on the development of women as painters of the patua or scroll folk craft in an expanded market.

Swarna’s contours

Just by looking at a few works by Swarna Chitrakar we can sense the threads related to the conditions that lead women to become practitioners of an art traditionally associated with men. Her Krishna Radha and Mahishasur Mardangini are images that translate contemporary trajectories in the narrative of iconographic themes. In her handling of both contours and colourative design combinations, she also provides an overlapping thread of continuity as evidence for what we can in the modern millennium term as a “cosmopolitan tradition.”

Dukhushyam’s lines

The Royal Bengal Tiger and Kamal Kamini are Dukushyam Chitrakar’s two finest works. Dukushyam combines the uniqueness of the Bengal patuas as regards their conception of the mythic tales. There is a noticeable emphasis on the beauty and intricate details of subjects rather than heroism. These two works also differ subtly in style within the patua tradition, as for example, in the signature frame, in the depiction of foliage and the certain typical poses of the goddess on the lotus and Lord Shiva on the vahana, a lion. The collection of frames that demonstrates how the epic is retold is the most valuable and most beautiful part of this show because we can look at folk idioms and heritage traditions in a new light.

Anwar’s moorings

Anwar Chitrakar’s portrait of Modi replete with GST is a testimony to the continued presence of patachitra or sequential scroll-painting in this overwhelmingly technological age. The patuas’ medium is also an audio-visual one, with the aural being as important as the visual. Anwar translates the vitality and beauty of the patua’s art into a long scroll of the Jaipur Lit Fest at which Anubhav Nath is a veteran. The patuas “perform” their art, unrolling the scroll, revealing each subject frame by frame as they sing the story or the incident portrayed. The songs may be traditional ones or composed afresh by the patua or the composer in his or her family.

The result is a dynamic, often collaborative, work that traditionally relies heavily on oral sources when recreating themes from legends and epics, and is, therefore, largely a product of that. Even today, among traditional rural patua communities, literacy is low. While they still work on traditional themes, including myths of origin and rituals of death, they also respond to contemporary events and social developments. Orality persists and Anwar shows us the blend of orality as well as everyday observation of modernisms.

Moyna and Joydeb’s dulcet duets

Moyna and Joydeb Chitrakar emphasise the lyrical aspect of the patua’s work; the lines are lithe and the imagery is modern. Kanyashri (a crusading scheme by Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee) becomes a work of art in terms of its impact on the lives of young girls. The neatness of the composition in the way it has brought together the girls and the cycles gives us a unique convention on which the artists in turn have imprinted their individual styles, creating a world of richness within narrow boundaries but brought forward to everyday realities. The visual riches of human resources are captured in the production of different frames in this young duo’s works. Even their Durga pat is a work that befits the beauty of the subject and the colours condense to create fragments of different parts of a mythic legend and belief that still draws the crowds.

Uttam’s visual drama

The piece de resistance of the show is Uttam Chitrakar’s Baul Pat, a stunning vertical scroll that at once gives us a community identity and evolution of the patuas, the making of their dyes, their distinctive use of colour and form and the sources of their art, both visual and aural. The Baul singers, who form an intrinsic part of India’s folklore, are a reflection of the reality that India’s heritage abounds in poems, stories and retellings of the epics, much of it meant to be read, as well as songs, urban plays, folk drama, yatra productions, even musical dance dramas such as Tagore’s Valmikipratibha and Kalmrigaya.

“I believe that art has a language. It makes the spectators feel. Satrangi explores one genre of tribal arts annually. Previously there have been survey shows in the genres of Gond, Madhubani-Mithila and Bheel art and this year we are celebrating patachitra. The aim is to bring forth this traditional art technique into the limelight and keep the skill alive and appreciated,” says Nath.

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