Primitive lure of Gond

From pre-historical times to now, Gond is one art idiom that remains vibrantly alive. Roots morph into animals, leaves become music, fishes emerge as people, stars sign off as words, creatures entwine with elements, you can’t decipher the beginning or the end in the composition, while the imagery triggers conjectures, dreams and memories tumbling into our mind space… Perhaps, it is inevitable that this ancient tribal art holds its own, even in this era of post-modern art.

Like Maharashtra’s Warli art, Gond existed as wall and floor paintings in the huts and temples of Gond tribals. But, while Warli is believed to have evolved around the 10th century AD, Gond began as a form of cave painting, dating back to prehistoric times. And today, Gond chitrakars hold solo shows at art galleries in New York and Paris.

Modern sensibilities
So, what is it that makes Gond stand shoulder to shoulder with contemporary art? Taking a look at a Gond chitra would demystify the question. We begin to see that Gond is a visual dialect that lets multiple tales emerge in a single frame. Its innate compositional versatility lets its artists build layers of meanings, while its sophisticated imagery makes possible a deluge of metaphors and elaborate storytelling. There exists a seamless connect between every element in the composition, effecting a sense of harmony. There is also the overwhelming presence of, and reverence, for nature in its imagery, at a time when most of us have negated nature from our visual and emotional horizons.

So it is that Gond art empowers its chitrakars like Madhya Pradesh’s Bhajju Shyam to have a following not just in India, but abroad too. Shyam has shown his intricate and colourful works in India and in the UK, US, Germany, Holland, France, Russia, Italy and Reunion Island. His illustrated London Jungle Book (in association with Tara Books) has become iconic.

“Gond reaches deep into your feelings and your soul. I think that is why it continues to appeal to everyone. And unlike other tribal art, in Gond, each of us evolves our own signature styles,” says Shyam, who recently came down to Chennai for a workshop organised by Tara. Today, there are any number of award-winning Gond chitrakars like Ramsingh Urveti, Pradeep Marawe, Rajendar Kumar Shyam, Subhash Singh Vyam, Durga Bai and Dawat Singh Uikey.

“Nature is central to our culture and our art,” Dawat says. Incidentally, Dawat has an engineering degree under his belt, but he threw away an engineering career to return to art. Gond paintings also have a special association with spirituality and festivities. But Gond art is not always a spectacle of colour.

Chitrakars like Rajendar Kumar Shyam use ink on paper too, creating some of the most intricate and complicated art narratives one can ever encounter. Cross hatches, dots, lines, stripes, spirals and circles co-exist with colour and the confluence does not come away a mismatch. And then, Gond art has its own special grip over balance and symmetry, however intertwined the imagery may get. Nor would your encounter any smudging or corrections in Gond art. As Subhash Singh Vyam puts it, “Imperfection in art is beautiful too, as it is in people.”

Humble talents

“As a child, when I would paint with red and black clay, I never thought of a world beyond my village. But marriage brought me to the city and the association with Bharat Bhavan took me to the world beyond India”, says Durga Bai, Gond artist and illustrator, who has exhibited her paintings in India and abroad. “Traditionally, we painted trees, animals and our Goddesses Marahi Devi and Phulvari Devi. Now we paint all that we think about,” says Durga.

Perhaps, one name stands out in the history of the resurgence of Gond art: J Swaminathan, the former director of Bhopal’s Bharat Bhavan, who had mentored his students to scout villages and reach out to Gond chitrakars and bring them into the limelight. Swaminathan was the one who had got Gond artists to make the switch to canvas and synthetic pigments.

Finally, we might just ponder on this: The Gonds happen to be a large Dravidian tribal community, among the largest Indian tribes, who live in pockets of Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Odisha. Meanwhile, the word Gond is derived from the Dravidian root word kond, meaning the green mountain. So dominant was their impact that one of the two super continents that existed on this planet millions of years ago got named ‘Gondwana’ (meaning ‘forest of the Gonds’) by Austrian scientist Eduard Suess.

Although Gond artists may have moved on from natural pigments to synthetic, from rock to canvas, and from villages to cities, modern chitrakars keep their art every bit as rustic, dynamic, deep-reaching and nuanced as their prehistoric ancestors did.