Gond art today is a thriving vernacular art form; it represents, sometimes paradoxically, both contemporariness and aboriginality. An art form that had no modern history prior to the 1970s, when the artist Jangarh Singh Shyam (1960 - 2001) began painting, today, has a large group of extremely talented practitioners whose work is shown and bought not only in India but across the world. Garimella, in this lecture, will trace the history of Gond painting largely through the career and the work of Jangarh Singh Shyam, as well as the group of artists who trained and assisted him, and today have become prominent in their own right. She will also touch on the larger politics of the art world today in which art is termed "tribal," "modern," "contemporary," etc. and will examine how Gond painting and sculpture challenge such categories.
Dr. Annapurna Garimella is a Bangalore-based designer and an art historian who focuses on the art and architecture of India. She heads Jackfruit, an organization with a specialized portfolio of design, research and curatorial projects for artists, museums, government and private institutions and non-profits. She is also the Founding and Managing Trustee of Art, Resources and Teaching Trust, a not-for-profit organization that runs a public art library, conducts independent research projects and does teaching and advisement for college and university students and the general public. She was the former Research Editor and Advisory Board Member for Marg Publications and is currently on the board of the S N School of Art and Communication, University of Hyderabad and the National Gallery of Modern Art, Bengaluru. Her work focuses on late medieval Indic architecture and the history and practices of vernacular art forms in India after Independence. Her most recent curatorial projects include Vernacular, in the Contemporary (Devi Art Foundation, New Delhi) and Faith: Manu Parekh in Benaras 1980-2012 (Art Alive, New Delhi).
No comments:
Post a Comment