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There are some parts of the world that, once visited, get into your heart and won't go. For me, India is such a place. When I first visited, I was stunned by the richness of the land, by its lush beauty and exotic architecture, by its ability to overload the senses with the pure, concentrated intensity of its colours, smells, tastes, and sounds. It was as if all my life I had been seeing the world in black and white and, when brought face-to-face with India, experienced everything re-rendered in brilliant techni-colour.
India is a country that has never failed to inspire its natives or hold enthralled visitors who have begun the journey of discovery for the essence of the soul of India. From the pre-historic rock paintings of Bhimbetka and Pachmarhi, simple scenes of hunting, farming and dancing done in black and earth colours, the colour palette of these pre-historic painters gradually enriched itself with red, blue, white, green and yellow. And, the tradition of painting leaping off the cave walls has transferred its colours to palm leaves, wood blocks, cloth, ivory and marble. In India, painting always dependent on religious and royal patronage got into its stride during the reign of the Moghuls. Art flourished, as never before, reaching its zenith till the advent of the British, who sounded the death knell for Indian art. In their greed for the riches of India, they annexed kingdoms and, incapacitated many a royal patron of art. Yet, Indian art is slowly reviving its glorious heritage with the help of art galleries, Indian Art Galleries who have striven long and hard to popularise it.
Internet Art Galleries, a Fine Art Online Gallery including an Art Gallery online, every one of these art galleries displaying an art collection of famous artists and their art has managed to reach a wider segment of art enthusiasts, giving much needed exposure to the exotic art of India. And, as Indian art again finds itself in the limelight, art galleries, Indian Arts Gallery exhibiting Indian art collections from New Artists Gallerys, Artist Gallery Online, Asian Art Gallerys to Contemporary Art Galleries are mushrooming worldwide at an unimaginable pace. As prices for Indian art rocket ever skywards, art galleries like Christie's and Sotheby's do brisk business in selling their Indian art collection.
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From the earliest cave murals to present day art, painting has flourished as a prevailing art form throughout the Indian Sub-Continent. From walls to animals to people, almost everything in India gets painted, the many forms and styles within this genre falling into both sacred and secular categories. And, the wall paintings progressed to Painted Prayers, prayers decorating courtyards and doorways of traditional Indian homes, the Bengali Alpana, South Indian Kolam , Maharashtrian Rangoli , Orissan Osa, Bihari Aripana , UP Sona Rakhna, Gujarati Sathiya, auspicious, multi-hued, geometric or floral decorations, painted afresh at the start of each new day with sandstone powder, grain flour or petals. Each morning, Indian housewives arising at the first break of dawn, create a divine garden at the entrance of their homes, a morning prayer that welcomes in each new day and each visitor to the house. If art galleries could display these painted prayers as part of an art collection, surely these beautiful designs by Indian wives and daughters of the house would feature in the New Artists Gallery.
As Indian art gains appreciation, not only Indian Art Galleries, even Asian Art Gallerys and Contemporary Art Galleries are beginning to exhibit art collections of Indian folk art, the next logical phase in the history of Indian art. Indian Folk Art, pata chitraor folk paintings, pictorial expressions of village painters, belongs to lesser-known traditions dating back to a period of timelessness. Initially, restricted to Bengal, Kalighat painters in a very modern take on art ignored perspective and used colour symbolism or colour for its own sake, freely distorting and modifying the human form abandoning the natural for the geometric, much like African sculpture and Japanese wood cut prints popular with the West. Bengalis, the first to notice changes in the 1900's modern art >scene of Europe, began to reappraise Kalighats and, to collect another distinctive form of village painting, the scrolls made by patuas in rural Bengal.
Ajit Ghose, India's pioneer art collector and critic expressing his enthusiasm for the folk art of Kalighatcould not help exclaiming: "There is an exquisite freshness and spontaneity of conception and execution in these old brush drawings" . The similarity of the scroll paintings of rural Bengal with European modern art were noted resulting in many Contemporary Art Galleries exhibiting art collections of famous artists and their art of Kalighatand, the Indian traditional art of Orissa, pata chitra, pictorial story-telling painted on canvas or strips of tussar silk, by chitrakaras, often a whole family of them under the supervision of the family's master painter. A pata chitra depicting mythical scenes from the lives of the Gods and Goddesses of the Hindu Pantheon, folk paintings, living traditions that express the artists visual analysis of regional historical-cultural settings, the source of his / her inspiration.
The tradition of painting and beautifying walls of dwellings in Mithila, Bihar is believed to have survived the epic period of Ramayana , when mythological murals replete with deities of the Hindu pantheon and regional flora and fauna were painted as decorations for the marriage of Sita and Rama. But, the 1988 earthquake that devastated Madhubani and Darbhanga damaged the palace complex that was covered with the 2-century old wall mural paintings. Madhubani, a refreshing form of ceremonial folk painting, passed down generations of mothers and daughters is the exclusive right of women artists, the rural women of Madhubani, Bihar. These three-dimensional imageries that use vegetable dyes and cow dung treated paper make resplendent additions to art collections of art galleries, Fine Art Online Gallerys, Artist Gallery Online, Art Gallerys Online , Asian Art Gallerys or Contemporary Art Galleries . Pata Qalams, a 200-year old art form found in Bihar traces its roots to Humayun's exile to Persia from where he brought artists who imitated the distant lines of Chinese drawing, adding their own individualism. Purchased in large numbers by the departing British after independence, if you wish to purchase Pata Qalams, you will have your work cut out, as the art seems to be on the decline. But, concentrated effort and intense browsing of Fine Art Online Gallery , Artist Gallery Online, Art Gallery Online, Asian Art Gallery, Indian Arts Gallery, Internet Art Galleries or Contemporary Art Galleries, might result in some that have a few for sale.
Among popular forms of folk art, one cannot ignore Kalamkari , a 3000-year old ancient craft from South India, exquisite religious paintings with influences of Persian motifs and designs, painted with bamboo nibs on cloth, using vegetable dyes for colour. The Thanka paintings of Leh and Ladhak, dominated by dragons that revolve around Buddha and ritual worship are brilliantly coloured cloth paintings that are very popular as wall hangings. Along the lines of Kalighats, Pata Chitras and Madhubanis , Phad folk paintings from Rajasthan depict and tell stories of local deities or legends of erstwhile local rulers. For centuries, they have served as pictorial backdrops for Bhopas or the Bards of Rajasthan who travel from village to village singing the exploits of legendary heroes. And, the Rajasthan Pichavi, originally unfolding scenes from Lord Krishna's life has become secular making these folk paintings popular as colourful wall hangings.
Thanjavur , highly ornate miniature paintings from Tamil Nadu flourished during the time of the Marathas who delighted in the real jewel colours and gold leaf that depicted the plump form of Lord Krishna as a baby. And, last but not least the Warli paintings of the tribals of Maharashtra, originally wall decorations painted with rice paste on the mud walls of their homes are now painted on brown paper using white paint for art collections of art galleries, coveted by Fine Art Online Gallery, Artist Gallery Online, New Artists Gallery, Art Gallery Online, Asian Art Gallery, Contemporary Art Galleries; Internet Art Galleries, and Indian Arts Gallery. Folk art from India including the art of the First Peoples of India, Adivasi tribals is art, full of colourful designs tinged with mystic beliefs and aesthetic sensibilities of the Indian village. The raw power found in folk art is derived from the spring of indigenous creativity of a particular tribe or community of a particular region. Folk art is nothing but a treasure house of collective wisdom, spontaneity and simplicity that retains a touch of the primitiveness of folk traditions.
Indian folk art, often painted by village craftsmen in the most exquisite styles reflecting centuries of tradition passed on from generation to generation always makes a welcome addition to any New Artists Gallery. The colours and themes of village painters reflect the cultural diversity of India, each generation of village artists offering a new addition to a New Artist Gallery. Indian folk art has gained in prominence only in the 50-years of India's independence and, making it is no longer inconceivable to plan an exhibition of the traditional paintings of India. Indian folk art that art galleries no longer find too primitive for their art collection, folk art though rural in theme and rough in execution, nonetheless charming in it's fresh nuances, folk art that enhances any New Artist Gallery that exhibits it. And, in conclusion, it is fitting to reiterate: India, perhaps, is the only country in the world that exists in several centuries at once. Where ancient rituals thrive alongside spectacular technological advances. A wonderful tapestry of cultures, languages, and religions. As Indian art begins to drive the art markets and sells at record prices, one can rightly say the golden age of Indian Art unfolds once again!
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