Telling Tales of India: National Museums Liverpool World Museum Show

It is indeed a great delight when India is showcased in museums abroad and the delight is made sweeter if you are associated with that initiative. The culmination of a multi-year, multi-artist project with National Museums Liverpool collecting 'contemporary traditional art'  was the stunning show titled Telling Tales of India which featured artists Pushpa Kumari ( Madhubani Art),  Kalam Patua    (Kalighat painting), Mantu Chitrakar ( West Bengal patua art), Nankushia Shyam ( Gond Art), Paresh Rathwa ( Pithora paintings), Ganesh and Teju Jogi ( Jogi art) as well as Sonabai Rajawar amongst others. 

Enjoy the following write-up from the Museum website 

http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/about/mediacentre/2013/telling-tales-release.aspx

World Museum opens its gateway to India in new exhibition

World Museum will be bringing a piece of India to Liverpool this month, with the opening of a new exhibition exploring the role of storytelling in Indian art and culture.

Telling Tales, opening 24 May 2013 until 8 Sep 2013 will showcase the work of seven artists, portraying the traditional and contemporary stories of the country in a vibrant and colourful setting.

From large-scale paintings of village life, to terracotta horses, photographs and video material, the exhibition will offer a colourful, exuberant and exciting insight into 21st century India, immersing visitors in the sights and sounds of the country.

MANTU CHITRAKAR'S TIGER CHAUKAS

Mantu Chitrakar is no doubt an accomplished scroll painter having just won the Award for Excellence from the World Crafts Council ...but from the first time I saw his work, his tiger chaukas have been  one of his strengths. In earlier times, the scrolls were never sold as they would be used by the patua as he travelled from one village to the other, singing out the scroll song. Once the scroll got old and damaged, it was put to rest in a pool of water or a river, the songs and beautiful drawings erased forever, returned to the Original Maker, the Original Singer, the Spirit that animates the whole world. The patua artists however did make some images for sale - these were the square chaukas which were typically single image paintings of Gods and Goddesses. Mantu made the chauka format his own drawing the most powerful and beautiful tiger images. Always the tiger seems to be barely restrained by the material, so animated and dynamic as though it is going to jump right out ..enjoy these tiger chaukas by Mantu.

 And don't forget, Bengal was once home to thousands of tigers - no wonder it is called the Royal Bengal Tiger ...

Mantu Chitrakar wins an award

So so pleased to announce that Mantu Chitrakar, one of the artists I have promoted for the last 15 years has just won the Award of Excellence for 2014 from the World Crafts Council Asia Pacific Region. Mantu is a wonderful scroll painter from West Bengal and a great singer too, often composing songs for the scrolls he makes on contemporary topics such as female foeticide and terrorism. Thanks to the work we do to promote traditional artists, his works are now part of the permanent collection in prominent museums such as National Museums, Liverpool, the American Visionary Art Museum and the US Library of Congress. 

Mantu worked in my home on the last few panels of a magnificent patachitra he submitted to the World Crafts Council. This scroll is based  on the Santhal story of origin and I helped him by writing about it. I got a chance to click some pictures while he was working ...so take a look at an award winning scroll. 

Works from the IIC show

Part of 9/11 scroll by Mantu and Kartik Chitrakar
Seeking My Beloved by Kalam Patua

Surya the Sun God and his chariot by Pradyumna Kumar

Cross-Cultural Exchanges

One of my goals is to take traditional artists from India to venues across the world where they can interact with artists from other cultures and showcase their own traditions. Such exchanges allow for creativity to unfold in new, sometimes unexpected ways and lead to dialogue, sometimes without language.

Here are some pictures from Crosshatched, a cross-cultural exchange programme supported by the Australia-India Council wherein three artists from India ( Pushpa Kumari, a Madhubani artist, Pradyumna Kumar, a paper-machie sculptor from Madhubani and Mantu Chitrakar, a pattachitra artist from West Bengal) travelled to Melbourne and worked with Australian artists Ann Ferguson, and Vipoo Srivilasa. They also conducted workshops with children of all ages at different venues.

Mantu Chitrakar singing out a scroll

Vipoo and Pushpa with one of their collaborative work

Story-telling - Minhazz with Pradyumna's award winning story How the Firefly got its Light

Mantu Chitrakar with his daughter Sonia's work on the walls at The Early Learning Centre

Ann and Pradyumna working on their Fusion Tree
For more details of the project see http://www.crosshatched.multiply.com/