Luminescent yellows come from powdered saffron. Vivid blues arise from the aparajita flower; the fruit of the lotkom plant offers crimson that literally leaps out of the page. Burnt paddy grains and charcoal provide black and shades of grey, ground atop chaal (plain rice) and ghusum clay make white; seempata (bean plant) offers shades of green and diluted cowdung creates a shade of brown.
As the world screams organic, Swarna Chitrakar and her family — including her husband and five daughters — paint ancient tales and their take on the here-and-now using pigments that are 100 per cent natural.
The pigments are mixed with bel glue to retain their adhesive quality and also to protect the scroll from insects. The paper that creates these scrolls gets a protective back cover of cotton saris dipped in indigo to keep insects at bay.
Working from her West Midnapore village home, Swarna is one of a handful of patuas (pat painters or scroll painters) who continue a centuries-old family trade — creating scroll paintings using traditional methods before moving from village to village, adding tunes to the tales that the pictures tell.
Swarna’s scrolls are not limited to traditional content, though; her art offers a unique perspective on the urban milieu and the trappings of a world outside her idyllic setting, but always with a touch of tolerant humour. Even city kitsch emerges fresh through this approach.
Swarna stands out because of her dynamic expression, which seamlessly straddles the modern and the traditional. Suffused with a rare sensibility, her work is at the cutting-edge of contemporary art in the country. She has broken the mould of being just a folk artist with several successful shows to her credit within the country and abroad. One of the most-sought after contemporary artists from Bengal on the CIMA Gallery (Centre for International Modern Art) roster, this 40-something artist continues to infuse modern elements into her work and thus find new expression within a traditional style.
As we make ourselves comfortable on the small courtyard at Swarna’s residence, she spreads out a handful of scrolls. There are tales from the Puranas, the age-old Manasamangal Kabya, a humorous prachalita (traditional) gaan on the hierarchy of fishes, and an episode from the Ramayan. Simultaneously, there are scrolls on a monkey in a zoo discovering a camera and its experiments with the gadget in the company of its jungle brethren — and finally, setting up an exhibition with his newly found passion of photography! Relevant social issues also feature in her work: the ecological dangers of deforestation, the harassment of women as well as HIV/AIDS.
Articulate lines and vibrant tones characterise Swarna’s style; a mesh of rural pat painting, Kalighat pat traditions and Madhubani motifs. A large portion of her subjects are essentially from the Hindu pantheon, although Swarna and her family are Muslims. It’s a fascinating overlap of socio-religious boundaries, one where art subjugates everything.
“The history of scroll painting in my family goes back to Tagore’s times,” says Swarna.
She also claims that the Kalighat patuas were her ancestors. While that remains debatable, stylistic similarities are apparent between the present-day patuas and their 19th century counterparts. The Kalighat pats were not scroll art — those were smaller in size, and songs didn’t accompany the paintings. In Swarna’s tradition, the ditty and the display are almost inseparable.
As we settle down for a lunch of fish, rice and vegetables, Swarna talks of the beginnings. “I was the first daughter after a son. As my father would paint, I would hold the end of his scrolls and also mix colours for him,” she recalls. “Girls were not allowed to paint pats at that time. The trend was broken by our mentors Gauri Chitrakar and Dukhushyam Chitrakar, my maternal uncle.”
“The tradition of women patuas painting is relatively new. They were all trained by Dukhushyam Chitrakar, who took the initiative in the 1970s,” says Frank J. Korom, associate professor of religion and anthropology at Boston University and an authority on the patuas of Bengal.
Swarna travelled to Sweden in 2003 along with her brother to participate in a folk art festival. “He painted on 9/11; I did a piece on the Titanic,” smiles the artist.
She has also exhibited at the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Brown University. Swarna’s art was also featured in a 2008 Sotheby’s auction. “What makes Swarna unique is that she is one of the few who can both sing and paint. But she has also moved beyond traditions. So aesthetically, she is a cut above most of the rest,” says Korom.
Arka Das
As appeared in The Telegraph Metro, April 16, 2010
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