Folk Tales

“With this we hope to reach people who may not be able to visit the museum. The aim is to popularise folk art,” says Caur, as she sifts through the 300-page publication that has been neatly classified into different categories, in tandem with the display at the folk art museum. If the Midnapore patua portraying incidents from Ramayan finds place in the section on ‘Folk Painting’, then ceramic pots from Cambodia and Turkish teapots are under ‘Images from Abroad’. Details about scrolls with tantric motifs are discussed by author PC Jain in a chapter on ‘Tantra’ and ‘Sculptures’ has several beaten metal artifacts from Bastar. “The classification puts the information in a streamlined manner,” smiles Caur.

Amid the 500-odd objects of Folk art, Caur’s canvases too find place in the publication in an article written by John H Bowles that narrates her collaboration with Mithila-based artist Sat Narayan Pandey for a show titled ‘Between Dualities’ that took place in 1997. While this had the duo work together on artwork, later Caur used motifs of folk art in several of her canvases. For instance, in ‘Tears for Hiroshima’ she paints godana motifs with the ruined Genbaku Dome to depict destruction caused by the bombing and ‘Rites of Time’ has Warli trees circling the canvas.

More contemporary themes, meanwhile, find place in work by folk artists. If Amrita Das portrays Tsunami in Sri Lanka in Mithal patterns, Bapi Chitrakar paints the Gujarat earthquake on a Bengali scroll and Gond artist Durga Bai has the Bhopal gas tragedy in an ink drawing.

As Caur checks the final proof of the book, also lined up are annual exhibitions on folk art. The beginning will be made with an exhibition on Bengal folk art featuring Roma Chatterji’s collection that will take place on October 25 and up next are a series of curatorial shows that will feature work from Caur’s museum. “Folk artists need to get their due,” notes Caur. The book she says, has more tales related to folk art, bringing together the traditional and modern.