GOND : INDIAN TRIBAL ART

The tribal paintings of Gond Art, originally roots out of village Patangarh, Mandla district of Madhya Pradesh, where Pardhan Gond artists have been traditionally painting mud wall houses, drawing forms and symbols relative to their local community & native context.

Gond art is figurative without being realistic. The pattern gives an illusion of texture & movement in figures that are rendered flat while drawing objects that are radically different yet identically related to each other, much like the folklores. Gond paintings are a decorative vocabulary to the artist yet not narrative in nature.

As a mode of storytelling the, Gond art seems to be closer to traditional Indan forms of narration than to modern western ones, emphasizing upon sentiments & emotional state rather than events or episodes.

HOW TO MAKE A GOND PAINTING

• Gond painting can be made on mud plaster wall, paper, canvas, wooden sheets, or clothes etc.
• Poster color, acryclic color, waterproof ink, may be used as a medium.
• As Gond paintings use a technique of creating textures by pattern, so artist select his signature stroke /gradiant patterns like __ __   or   __ .   or   __ . __  etc.
• Start with an outline of the figures in painting, which is then filled with different block colors for a multi color painting. After drying the same colors, elaborate patterning by black color or any other color which gives their design a three dimensional quality.

Gond paintings have numerous themes including folk stories, nature, bird, animals, religion etc. The paintings could be flamboyant and colorful or could be in black & white in which the base should be white, while outline & filler pattern is black.

Jangarh Singh Shyam was the first Gond artist to use paper & canvas for his art, much after renowned artist J Swaminathan commissioned him to paint exploring paper & poster colors media. As a matter of fact, Gond paintings bear a remarkable likeness to Australian aboriginal art.