By Madhusree Chatterjee, IANS,
New Delhi : Art and fairytales have moved together since the dawn of storytelling. But the march of civilization has allowed artists to reinterpret old stories in new ways.
The Bengali legend of two princes “Lal Kamal and Neel Kamal”, who battled an army of demons, finds a novel form in leading artist Sanjay Bhattacharya’s composition, “Lal Kamal, Neel Kamal”.
The artist interprets the legend in a pictorial animation of two puppet princes – one red and one blue – astride horses, wielding their swords through a forest of bellowing demons.
He has used ink drawing and wet oil impressions of colours to give the figures a comic book quality so that children can connect to them. The work is on display in a showcase, “Roop Katha”, at the India Habitat Centre here.
“I love the Bengali fairy stories from ‘Thakurmar Jhuli’ (Grandmother’s Bag of Stories) – the traditional Bengali anthology of myths – because I have grown up with them. The stories translate into art easily because they are simple – narrating about the relentless war between good and evil,” Bhattacharya told IANS in the capital.
Indian visual art has honed itself around its fairy tales and Vedic myths for the last 5,000 years since the first wave of settlers in the Indus Valley crafted their metal and wood.
“Fantasy, legends, racial memories and resonances from the past – both known and unknown – have been the source of artistic creation the world over,” Ashok Vapeyi, chairman of the Lalit Kala Akademi, told IANS.
“But somehow in Indian modern art, the depiction of fairy tales and myths weakened. Some allege that the arrival of abstraction in the Indian contemporary imagery took fairy tales and myths out of the artscape. But abstraction in India is fairy tale at its best,” Vajpeyi told IANS.
He observed that “the loss of connection with fairy tales in art could be the result of a drift away from traditional myths in an attempt to develop a universal contemporary language”.
Curator and art critic Ina Puri, who has conceived “Roop Katha”, said art has traditionally evolved from narratives. Folk art in India still sustains on the power of fairy tales and traditional lore, she said.
“When you look at a lot of Western art everywhere, you suddenly want to return to your memories of childhood and your own fairy tales,” Puri told IANS.
One of India’s top artists, Anjolie Ela Menon, remembers the stories of her Bengali childhood spent in her grandmother’s kitchen.
“She fried ‘luchis’ (Indian fried bread), served us – a bunch of children – and told us fantastic stories about an old demoness who screamed ‘hau mau khau (I will eat you)’ and stuffed kids in her sack,” Menon told IANS.
The power of such narratives and fantasies has crept into her canvas. A new composition, “Independence Day” by the artist, captures children’s innate fascination for colourful fairy tales. The artist uses kites as mythic “symbols” for her fantasies.
“Barring a brief period of Parisian influences, Indian art has always relied on its narratives and lore,” she said.
Artist Paresh Maity has let his fairy tales run amok in a brand new installation, “The Flying Dream” in wood, mixed media and mirror.
It is a retelling of the Greek myth of Pegasus – the flying horse – and that of the “Pakkhiraj Ghoda (The Bird Horse with wings) “of the Bengali fairy tales to show a mating couple.
“My installation is a culmination of several mythology – a new metaphor for a man-woman relationship,” Maity told IANS.
For artist Manu Parekh, the “element of fantasy which is the root of every fairy tale is a survival mechanism in art and in life”.
“My works are fairy tales and dreams – it is all fantasy,” artist Seema Kohli told IANS. Three of her new canvases based on Sufi lore about Rabiya, the female prophet, and a flaming river that her grandfather told her, have “reconnected the artist to her childhood and speak of empowerment of women”.
Late artist M.F. Husain used often painted lanterns to reconnect to his childhood memories through Muslim fables, myths of Ganesha, the battles of Ramayana and Mahabharata on his canvas.
In the works of many artists like F.N. Souza and even Jamini Roy – Western myths about Jesus Christ, his crucifixion, resurrection and the devil have been recurring motifs.
“Fairy tale art is in demand. Collectors look for refreshing art works that help them escape the disappointments of everyday life,” gallerist and art promoter Tripat K. Kalra told IANS.
(Madhusree Chatterjee can be contacted at [email protected])