Title: Painted songs : continuity and change in Indian folk art /
Authors: Kaiser, Thomas.; Clough, Joan.; Moschke, Karina.; Universität Zürich.
Publisher: Arnoldsche Art Publishers ; Ethnographic Museum of the University of Zurich,
Year: 2012
Subjects: Universität Zürich. Exhibitions.; Folk art India Exhibitions.; Scrolls, Indic Exhibitions.; Painting, Indic Exhibitions.; Juang (Indic people) Exhibitions.; Folk art India West Bengal Exhibitions.; Patas (Art) India West Bengal Exhibitions.; Narrative painting, Indic India West Bengal Exhibitions.; Scrolls, Indic India West Bengal Exhibitions.; Folk art India Jharkhand Exhibitions.; Patas (Art) India Jharkhand Exhibitions.; Narrative painting, Indic India Jharkhand Exhibitions.; Scrolls, Indic India Jharkhand Exhibitions.; Illumination of books and manuscripts, Indic Exhibitions.
Abstract: For over 2000 years and until just a few decades ago artists traveled throughout India, using painted picture scrolls to spread stories from the great Indian epics Mahabharata and Ramayana, as well as a wealth of stories about regional Gods and heroes and moral tales, amongst the mostly illiterate rural population. These artists were the creators and bearers of an art form which spread from India across China to Japan, and westward to the Mediterranean region. In the hands of the painters and singers, the picture scrolls became a portable cinema, projection screens for mythical knowledge and an incentive to listen to the songs whilst looking at the scrolls. Political changes, technical innovation and social turmoil in the twentieth century ushered in profound changes to oral art forms. As their tradition lost significance, the Indian scroll-painting artists also lost their public and their income. Two Bengali picture-scroll traditions still defy adverse conditions; however, whereas the 'patua' rose to the challenge, the 'jadopatia' failed and their tradition is in terminal decline.
Contents: Heaven and earth -- Indian pictures and picture scrolls -- Asian picture scroll traditions -- The jadopatia -- The patua -- Tradition and change -- Scroll paintings. The picture scroll as object ; Sins, death and hell ; The Santal creation myth ; Gods and legends ; Recent changes.