Folk Art Of India
The folk and tribal arts of India reveal a lot about the country's rich heritage. In India, art forms have been beautiful and explicit. Different schools of art include folk art styles. Each school has a distinct style of color combinations or figures and its features. Mughal School, Rajasthani School, and Nakashi Art School are some of the folk art schools of India. Some of the popular folk art forms include Madhubani paintings, Kangra paintings, Warli paintings, and Thanjavur paintings.
Warli Paintings: Warli continues a pattern that goes back to 2500 or 3000 BCE. Their mural paintings are similar to those done in the Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka, in Madhya Pradesh, between 500 and 10,000 BCE. Their wall paintings use a triangle, a circle, and a square. Warli paintings were monosyllabic. The circle and triangle come from their observation of nature, the circle representing the sun and the moon, the triangle derived from mountains and pointed trees. Only the square seems to obey a different logic and seems to be a human invention, indicating a sacred enclosure or a piece of land. The circle in the paintings depicts the sun and the moon, the triangles originating from mountains and pointed trees come from their study of nature. The square describes a different logic and seems to be a human creation, suggesting a sacred enclosure or a piece of ground.
Madhubani Painting: Madhubani painting has traditionally been created by women from different groups in the Indian subcontinent's Mithila region. It originated in the Madhubani district of Bihar's Mithila region. Madhubani art has five distinctive styles: Bharni, Kachni, Tantrik, Godna, and Kohbar. The Madhubani painting tradition played a key role in the conservation efforts in India in 2012, where there was frequent deforestation in the state of Bihar. Even today, Madhubani communicates the lifestyle of the women of Bihar and acts as their voice traveling to the rest of the world, through Madhubani paintings.
Thanjavur Painting: Thanjavur painting is a classical style of South Indian painting that was inaugurated in Thanjavur city. The art form derives its immediate resources and inspiration from about 1600 AD back in time. Depending on the purpose, the subject, and the choice of the patron, Thanjavur paintings were produced in multiple sizes. In the Maratha palaces and houses, large paintings of deities and the Maratha kings, their courtiers, and nobles, were painted and built to serve as architectural accents.
These are a few folk art styles in the Indian art world. India is a nation that is ethnically and culturally diverse. Given this diversity, the folklore of India as a unit is difficult to generalize broadly. In this art article, an attempt is made to briefly introduce through a peek into this vibrant window of Indian folk art.