Painted songs : continuity and change in Indian folk art
Texte imprimé
- Auteurs : Kaiser Thomas ;
- Editeurs : Stuttgart, Germany Arnoldsche ;
- Date d'édition : 2012
- ISBN : 978-3-89790-366-1, 3-89790-366-0
- Sujets : Pata (art) -- Inde -- Bengale, Peinture, Art populaire, Peinture narrative
- Langue(s) : Anglais
- Description matérielle : 1 vol. (192 p.), : Ill. en noir et en coul., cartes, couv. ill. en coul., 31 cm
- Pays de publication : Allemagne
Notes
Publié à l'occasion de l'exposition : 'Rollenspiel Und Bildgesang -- Geschichte und Geschichten bengalischer Bildrollen' à l'Ethnographic Museum of the University of Zürich du 1er septembre 2012 au 3 mars 2013 ; Bibliogr. p. 179-181
Résumé
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