Artist gives Madhubani a modern makeover

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It is hard to resist the charm of Madhubani art.

Be it men and ancient deities painted on a scarf or scenes from the royal court and weddings printed on a sari, from plants to natural objects like the sun and moon done on mud walls and floors of huts, Madhubani has come a long way from its origins. Literally meaning “forests of honey”, Madhubani, or Mithila painting, was traditionally practised by women in the villages of Madhubani and Mithila in north Bihar. The skills have been passed on from one generation to another for centuries, although the content and style have largely remained the same.
It is to this traditional art that Baroda-based artist Neelkanth Choudhary adds a contemporary touch. In his solo show of Madhubani paintings in New Delhi, Choudhary breaks away from the traditional and introduces modern figures and subjects. Although he remains loyal to the conventional Madhubani templates, he is not afraid to experiment with icons and motifs that are modern metaphors. From depictions of Goddess Durga and Kali to charwoman and village children walking to school, Choudhary introduces to Madhubani art the freshness of his keen eye and his courage to innovate.
Currently underway at Gallerie Ganesha, the show features 32 paintings of the artist, all of which are untitled. Shobha Bhatia, director of the gallery says, “The sheer variety of Choudhary’s Madhubani is staggering. He belongs to the Madhubani school, but is a bold individualist in his work.”
Since its evolution, Madhubani has been deeply rooted in Mithila’s folk culture, and relies heavily on icons of Hindu mythology and figures from nature. The art form has been traditionally done by women to decorate the walls of their homes for festivals and occasions like weddings. Hence, the use of bright colours like reds, yellows and oranges were inevitable.
Choudhary marks a departure from this by introducing an entirely new idiom of tone and tenor. He uses subtle colours like pastels and monotones and even does Madhubani in black and white.
“The fine lines of my works have been pulled from the deep and long tradition of the Mithila-Madhubani art form and married to modern metaphors under delicate ministering. Soft colours have rarely been infused into Madhubani art, neither have human figures which, in my eyes, become a fascinating fusion of race and geography,” the artist says.
With a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Punjab, Chandigarh, Choudhary always had a passion for Madhubani art. He has worked on a project to trace the roots of Madhubani and examine its contemporary state and relevance. “Madhubani is a folk art form and it’s important that we don’t let it die with new techniques making headway into art. I want to revive this beautiful art practice, but I want to contemporise it, so that people even in cities can relate to them better. Earlier, village women usually depicted gods and goddesses. But I also use human figures like charwomen and children,” he adds.
So how was the experience of breaking away from the traditional yet trying to stay rooted in it? “It was a difficult task and at the same time interesting to experiment with modern figures and subjects while also working on traditional lines to maintain the familiarity with the paintings,” he admits.

The show will conclude on April 5