Thaindian News

New Delhi, Aug 16 (IANS) Sotheby’s will put on auction a colourful natural landscape by a Gond tribal artist from Madhya Pradesh, Jangarh Singh Shyam, nine years after his suicide in Japan in 2001.
Shyam, who was 39 when he hanged himself to death in Japan, was one of the leading contemporary tribal muralists. His work, an acrylic composition on canvas of a stylised tree with a network of roots and two birds in the Gond tradition, will be put on auction by Sotheby’s in New York Sep 26.

The work mounted on a canvas with specifications — 220 cm X 155 cm and 86.6 cm X 61 cm — was created by the artist in 1988. It is estimated to fetch $30,000-$50,000, Sotheby’s said Monday.

This is the third in the series of Shyam’s compositions sold by Sotheby’s in 2010.

In March 2010, Sotheby’s London sold one of his works at 13,750 pounds. Two of his large paper drawings were sold for 15,000 pounds and 18,000 pounds respectively in July 2010.

The work to be auctioned Sep 26 was produced in the catalogue of “Magiciens de la terre”, an important exhibition curated by the Jean Hubert Martin at the Centre Pompidou in Paris in 1989.

Eminent art writer Herve Perdriolle, an authority on tribal art, says Jangarh Singh Shyam’s work “contains the stuff of mythical tales”.

Shyam, a poor tribal boy from Mandla in Madhya Pradesh, was a mural painter in his village till he decided to eke out a living as a mural artist in Bhopal.

In 1981, he was noticed by eminent artist J. Swaminathan, who was promoting tribal art at Bharat Bhavan in Bhopal.

The association helped Shyam evolve as an artist by combining in his work modern and ethnic idioms.

In 2001, Shyam was invited to a residency programme at the Mithila Museum at the Niigata Prefecture in Japan, a museum devoted to Indian folk art and craft. After spending three months at the museum, Shyam wanted to return home. But he was denied a visa and his passport was withheld.

On July 2001, he hanged himself in a room of the museum where he lived as a resident artist. His death created a flutter in the community of artists, who stood by him.

Shyam’s works have been exhibited in several museums of repute.

“The historical figures of tribal and folk art from India, yet under-estimated, should perform with the greatest artists from Africa and Oceania. But the gap in the prices of the two genres of art is huge,” Perdriolle said in Sotheby’s statement.