Folk Art

Folk painting is an ancient form of people’s art where rural and tribal communities expressed their creativity at times of weddings, births, harvest celebrations, religious ceremonies, etc. These paintings were done on walls, floors, palm leaves, rock faces, caves cloth, and any other canvas that nature provided. Each community and tribe evolved its own style with its own distinct grammar. There were clear rules for colours, form representations, etc.

What is common for all folk painting styles is that they all used the locally available natural resources to create the canvas, colours and implements of drawing. The infinite shades of colours created from flowers, leaves, stones, chimney soot, etc. made sure that artists were not wanting for colours to give form to their imagination. The paintings are a glimpse into the lives and belief systems of the community. Often the whole theological system is dramatized in their painting traditions.

As these folk paintings became popular in the urban world, the canvas moved to handmade paper or special textiles which came close to their original canvas, and thus they became ‘portable’ and in a form that could be displayed in urban homes.

A few of the folk art pieces in our collection are shown below.