It’s been a long time since my last post but I just had to come back and introduce you to two Mithila artists, Mahalaxmi Karn and Shantanu Das, who are producing some of the most interesting and innovative Mithila art today. Whie Mahalaxmi has described their collaboration as somewhat complicated, generally the two work together on concept and design while she then does the line work and Shantanu concentrates on color. They consider themselves contemporary Mithila artists meaning that they work within the general parameters of the classical style but reserve the right to expand or contract the Mithila vocabulary whenever that’s necessary to achieve the painting they envision. Take a look at what I consider to be their signature contemporary piece: Fisherman and Boy.
Fisherman and Boy 20″ x 26″ Acrylic on paper 2012
It’s an immediately striking painting with that billowing net reminiscent of an antique phonograph catching our attention. The two fishermen in the center and the group of fish below complete the painting.
The composition is tightly designed with exactly these three elements. All are on the central axis of the painting, all are approximately the same size, and all equidistant from the edges of the painting. The fisherman stands tall in the boat, feet spread, hands holding the rope as he casts the circular net which opens wide in the sky over the huddled fish at the bottom of the water. The action is frozen. The water, a Mithila style patchwork of nearly invisible, finely drawn lines, presents a uniform background that lifts the figures off the paper into their own space and time giving them an almost iconic status. The artists have chosen the moment when the net is tossed. They have pared that moment down to three elements and presented the whole in a minimalist fashion producing an extraordinarily captivating image of what it means to be a fisherman.
The work is a superb balance of color and line and shows how well the artists complement each other. The darker colors of the net and the grouped yellow fish set against the black depths of the water, the reddish brown checkerboard pattern of the boat and the vibrant red dhotis of the fisherman, they all vie for our attention and all are a visual pleasure. Though the colors attract us first, the line work is marvelous and contributes as much to the success of the painting as does the color choice.
Note the flow and movement of the background water between the bottom of the net and the head of the boy sitting in the boat. Here you clearly see the crest and the trough of the waves, while elsewhere the water appears as a smoothly rolling wave or as a current temporarily stopped in its flow by the movement of other waves. There are many examples where touches of Mahalaxmi’s pen enrich the overall effect of this piece. The tiny threads that come off the edges of the open net add a nearly imperceptible decorative element to that already attractive design, or the light reddish stippling on the fishermen, barely noticeable, yet the color complements their dhotis and softens their forms against the pale green background.
Finally, there are the contradictory viewpoints. The water is presented in a top down view while the figures are seen from the side. This simultaneity of viewpoints sets the figures into the foreground. In fact, all the decisions made in the painting – the very fine lines for the water, the color choices, the different viewpoints – they all come together to make the fishermen and their boat appear to float over the water, to be separate from this transitory world, producing a timeless Mithila hieroglyph of fishermen at work.
Sea Beach 27.5″ x 40″ Acrylic on paper 2014
If the previous piece is a tour-de-force of line and color, the very contemporary Sea Beach is all about color with a bit of fun and tongue-in-cheek social commentary.
The wonderfully checkered red, yellow and blue beach umbrella-palm tree divides the painting vertically in two with one side nearly a mirror image of the other. The intense aqua marine sea with its leaping dolphins and brightly colored star fish acts as a carnival backdrop to the activity on the sand. Here two sets of couples play out typical roles that might be seen on any summer beach. In one, a young man reclines indolently on a chaise lounge, one hand casually behind his head, while a bikini clad young woman hurries toward him carrying a drink in each hand. In the other, a woman poses for her male friend who has set up his camera on a tripod. The women are mirror images of each other differing only in their dress. And though they appear to be carrying out their expected roles, their strong, forceful strides suggest that they are actually more than passive participants in these scenes.
Sea Beach (detail)
Color predominates in this painting but line is there to enhance the effect as is clear in the above evocative detail of that summer day. There is the coolness of the rolling surf and the promise of shade by the harlequin-painted umbrella, but the joy of that summer day is epitomized by the leaping dolphin with its multi-colored shining body. The skillful stippling and hatching join with color to a wondrous effect.
While Mahalaxmi and Shantanu produce highly successful contemporary Mithila paintings, they are equally adept at painting in the classic Mithila style. See below the sketch of a Maithil Brahmin – a preparatory piece for a larger color work on canvas.
Maithil Brahmin 7″x 10″ Acrylic on paper 2013.
Here are all the classic elements: a border, figure in profile with the large almond shaped eye, and a background filled with decorative branches and flowers. And yet there is something new here. This is not simply a drawing of a male figure we should understand to be a Brahmin. Look at the round chin, the mouth and nose, the soft curve of the arms and middle. I am looking at a well-fed and very self satisfied Brahmin, one that represents a type or might even be a specific figure seen on the street. The figure of this Brahmin has a personality.
Here is Mahalaxmi on the painting: “My version of a Maithil Brahmin carrying a bottle gourd and umbrella…our place is still full of such males paunchy, topless in the summers; carrying even the odd key to their metal trunks hanging from their waist…..I was contemplating upon portraiture in Mithila style…due to some reasons, have not been able to carry on. But in the future would definitely add more to it on a bigger scale”
I have always wondered whether Mithila art could do portraiture and I think this piece shows that perhaps it can. I hope with all their many interests, projects, and dreamed-of-paintings that these two artists will find time to explore portraiture within the Mithila style. They certainly have the talent, energy and at this particular time in their artistic career the courage and passion to explore a new territory in Mithila art.
I end this post with one more superb painting in the classic style. I think this piece sets a high mark for anyone contemplating the same scene from the Ramayana epic: Hanuman flying back from the Himalayas carrying the Dronagiri mountain that has the Sanjivani herb to revive the dying Lakshman.
Hanuman 30″x 40″ Acrylic on paper 2015.
This is all line, a wonder of hatching, stippling, and repetition of elements. Color is kept to a minimum, just enough to identify the actors in the drama lest we get happily lost in a lyrical abstraction of lines. The landscape has four clearly delineated areas. There is the triangle at the center with its repetitive iconic blades of grass laid out as a carpet for the dying Lakshman and grieving Rama. A tree on each side rises to the top of the painting. One with graceful boughs bends under the weight of large red fruit while the other stands tall with dense, small leaves repeated in such patterns that the whole tree appears to quiver with life, responding to every slight breeze. Hanuman himself, magnificent in contrasted red and black dress, appears high in the sky. Balancing the Dronagiri mountain with its life giving herbs on his right hand while his left holds his iron tipped mace, he arrives in time to revive Lakshman and save the war against the demon king Ravana.
Hanuman (detail)
Line work predominates in Hanuman with an almost intoxicating effect: the dashes creating the never completed circles of swirling air, the tree leaves moving in all directions, the lines of the shawl flowing gracefully, their red color contrasting with the black swirls of the air. Your eye follows one pattern that leads to another pattern then jumps to a third – all visually interesting, all immensely enjoyable. A superb piece of drawing by Mahalaxmi that continually keeps one looking for more.
I met both of the artists a number of years ago in Madhubani. At the time Mahalaxmi worked in an artist cooperative painting postcards and bookmarks of the type favored by the group. Our meeting was pleasant but if there was anything in our conversation or the personal work she showed me to foretell what was to come, I missed it. Now, a few years later, having left the cooperative and studied with the noted painter Santosh Kumar Das, she is collaborating with Shantanu Das and both are at the forefront of a deliberate and considered movement in Mithila art. A movement that works to balance its artistic relationship to the contemporary world while honoring its traditional Mithila roots. The result is some very exciting and at times exhilarating art.