Pradhan Gond wooden sculptures find space in a contemporary art gallery in New Delhi.
A first solo is an important landmark for any artist. But for Sukhnandi Vyam, artist from the Pradhan Gond tribe of eastern Madhya Pradesh, his ongoing show of wooden sculptures at the W+K Exp gallery, is a momentous occasion.
“Dog Father, Fox Mother, Their Daughter & Other Stories”, as the show is intriguingly called, is the first gallery show of Pradhan Gond wooden sculpture, of which there remain only a handful of practitioners. Most people of Vyam’s tribe have moved on to painting which, thanks to the exploits of the legendary Pradhan Gond painter Jangarh Singh Shyam, is better known in India and abroad. For the impecunious tribal artists, it pays far more to paint. Vyam, only 27, too paints occasionally, besides making terracotta and metal sculptures.
Until now, Pradhan Gond wooden sculptures have been shown mainly at sarkari institutions such as the Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya in Bhopal and Lalit Kala Akademi in New Delhi. This is the first time it is being showcased to buyers in a private gallery, with price-tags as high as Rs 80,000-Rs 250,000.
The story of how “Dog Father, Fox Mother...” came about is a reflection of the precarious state of many of our indigenous crafts, and the efforts of a few people to get them an audience and a fair price.
Vyam and his uncle, Subhash Vyam, a celebrated painter and sculptor, had come to Delhi for an exhibition of tribal art at the Lalit Kala Akademi. An American artist saw their work, liked it and commissioned them to make a sculpture of a naked artist. He gave them his card and asked them to ship the work to him. Subhash and Sukhnandi worked on the commission, creating a more-than-five-feet-tall figure of an artist brandishing brushes in their sculptural idiom. Unfortunately, they lost the card and so the work remained with them, unseen to the world.
A few years ago, Sukhnandi showed the sculpture to S. Anand, a publisher who had got his aunt Durgabai Vyam to illustrate a book on the dignity of labour and caste, and offered to sell it for Rs 50,000.
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“I was stunned at its beauty and asked him to show me more,” Anand recalls. Sukhnandi did, unearthing pieces from neglected corners of his two-room house. Impressed, Anand promised to help him — not by buying the work for Rs 50,000 but by arranging an exhibition of his works. The sculpture is part of the show at W+K Exp.
Vyam’s subjects are the gods and goddesses that local bards sing on the bana, the three-stringed fiddle that the Pradhan Gonds consider sacred. Budadeo, the Gond god of creation, and Mallu Deo, the god who cures diseases of the stomach, figure in these works as do local rituals and totemic symbols such as the Mangrohi and the Nagpanchami, and — a lot — animals such as the mongoose, owl, snake and horse.
Made out of the local Sangwan wood, Vyam’s works are earthy and bold, speaking of a way of life that’s in harmony with nature and the cycle of the seasons. Perhaps that’s their appeal for us city-dwellers, confined to our concrete jungles.
