Jangarh Singh Shyam

Jangarh Singh Shyam (1962–2001) was a pioneering contemporary Indian artist credited with being the creator of a new school of Indian art called Jangarh Kalam.

His work has been exhibited widely the world over including Bhopal, Delhi, Tokyo and New York.

In October 1981, a few years into his marriage, Jangarh was approached by the talent scouts of the arts museum Bharat Bhavan.

This was also when he met its first director, the artist Jagdish Swaminathan which led to a lifelong collaboration between the two.

Swaminathan convinced Jangarh to come and work as a professional artist in Bhopal.

Swaminathan showcased Jangarh's first sample paintings at Bharat Bhavan's inaugural exhibition in February 1982.

Soon Jangarh was employed in Bharat Bhavan's graphic arts department, and he began to live with his family behind Swaminathan's house in Professor's Colony, Bhopal.

He achieved fame quickly when, in 1986, merely five years after his 'discovery', the twenty-six-year old was conferred the Shikhar Samman (the Summit Award)— the highest civilian award bestowed by the Government of Madhya Pradesh.

He was subsequently commissioned to do the exterior murals for Vidhan Bhavan—the new legislative building in Bhopal designed by the renowned architect Charles Correa.

His 1988 piece Landscape with Spider sold for $31,250 at Sotheby's, New York, in 2010—a first for an adivasi artist.

Jangarh had also painted the interiors of the Legislative Assembly of Madhya Pradesh, the Vidhan Bhavan, and the dome of Bhopal's Bharat Bhavan—one of the most prestigious museums of tribal and contemporary Indian art.

He was among the first Gond artists to use paper and canvas for his paintings, thereby inaugurating what is now known as Jangarh Kalam.

Jangarh was born into a Pardhan Gond family in the village of Patangarh, Mandla district, (Dindori District), Eastern Madhya Pradesh.

He grew up in extreme poverty which forced him to quit school and try his hand at farming.

He grazed buffaloes and sold milk in a nearby town.

At the age of sixteen he married Nankusia Bai from Sonpur village; she was to later become a fellow artist.

His most notable exhibitions include the Magiciens de la terre in Paris (1989) and Other Masters curated by Jyotindra Jain at the Crafts Museum, New Delhi (1998).

In 1989, his art was displayed in the Pompidou Centre's Magiciens de la Terre (Magicians of Earth) exhibition in Paris.

He went on to do residential stints at the Mithila Museum in Tokamachi, Japan.

In 2001, it was during his second residency at the Mithila Museum that Jangarh hanged himself.

The reasons for his taking his life are not clearly known, though the Indian artistic community was quick to blame the owner of the museum in Japan.

The art historian and critic, Yashodhara Dalmia, said this was as "a grim reminder of the growing trafficking of unsung artists worldwide" in an obituary in Outlook magazine.

Shyam was not the only Indian artist from the margins to work in Niigata.

Renowned Madhubani artists of Mithila such as Ganga Devi and Shanti Devi as well as Warli artists such as Jivya Soma Mashe have worked there and continue to do so.

Upon his death, artists and writers such as M.F. Husain, Manjit Bawa and Nirmal Verma urged the governments of India and Japan to inquire into the mysterious circumstances of his suicide.

Many artists, writers and art collectors appealed to the authorities at a meeting at the Crafts Museum, Delhi to protect tribal artists from being exploited by foreign agencies.

The Mithila Museum came under a lot of criticism from Jangarh's friends and family as well.

Initially, the founder-director Tokio Hasegawa declared that he had not 'budgeted' for Jangarh's remains to be sent to his family in Bhopal and the museum proposed cremation in Japan.

Eventually, the body was transported and Jangarh's last rites were performed in Bhopal.

In 2002, a year later, the Mithila Museum offered their own version of Jangarh's death on their website, authored by the curator Miyoko Hasunama.

The museum pleaded ignorance of Jangarh's ongoing depression and treatment which his friend, Akhilesh Verma, has since spoken about.

Jangarh is survived by his wife Nankusia Bai and two children Mayank Shyam and Japani Shyam—all acclaimed practitioners of Jangarh Kalam.

Jangarh is credited by the critic Udayan Vajpeyi to be the initiator of a new school of Indian art which he calls 'Jangarh Kalam'.

The primary subjects of Jangarh's paintings are Gond deities like Thakur Dev, Bada Deo, Kalsahin Devi and others.

He also depicts cutout-style portraits of animals.

Tigers, deer, turtles and crocodiles crowd his canvases.

The Pardhan Gond community is traditionally one of musicians who used to receive patronage from the Gond Rajas.

With the impoverishment and weakening of the social order of adivasi communities first by colonial apparatuses and then the administration of independent India, patronage to the Pardhans eroded.

With the practical significance of their story-singing gone, they turned to agriculture and labour to sustain themselves.

According to Vajpeyi, Jangarh's art arose from this creative background and created a new means of expression for members of his community.