Durga Bai Vyom - Revision history

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-| name = Durgabai Vyam
-| birth_date = 1972
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{{Infobox artist
| name = Durgabai Vyam
| birth_date = 1972
| caption = Vyam in 2012
| alt =
| nationality = Indian
| birth_place = Burbaspur, [[Madhya Pradesh]], [[India]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.saffronart.com/artists/durga-bai |title=Durga Bai |publisher=Saffronart |access-date=March 8, 2019}}</ref>
| image = Gond Painting of MP1.JPG
}}
'''Durgabai Vyam''' (born in 1972<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://sunitanair.in/The-Gond-artist-Durgabai-1|title=The Gond artist Durgabai - sunitanair|website=sunitanair.in|access-date=2019-03-15}}</ref>) is one of the foremost female artists based in [[Bhopal]] working in the [[Gondi people|Gond]] tradition of Tribal Art. Most of Durga's work is rooted in her birthplace, Burbaspur, a village in the Mandla district of Madhya Pradesh.<ref name=":3"/>

== Early life ==
Durgabai Vyam was born in Burbaspur, a village in [[Madhya Pradesh]].<ref name=":3">{{Cite web|url=https://www.saffronart.com/artists/durga-bai|title=Durga Bai {{!}} Paintings by Durga Bai {{!}} Durga Bai Painting - Saffronart.com|website=Saffronart|access-date=2019-03-15}}</ref>

At the age of six, she learned the art of ''digna'' from her mother, a ritual of painting geometric patterns on the inner and outer walls and floors of the house during weddings and harvest festivals.<ref name=":3"/><ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.womensweb.in/2014/05/durga-bai-gond-artist/|title=Durga Bai: Telling Women's Stories With Gond Art |date=2014-05-26}}</ref> Her early ''digna'' works were well appreciated by people in the community.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=Many Indias|last=Pande|first=Alka|publisher=Must Arts Private Limited|year=2016}}</ref>

== Career ==

Listening to stories with her grandmother and mentoring under her mother contributed significantly to Durgabai's art in the initial years.<ref name=":1" /> Durgabai Vyam began her creative journey in 1996 at an artist's camp organized by Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya, Bhopal.<ref name="Vyam 2012 219–234">{{Cite journal|last=Vyam|first=Durgabai|date=2012|title=The Lyricism and Audacity of the Adivasi Imagination|journal=Indian Literature|volume=56|issue=4 (270)|pages=219–234|issn=0019-5804|jstor=23345940}}</ref> At the age of 15, Durgabai married Subhash Vyam, a clay and wood sculptor.<ref name=":0" /> Durgabai's artistic career has flourished even further not only by her marriage to Subhash Vyam but also by the veteran Gond Artist, [[Jangarh Singh Shyam]], her cousin. Durgabai and Subash together take workshops and teach participants the integral elements of Gond painting while pointing out the changes brought by modernization in their medium of painting.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=KUMARI|first=SAVITA|date=2011|title=Symposium on Indigenous Art, Contemporary Significance|journal=Indian Anthropologist|volume=41|issue=1|pages=95–99|issn=0970-0927|jstor=41921941}}</ref>

Impressed by Durgabai's skills, Jangarh Singh Shyam, encouraged and advised her not to repeat what they had done for years but use their skills to show new things.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Between Memory and Museum|publisher=Tara Books|year=2015|isbn=978-93-83145-29-4}}</ref> Her subjects are rooted in tribal folklore and mythology and are drawn mainly from the pantheon of the Gond Pradhan community and popular folklore.<ref name=":3"/><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.artsper.com/en/contemporary-artists/india/7987/durga-bai |title=Contemporary Artist Durga Bai Vyom |publisher=Artsper |access-date=March 8, 2019}}</ref> She also painted several goddesses: Ratmaimurkhuri, the guardian of the night; Maharalin Mata, who wardedoff ghouls from entering villages; Khero Mata, protector against evil people; Budi Mai, patroness of the harvest; and Kulsahinmata, a goddess invoked when crop was sown. Durga also painted the males gods, Bada Dev, the supreme god, and Chula Dev, who ensured that the household chulha (hearth) always burns.<ref name=":3"/><blockquote>"The themes I have always liked to paint are rivers, trees —especially the bamboo tree which is vital to life because from it is made ''Bada Dev's'' musical instrument ''bana'' and the ''bansuri'', flute —Diwali celebrations, ''kanyadan'', houses and children, animals such as tiger, deer, stag with antlers, peacock, bull, garden lizard, pig, birds sitting on top of trees while animals sit below."<ref>{{Cite book|title=Indigenius Artists – India|publisher=Sunita Nair|year=2018|isbn=978-93-5311-387-2}}</ref></blockquote>

In 1996, Anand Singh Shyam, a fellow Gond artist, invited her to exhibit her works at Bharat Bhawan in Madhya Pradesh. Since then, Durgabai has notably had exhibitions in and around India and also abroad.<ref name=":3" /> Durga Bai did a series of paintings of aeroplanes in the [[Gondi people|Gond style]] to mark her first plane ride and her first visit abroad to the Frankfurt Book Fair.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Varma|first=Rashmi|date=November 2013|title=Primitive Accumulation: The Political Economy of Indigenous Art in Postcolonial India|journal=Third Text|volume=27|issue=6|pages=748–761|doi=10.1080/09528822.2013.857902|issn=0952-8822}}</ref> Each of her paintings is inspired by archetypal scenes of Gond Mythology, creating the unbridled lyricism and audacious imagination of her signature style.<ref name="Vyam 2012 219–234"/>

In 2003, Vyam was invited to a workshop by Tara Publishing in Chennai, and has since been illustrating books. She has contributed to illustrate several art books like 'The Night Life of Trees', 'One, Two, Tree!', 'Sultana's Dream'.<ref name=":2" /> In 2011, Durgabai and [[Subhash Vyam]] published a graphic biography of Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar titled '[[Bhimayana|Bhimayana: Experiences of Untouchability]]' published by [[Navayana (publishing house)|Navayana]].

In the ongoing [[Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2018|Kochi Muziris Biennale]] 2018, the artist couple has created an experimental graphic narrative on marine plywood giving the traditional Gond wall art another dimension.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Kochi/gond-artists-tryst-with-the-folklore/article25792811.ece|title=Gond artists’ tryst with the folklore|date=2018-12-21|work=The Hindu|access-date=2019-03-15|others=Special Correspondent|issn=0971-751X}}</ref>

== Awards and recognition<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=http://ignca.gov.in/divisionss/janapada-sampada/tribal-art-culture/tribal-art-culture-of-madhya-pradesh-rajasthan/durga-bai/|title=DURGA BAI – GOND ARTIST Of MADHYA PRADESH}}</ref>==

* Handicraft Development Council, 2004
*[[Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts]] Scholarship, 2006-2007
*[[Rani Durgavati|Rani Durgawati]] award for excellence in traditional painting, 2009<ref name=":5">{{Cite web|url=http://sutragallery.com/Durga_Bai.html|title=Durga Bai|website=sutragallery|access-date=2019-04-06}}</ref>
*Katha Chitrakala Runner's up Award, for her children's book, "Mai and her Friends" <ref name=":5" />
*[[Bologna Children's Book Fair|Bologna Ragazzi Award]] for illustrating book along with Ram Singh Urveti and [[Bhajju Shyam]] titled, "The Night Life of Trees", published by Tara Books, 2008

== References ==
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Durga Bai Vyom}}
[[Category:1973 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:21st-century Indian women artists]]
[[Category:Indian women painters]]
[[Category:People from Madhya Pradesh]]