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Excerpts from Ganja-Mahua Chronicles by Venkat Raman Singh Shyam & S. Anand
Within The Body of Tiger, Traditional Gond Art, Madhya Pradesh, Natural Colors on Acid-Free Paper, 22 x 30 Inches, Venkat Shyam. Explore Venkat Shyam Collection.
Perhaps few can pen down their life’s work, and even fewer who can draw it. Venkat Raman Singh Shyam has achieved both. A precocious artist from Patangarh who began painting at the age of eight, he pursued experiences rather than being boxed within a fixed two-by-two academic education. Although he slyly remarks that he always managed to do well at school even if he only studied a day before the exams. Venkat Shyam is a Renaissance man. Understanding his mastery is like a great treasure hunt. He leaves clues to uncover the subtle genius in his work. A master storyteller, he knows how to bind you to his vision and swim across the expanse which is his history.
“It was the first time I was going to a place so far down south, especially to lands surrounded by sea – the Jalharin Mata who is bound by Bada Deo so that she makes a place for the earth. I told myself: I’ve never been to the sea / It has never been to me.”
- Excerpt from Finding My Way by Venkat Raman Singh Shyam & S. Anand
Mother Earth, Traditional Gond Art, Madhya Pradesh, Natural Colors on Acid-Free Paper, 84 x 60 Inches, Venkat Shyam. Explore Venkat Shyam Collection.
Hailing from the Pradhan tribe, a sub-group of the Gond community, he comes from the family of the famous Gond artist Jangarh Singh Shyam. His uncle, who saw the fiery light of talent in a thirteen-year-old Venkat Shyam took him to Bhopal as an apprentice. During his apprenticeship (1988–91), Jangarh Shyam insisted that he hone an individualistic approach towards painting and not copy. Shyam, thus, drifted away from images of flora and fauna that Jangarh specialized in as well as scenes from community life that many Gond artists depicted. Instead, he began by painting images of the goddess Khero Mai, the protector deity of his village, and other Pardhan deities like Bara Deo and Dharti Lal. He experimented with form, subject matter, and materials, using a wide range of colors from limestone and charcoal to oil and acrylic paints.
Jangarh Singh Shyam flanked by wife Nankusia Shyam and mentor J Swaminathan at Bharat Bhavan in Bhopal, 1982. Photo by Jyoti Bhatt.
From Bhopal to Delhi and Bombay, then to Pondicherry and all around the world Venkat Shyam traveled extensively and began formulating his unique understanding of art. From an upbringing in traditional Pradhan art (Gond), Shyam got an opportunity to observe modern masters like M.F. Hussain, Ram Kumar, Manjit Bawa, and J. Swaminathan who became a mentor to young Venkat Shyam. These sundry experiences, a unique learning opportunity along with practical experiences, began to formulate the artist that is Venkat Shyam.
Tree Of Life, Traditional Gond Art, Madhya Pradesh, Natural Colors on Acid-Free Paper, 60 x 40 Inches, Venkat Shyam. Explore Venkat Shyam Collection.
In Pondicherry he met with Hervé Perdriolle of Outsider Art Gallery, a Frenchman art collector passionate about Gond and other tribal art. In his collection were some of Jangarh Shyam’s finest works, of which he had written extensively. According to him-
The amorphism naturally found in his work relegates him above any defined category. He is an experimenter, a debonair who almost became a part of the Hindi film industry. Often he has exasperating experiences with people who come with their set of understanding regarding Adivasi (tribal) art and get surprised after meeting him. He is the man in a hat and sunglasses drawing the Jalharin Mata. According to Venkat Shyam the art market has been accepting of Adivasi art in recent times, it remains relegated to its own category, and its trajectory moves in parallel, rather than inclusively, with contemporary art. Shyam has commented-
“Artists have today exhibited widely in India and abroad. We seem to have arrived, but even today most of the art world — gallerists, curators, other artists, and critics — view us as ‘traditional’ artists. We still find it difficult to be recognized and accepted as contemporary artists by the art establishment in India.”
Motherhood, Traditional Gond Art, Madhya Pradesh, Natural Colors on Acid-Free Paper, 36 x 36 Inches, Venkat Shyam. Explore Venkat Shyam Collection.
After almost three decades of practice, one can begin to grasp the genius of Venkat Shyam. Towing the lines of traditional subjects and contemporary style- he has crafted his unique signature which humbly and in honor of Jangarh Shyam, I would like to call ‘Venkat Kalam’. He incorporated bold visual language using bright, flat colors and broad diagonal bands that would be divided by black-and-white wavy stripes. These choppy Lehers (waves) became a distinct feature of his work. He finessed the pointillism of Gond painting but at the same time drew figures that aspire to realism, eschewing the traditional elongations of Gond style.
Life Of Tree, Traditional Gond Art, Madhya Pradesh, Natural Colors on Acid-Free Paper, 48 x 36 Inches, Venkat Shyam. Explore Venkat Shyam Collection.
Shyam’s work has been exhibited across India and internationally at institutions such as the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), Mumbai; Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai; Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya, Bhopal; India International Centre, New Delhi; Galerie Anders Hus, Paris; Queensland Art Gallery; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; and Brookline Art Centre, Massachusetts. He published illustrated autobiographies co-authored with S Anand, Finding My Way (2016) and Ganja–Mahua Chronicles (2019). He was awarded the ‘Rajya Hasta Shilpa Puraskar’ by the government of Madhya Pradesh in 2002.
From a young eight-year-old child from Patangarh to an apprentice to Jangargh Singh Shyam, Venkat Shyam has lived many lives. He has worked as a domestic helper, rickshaw puller, and signboard painter. Eerily familiar to Hussain, Shyam holds a charm, a sly smile that shows the magician in him which is capable of bringing the folk to the contemporary. The folk tales portrayed in his works are not mere stories but born out of lived experiences. The key to understanding Venkat Raman Singh Shyam is through this quote of his-
“Till you don’t visit the jungle, what kind of jungle can you even imagine? Only when you are there you can tell if you will feel hot or cold. And that is the only way we can create.”