Shri Upendra Prasad Singh, Secretary, Ministry of Textiles today inaugurated an international exhibition on Folk & Tribal Art Paintings “Reetiyon se Kalakritiyonka Safar” at National Crafts Museum & Hastkala Academy, organised by Office of Development Commissioner, Handicrafts in collaboration with Odi Art Centre. 125 Folk and Tribal Paintings of 7 countries- India – 102, South Korea – 8, Indonesia – 1, Myanmar – 2, Sri Lanka – 2, Bangladesh – 3 and Nepal – 7 are on display. This special exhibition (from 18th August to 3rd September) has been curated by the National Crafts Museum &Hastkala Academy, New Delhi, in collaboration with Odi Art Centre.
Speaking on the occasion Shri Singh said that such exhibitions encourage the artists and enable the art lovers to view and enjoy various forms of art at one place.He said that Indian handicrafts are very popular and to promote it government has set up office of Development Commissioner, Handicrafts which works for the promotion of artisans by organizing handicrafts expos, exhibitions to showcase the products made by Cluster artisans across the country and award functions for their felicitation thereby recognizing their exquisite art.
The age-old traditions of decorating walls (BhittiChitra) convey the experience of nature and local traditions of different communities. Folk and Tribal paintings in diverse forms took the shape of kalakrtiyan. Such art has unique characters and features which shows the diversification in art form and have been a part of living traditions ever since. Therefore, this allowed the people to look into the past lifestyle of the time when the same was in practise.
The lineage of decorating walls and floors is continuing even till date. Nowadays, these art forms have shifted on different materials and canvases to reach out the masses and increase the feasibility globally.
The display has been branched out in a village theme to the categories of geography, ceremonial, nature, folktales, society and religion. The exquisite art works have been preserved in the museum collection which is an inspiration for the present and future artists.
