Different styles of Indian Paintings

A quick look at some different styles of paintings from different regions in India.

Madhubani:

style of painting that has its origins in the Mithila region in Bihar, thus it is also known as Mithila paintings. Originally done by womenfolk during festivals and marriages, now it is done by men as well. The common motifs mostly symbolise fertility, some of them are: fish, parrots in union, a male and a female bird facing each other, entwined male and female cobras, goddess, etc.

Thanjavur paintings:

With its use of golden relief work and glittering gems Thanjavur style of painting is a major school in South Indian art. The themes are largely religious, though secular portraits are also found. These painting are also made as murals or on unusual media like glass and ivory. The gods/ images painted were originally Vaishnavite but later even Saivite themes were introduced.

Kalamkari Paintings

Kalamkari is an exquisite ancient craft of painted and printed fabrics that has its origins from Andra Pradesh. Kalam means pen and kari means work, literally pen-work. There are two styles of Kalamkari art- the Masulipatnam style as seen in AP and the Srikalahasti style as seen in TN. The former follows Islamic motifs whereas the latter had popular motifs from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.

Warli Paintings:

Folk paintings from Maharashtra. These are very different from other folk and tribal paintings in India. They are painted on mud, charcoal, or cowdung based surface using only white colour, and are decorated with series of dots in red and yellow.

Kerala Mural Painting:

Kerala Murals can be traced back to the 17th century AD. The themes are mostly from the Puranas and the Great Epics. The Panchavarnas or the five colours- red, yellow, green, black and white are prepared from mineral pigments and vegetables. The paintings were originally done for Hindu temples, but they were found in Churches depicting stories from the Bible.

Thangka Paintings

These are traced to the 7th century AD, and they are a sacred tradition of Tibet. 'Than' means flat and 'ka' means painting done on, which essentially translates to painting done on a flat surface. It also means that which can be rolled up. They are mostly vertical rectangles. The themes are usually religious. They have geometric patterns and normally show pictorial depictions of biographies of saints.

Rajasthani Miniature Paintings:

Miniature paintings were brought to India by the Mughals. In 1555 Humayun , returning from exile in Persia, brought painters along with him. There are two types of miniature paintings in India- Rajasthani from the central plains and Pahari from the Himalayan foothills. Kishangarh paintings come under the Rajasthani group of miniature paintings. Raja Sawant Singh fell in love with a slave girl known as Bani Thani or well dressed. He commanded his artists to paint her portraits and since then Bani Thani and the king were shown as Radha and Krishna. These miniature paintings are very colourful.

Roland Barthes and some !!! concepts

Roland Barthes- French semiotician, literary theorist and philosopher.

Writing Degree Zero: Following the theory that experimental writing as well as established styles of writing were not original, Barthes set out to define what is truly original and unique style of writing/ ecriture which he defines as Writing Degree Zero- which has no embellishments, as the writing in The Stranger by Albert Camus. He also stated that any form of writing faces the threat of being a conventional style after the writing is published or open to the public.

Death of the Author: Barthes declared 'the death of the author' stating that the general notion of assuming ultimate authorial authority or the author's intended meaning of a piece of text as final is over. The meaning of a piece of writing lies with the reader, it is no more in the hands of the author.

Camera Lucida: is his work on photography, touching upon various concepts of photography as well as serving as a touching dedication to his mother after her death. He wrote this remembering a photograph of his mother that he had seen year's back. He stresses that in photography, the given image exhibits a stat of 'having been there'. The image really did exist and it was not concocted by the photographer's imagination. This is the most important difference between photography and most other arts.

Barthes has written about music, fashion, semiotics, mythology and many other such varied topics.

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