ImportMaster at 23:49, 21 May 2022

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{{Short description|Indian painter}}
{{DISPLAYTITLE: Durga Bai Vyam}}{{Infobox artist
| name = Durga Bai Vyam
| birth_date = 1973
| caption = Durga Bai Vyam painting
| alt =
| nationality = Indian
| birth_place = Barbaspur, [[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 = SAVE 20220126 243449.jpg
| spouse = Subhash Singh Vyam
| children = Mansingh Vyam, Rajni Vyam, Roshni Vyam
| honorific_prefix = [[Padma Shri|PS]]
| awards = [[Padma Shri]] (2022)
| known_for = [[Painting]]
}}
'''Durga Bai Vyam''' (born in 1973<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 an Indian artist. She 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, Barbaspur, a village in the Mandla district of Madhya Pradesh.<ref name=":3" />

She has created paintings for several publications and exhibited her works widely. In 2022, she was awarded [[Padma Shri]] by the [[Government of India]] for her contributions in the field of arts.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |title=Padma Awardees 2022 |url=https://www.padmaawards.gov.in/padmaawardees2022.pdf |website=Padma Awards}}</ref>

== 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>
[[File:2015.2.24 Durga Bai Gond.jpg|alt=Gond painting by Durga Bai Vyam|left|thumb|Gond painting by Durga Bai Vyam]]

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 Vyam |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 Bhavan]] 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|s2cid=140724145 |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 [[B. R. Ambedkar]] titled '[[Bhimayana|Bhimayana: Experiences of Untouchability]]' published by [[Navayana (publishing house)|Navayana]].

In the [[Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2018|Kochi Muziris Biennale]] 2018, the artist couple had 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==
[[File:Durga Bai Vyam receiving Padma Shri from President Ram Nath Kovind.jpg|alt=Durga Bai Vyam receiving Padma Shri from President Ram Nath Kovind|thumb|Durga Bai Vyam receiving Padma Shri from President Ram Nath Kovind]]
* 2004 - Handicraft Development Council
*2006-2007 - [[Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts]] Scholarship
*2009 - [[Rani Durgavati|Rani Durgawati]] award for excellence in traditional painting<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" />
*2008 - [[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<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>
*2022 - Padma Shri<ref name=":4" />

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category|Durga Bai Vyam}}
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1nJ94Rpko8 Exhibition of paintings at Bharat Bhavan]
{{Padma Shri Award Recipients in Art|state=collapsed}}
{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Durga Bai Vyam}}
[[Category:1973 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:21st-century Indian women artists]]
[[Category:Indian women painters]]
[[Category:People from Madhya Pradesh]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Padma Shri in arts]]
[[Category:Women artists from Madhya Pradesh]]

Durga Bai Vyam - Revision history

ImportMaster at 23:49, 21 May 2022