FINE ARTS - REVIVAL OF LOST ARTISARY IN THE CITIES by Udit Sengupta

 

The word art is derived is arti, the craft guilds of the Italian renaissance, when arti denoted craftsmanship, skill, mastery of form, inventiveness, associations that exist between form and ideas and between techniques and materials.

The history of art usually refers to the history of the visual arts, such as painting, sculpture and architecture. The term also encompasses theory of the visual arts. It is not usually taken or intended to refer to the performing arts or literary arts.

West Bengal govt’s much ridiculed emphasis on fairs and festivals has helped revive dying folk art forms, besides helping rural craftsmen earn more. Crafts such as making wooden dolls and masks, dokra jewellery, kantha, madur or straw mat and sitalpati or cool mat to bhawaiya song, baul song and chhou, natua and raibeshe dance — most of Bengal’s folk art forms have received government patronage. As a result, several art forms are now witnessing a revival.

                                                          (Image :https://www.thehindu.com/folk-art-form-in-Bengal/article)

             

                                       (Image courtesy :https://www.thehindu.com/folk-art-form-in-Bengal/article)                                                                                                          

The chief minister has established the Biswa Bangla brand to promote Bengal’s handicrafts. After recently setting up the Biswa Bangla haat to showcase the work of folk artistes and craftsmen, the government now plans to set up a Biswa Bangla Mall as well.

         (Image  : https://www.hindustantimes.com/editorials/fairs-reweaving-economy-of-bengal-s-folk-art-forms-empowering-craftsmen/story.html)

Alpana, which once adorned walls and floors, has been replaced with plastic stickers

The traditional Bengal art of alpana, invoking Gods with finger-printed motifs, is now lost.

Sadly, either brush strokes of acrylic paint or worse still, printed plastic stickers of the traditional art have taken its place in most of the houses and the myriad community puja-mandaps in and around the city.

    (Image :https://i.ytimg.com/vi/FYkn7NBqQHg/hqdefault.jpg )

                                                                                                                                                                

INTACH, under its cultural heritage program, has joined hands with the Daricha Foundation, which also works to revive tribal and folk arts, to give alpana a fresh lease of life. They are now exploring whether it can be made into a source of  revenue for girls from underprivileged section. 

                                    (Image courtesy :https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DKFfYkbUIAEF0AT.jpg)