Jangarh Singh Shyam : The Enchanted Forest Paintings And Drawings From The Crites Collection

Author

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  Aurogeeta Das

  Aurogeeta Das trained as a printmaker and completed her postgraduate and doctoral studies at the University of Westminster, London. Her PhD involved extensive research on Indian floor-drawing and floor-painting traditions, a genre of domestic practices that Jangarh had drawn upon to create a transformed ‘contemporary tradition’. In 2005, the Museum of London hosted an exhibition of the artist Bhajju Shyam’s work, titled The London Jungle Book, where Aurogeeta first encountered Pardhan-Gond art. Entranced, she began researching this school of art for her postgraduate dissertation, thus discovering the incredible art and life of Bhajju’s uncle and the founder of the ‘contemporary tradition’, Jangarh Singh Shyam. As she told Jangarh’s widow Nankusia, ‘Jangarh fever’ took hold of her. Aurogeeta has written for numerous publications, including Wasafiri, Manifesta Journal, Arts of Asia, Etnofoor, New Quest and First City. In 2015, the Tagore Centre in London published her limited edition artist book, If only I were a bird… Aurogeeta has taught at the Universities of East Anglia, Hertfordshire and Westminster and regularly lectures on Indian art at Sotheby’s Institute of Art, London. She is close to completing research towards a biography of Jangarh.