Tracing art’s roots, Rekha Rana

The likes of artists SH Raza, MF Husain, Madhvi Parekh, Arpita Singh and late Sultan Ali borrowed elements from Indian folk arts and conventional art in their contemporary art works. Artist Rekha Rana has written about this and more in her PhD research. Interestingly, not all these artists were aware of it, till Rekha discussed it with them.

Rekha says, “I have dedicated seven years to bag my PhD. As art students, we are well-equipped with the technical and the practical know-how of art. But I wanted to delve deep into the origin of Indian art.” She adds, “I was intrigued to study the impact of folk paintings on Indian contemporary paintings and conducted my study with the reference of art works done by MF Husain, SH Raza, Madhvi Parekh, Arpita Singh and late Sultan Ali.”

Rekha claims that her study  proves that SH Raza has taken many symbols from Madhubani and Uttaranchal folk painting. Arpita Singh is known as a painter of abstraction. No one in fact ever said that the artist has no kind of relation to folk paintings. But even she has used many forms, the style of composition and textures from Madhubani art.

Rekha asserts, “When I showed my thesis to Madhavi and Arpita, they agreed with my findings. In fact, Arpita also confirmed that she wasn’t aware that her art works include elements from Indian traditional art.” 

Currently, Rekha is working on her art exhibition titled Dumbs and Drums. She focuses on the simple lifestyle and the thought process of people living in rural India in this art project.
The exhibition will begin at the Jehangir art gallery today.