Painting, that is, painting has been the biggest medium to expose human emotions in silent words for centuries. When it comes to portraying female struggle and the reality of women’s life, the painters easily broke the traditional assumptions and made the discovery of women’s struggle, feelings and existence a matter of their brush and canvas.
In this way, painting for feminism became a revolutionary medium and challenged the complex structures of patriarchal society with the help of colors. It is not that in the modern society only, the subject of female is openly found, but also a well -known painter Raja Ravi Verma, when he was preparing new plants of Indian painting 150 years ago, he has also given his tone to female metaphors with ease.
King Ravi Varma, who carried the pain of every woman through Draupadi
By the way, Ravivarma’s identity is more in such a way that he raised the deities and characters with mythological subjects in a picture form, but if seen closely, it is a blame to look at his thinking from a very limited perspective. In fact, King Ravi Verma was very neatly looking for women of reality in those mythological female characters, whose situation was more or less different from his story.
Dr. Ranjit Saha records in his book (creative exclusion of modern Indian painting) that King Ravi Verma has given great attention to the character of Draupadi in his series of mythological paintings. He refers to the episode of Virat festival. Kachch, full of lust, wants to forcibly Pranay (forcibly Premlap) with Saikrandri (the secret name of Draupadi). Sarandhri is scared and is hidden under the cover of the curtain and refusing her. During this time, he has put his back towards the mare of fear, hidden his face with his hands. Ravi Verma is showing the condition of the entire female caste in this one Draupadi.
Her red -edged saree is black, whose black color is actually a mixed sense of sorrow and fear within the female society. Flowers, conch, plates and waterplanes have fallen around. They can be considered a symbol of religion, truth, humanity and society respectively. King Ravi Verma is called many things and many expressions through this one picture, without speaking.
The story of every woman in the form of Mohini
Similarly, he has a famous picture, swinging Mohini. This picture is an unmatched sample of oil painting. Solid stones rocks, light clouds above, black thick river bank and tree on the banks. Mohini is swinging in the swing on this tree. Golden is a white saree, the feet are rising in the direction of the swing and Mohini has held both hands up and held the rope. Now you move towards Mohini’s face. The expressions are coming on his face. Is he happy Is it happy? Is thoughtful? Or happiness is a dream within him. This picture is also a metaphor of bright current and vague future.
Please tell that Mohini is a female avatar of Lord Vishnu, also known as Maya, but a supernatural tenderness and fickleness is seen in King Ravi Varma’s ‘Mohini’. Mohini, which is a divine form, still absorbed in a moment of simple bliss and swinging on the swing. Light transparent sarees, relaxed body language and their hair flying in the air are making her hypnotic. This scene is not only the definition of fascination, but in other sense it has a very esoteric meaning. This painting shows that every woman who looks in some form or the other every day, is like this mohini, once she lives her personal freedom and sensation, it will look unique and divine.
Avnindra Nath Thakur created Bharat Mata
Avnindra Nath Thakur, who was a legendary artist in creating a woman, has no match. He is in his painting in his painting with water color, in fact, he is the face of every woman of the country. He has four hands. There are crops in one, Veda in one hand, garland in another and fourth hand clothes. The clothing of the woman is ocher and they have kept it as women (Bengali women) in common homes. There is a lamp like fire on the forehead, which is the light of knowledge, while the background of the picture is in light indigo and purple color. This picture states that every Indian woman is actually Mother India. It is also in the fields, in temples, it is also in mills and factories and is in beauty. This work of Avnindra Nath Thakur had worked to fill the sense of unity in the country and to awaken the nation. This work that came out in 1905 became the inspiration for the formation of divine paintings of Mother India.
Jaimini Rai’s mother and baby narrates the story of conflict
Moving forward in this connection, the pictures of Jaimini Rai should also be noticed. This picture is the realistism of motherhood, but it should be considered a mixture of both struggle and motherhood. She is a Santhali woman who has lifted her baby in arms. His body and face are shown from behind in the picture. The child’s round head is towards the audience. In the background of this picture, hills are seen with blue, purple, brown, kanje and white colors. Black body, yellow saree with red and white painted with white color is giving a gap of gentle gilt in his combination in his combination. Perhaps this would have been a picture of a laborer mother, who is caressing the star of her eyes after labor. This picture together becomes a symbol of love, vatsalya, struggle and living of life.
Sita of Ramkinkar badge (mother of Luv-Kush) is filled with eyes
If the subject of the child’s adherence to the baby and the struggle of the mother comes, then the example of the Indian mythological character, who has got the status of mother, becomes the greatest. During pregnancy, Sita’s exile from the kingdom and then the birth of two children in uninhabited forest, then alone, how painful her ration would have been for the woman, who was once a princess and then the queen. When the great sculptor Ramkinkar badge started painting the canvas on this subject, he became a picture of Sita wearing a ocher saree from his brush and clinging two newborns to the chest. In this work, Sita can be seen with thoughts, worried and upset. In fact, it should not only be considered as the grief of mythological Sita, but it is a lively form of anxiety of every woman, which has faced such a situation.
Amrita Shergill: Canvas of freedom and struggle
If you want to see a mixed form of struggle, freedom and freeness through painting, then Amrita will not get a better name than Shergill. One of his composition is three women representative paintings of this sentiment. Three young women wearing colorful dresses are sitting together, but the faces of the three are different. It seems that the situation is serious. All three are considering a destiny that they cannot change.
Shergill has not shown her women in a free or sensual form, but represented them facing situations in which she is struggling with difficulties, yet her soul tries to rise above the destiny he is unable to change. About this, Shergill himself wrote, ‘I recognized my real artistic purpose, then I moved towards presenting the life of Indian life, especially those Indians in a digestive form, which is at the backward side in the line. They are silent and their silent images were carved as a subject on my canvas. They are a symbol of immense dedication and patience.
This picture is influenced by the art of French painter Paul Gogin and it reflects a significant change in the artistic style of Shergill. Out of the realistic and educational style learned in Paris, he adopted a contemporary approach, in which flat structures, lines and colors were used prominently. Three girls, the circumstances of girls in painting are clear not from the environment around them, but through their facial expressions, physical language and subtle color combinations.
Painting became a means of engraving emotions and then expressing them. The painting has not been a matter of entertainment in its initial, but it has always been a medium to maintain dialogue even in the event of not saying anything. This medium sometimes changed the society, sometimes revolted, sometimes inspired to change and sometimes became memorable and narrated the history saga. Painting has played a long role in changing the condition of women, making them aware and showing a new way.