Artist Babita Biswas is one of the many artists to have found inspiration in a folk art forms. In her recently concluded exhibition, ‘Purity In Love', Biswas had rendered the Warli folk art of Maharashtra in acrylic with a slight contemporary touch. Babita, who is a graphic designer by profession, had based the paintings on the eternal verses of “Gita Govinda”, penned by the legendary 12th century poet Jayadev.
The bright colourful acrylic works, titled ‘Love game of Krishna', ‘Maha Raas', ‘Mystery of Divine', to name a few, reflect the epic romance between Krishna and Radha. Traditionally in Warli art, white is used against earthen colours but here Biswas, tweaking the rules a bit, has executed the paintings in vibrant colours.
“Warli art is over-exposed but it lacks recognition. I took it as a challenge to use it for depicting “Gita Govinda” in this style. Also, I used bright colours just to give it a fresh and unique look,” says Biswas, who is contemplating doing a full set of 196 paintings on the subject. In most of the paintings, while Krishna has been depicted in blue, Radha has been shown in red, whereas the other gopis and activities appear in other hues.
