The platform for Madhubani just got bigger. Manisha Mishra, a Madhubani artist is participating in the annual International Folk Art Market, in Santa Fe in USA. Manisha was part of the folk art festival last year as well but what is special about this year is that her painting has been chosen as the main theme image for the publicity of the 13-year-old art fair this time.
It is the first time, an Indian artist’s work has been chosen as the theme image for its logo. The painting which depicts a veiled bride being likened to five elements and the universe has already been bought by International Folk Art Alliance for its museum.
It is a significant development for Madhubani, which Manisha thinks has been losing popularity in the last couple of years. “Dilli Haat, and its mass production had affected its popularity but this will bring the limelight back on it,” says Manisha, as she prepares to leave for the fair with 100 art works done over the last one year.
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Manisha learned the traditional art form of Bihar from her mother and grandmother. She, like so many others practising this style, has chosen to place the age-old mythological narrative in a contemporary context. Her works created for the fair, focuses on the popular folklore nurtured through our oral storytelling traditions.
Madhubani is a small district in Bihar in which women for centuries have been painting the floors and walls of their homes with folk stories, figures of deities and animals.
Though Manisha is part of the 14 artist contingent representing India, she is the only one for Madhubani. Other artists include practitioners of traditional textiles and crafts. “The fair is all about artists and organisations promoting folk art. There are no middlemen and galleries involved. Artists are trained to how to sell their work, how to present it which is why participation in this fair means so much to me,” says Manisha.
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Last year she managed to sell 75 per cent of her works at the fair. One of her encounters at the fair bagged Manisha, an exhibition in Lyon, France.
(The festival is inviting close to 200 artists from more than 60 countries. It will be held from July 8-10.)