Mandakini1, Ila Gupta2
1, Assistant Professor, Department of Fine Arts, Graphic Era Hill University Dehradun
2Department of Architecture and Planning, IIT Roorkee
1mandakini.sharma9@gmail.com, 2ilafap@gmail.com
Volume 4, Number 1, 2020 I Full Text PDF
Abstract
Painting has always been a reflection of society, culture, values and surroundings of the individuals. The place and people around leaves a deep impact on the artists because they usually depict their belongingness and experiences through their creation. In Indian contemporary art, various artists like Amrita Sher-Gill, M.F. Husain, F.N. Souza and many more have adopted the glimpse of their city to articulate their expressions. Gogi Saroj Pal, a contemporary Indian artist has adopted the spirit of Indian culture, where she is inculcating the mythical fables with the advancement of feministic ideology. The aim of this paper is to discuss the significance of India and its socio-cultural aspects in the paintings of Gogi Saroj Pal. Gogi Saroj Pal is considered to be the first among the radical feminist artists of India who has painted various series on woman including Hat-yogini (female practitioner of Yoga), Kamdhenu (wish-fulfilling cow), Kinnari (half-bird & half woman), Dancing Horse, Sawaymvaram (an ancient practice for choosing groom by bride) and Alter for Nirbhaya (related with the brutal rape case in Delhi). In most of her paintings, powerful female nudes have been portrayed to criticize the previous forms of woman, which were particularly related with beauty and sensuousness. Apart from feministic advancement, her artwork series are particularly based on the indigenous portrayal of her surroundings- that is Indian urban context where innumerable incidents of female oppression take place recurrently. Gogi Saroj Pal usually takes the everyday problems of woman in modern Indian society and represents it with an infusion of mythological references through her paintings in an attempt to raise the voice of protest for the oppressed womanhood to the world.
Keywords: Gender Politics, Patriarchal Hegemonies, Resistance of Power, Mythology and Art, Symbolism, Portrayal of Woman