The Evolution of Gond Painting From Walls to Paper

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By Vanirathi Nathani

4 min read

  • Art
  • Painting
  • India

    • Table of Content

    Introduction: A Living Tradition

    Gond painting is not merely a visual craft—it is a world built with memory, mythology, and rhythm. Practised by the Gond tribe, one of central India's largest Indigenous communities, this art form has long served as a spiritual and cultural map. Every dot, line, and motif once lived on walls and floors—not to be admired as art but to protect, to bless, and to narrate. While today Gond art travels the world on paper and canvas, its roots remain embedded in ritual and community.

    Symphony of Colors: A Harmonious Tale on Canvas Gond Painting by Kailash Pradhan

    Painted Rituals: Walls, Floors, and Festivals

    Long before it entered museums, Gond paintings adorned the walls of village homes in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and parts of Maharashtra. Created during festivals like Diwali and Karama, or life-cycle events like births and weddings, these images were made using natural colors: charcoal for black, cow dung for brown, leaves and flowers for greens and reds. The designs depicted gods, forests, animals, and ancestors. Brushes were made from neem twigs or date-palm fibers, and painting was primarily a communal, oral practice—passed from mothers to daughters, uncles to nephews.

    These murals were not decorative—they were sacred. They invited prosperity, ward off evil, and told stories of deities like Phulvari Devi or Bada Deo. The walls, in essence, were living archives of Gond cosmology.

    Gond art

    A Turning Point: From Wall to Paper (1980s)

    The 1980s marked a seismic shift. With the support of Bharat Bhavan, a cultural institution in Bhopal, artist Jangarh Singh Shyam was invited to paint on paper. Born in Patangarh village, Jangarh translated his community's inherited visual language into acrylics and pens, using fine brushes instead of twigs. His work retained the pulsating textures and fantastical figures of traditional Gond murals—but now on paper, for the world to see.

    Jangarh’s innovation was not just material—it was metaphysical. He brought the gods and animals from clay walls into modern exhibition spaces, turning oral memory into visual legacy. His sudden death in 2001 marked a tragedy, but his impact was irreversible. Gond art had entered the realm of “contemporary tribal art.”

    Janghar singh syam

    Expanding Mediums, Shifting Meanings

    With paper and canvas came new subjects. Trains, cities, mobile phones, airplanes—all began to appear alongside tigers and trees of life. Artists like Bhajju Shyam, Jangarh’s apprentice, famously painted The London Jungle Book, a Gond retelling of his visit to the UK, where streetlights became trees and buses roared like animals.

    This transformation wasn’t a departure from tradition, but a dynamic evolution. The storytelling method remained—intricate patterns, dense linework, spiritual motifs—but the world it reflected was wider. Gond artists began commenting on deforestation, climate change, urban loneliness. Tradition adapted, but did not dissolve.

    Deers and Birds in Gond by Braj Bhooshan Dhurwey

    Signature Styles and Artist Families

    Gond painting today is deeply personal. Each artist has developed a distinct visual signature, often identified by texture styles—waves, dots, chevrons, fish scales. Families like the Shyams (Venkat Raman Singh Shyam, Japani Shyam), Durga Bai, and Narmada Prasad Tekam carry forward Jangarh’s legacy while adding their own flourishes.

    Lineage matters. Apprenticeship often happens at home, through observation and shared labor. In this sense, the tradition still mirrors its origin—communal, oral, rooted.

     Durga Bai, Gond

    From Villages to the World

    Since the 2000s, Gond art has seen global recognition. Exhibited in the Venice Biennale, published by Tara Books in exquisite hand-printed editions, and included in school textbooks, the art has moved far beyond its place of origin. Artists travel abroad, collaborate with designers, and exhibit in contemporary art shows while still returning to their villages to teach and paint.

    This dual life—global and grounded—is what makes Gond painting so resilient.

    Whispers of Harmony: A Monochromatic Symphony on Canvas Gond Painting by Kailash Pradhan

    Today’s Crossroads: Innovation vs. Dilution

    Yet with popularity comes risk. Mass-produced prints and digital imitations can strip the art of its narrative soul. Some motifs are reduced to decor, their meanings forgotten. Artists and organizations now work consciously to protect authenticity: through village workshops, artist-led residencies, and educational outreach.

    Young artists balance tradition and experimentation—some use bright synthetic colors, others introduce 3D elements or digital techniques. Still, the heart of Gond painting remains intact: its rhythm of lines, its pulse of memory.

    Conclusion: The Past in the Present

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