Pushpa Kumari & Pradyumna Kumar (India)

Kumari is a younger
generation Mithila artist who has retained the Mithila paintings’ distinctive
styles and conventions while addressing new subjects such as women’s rights in
India. Mithila painting has a highly developed symbolism – fish represent
fertility, peacocks are associated with love, and serpents with divinity. It
was closely linked with marriage and social ceremonies, with many paintings
intended as instruction for newlyweds. 

Kumari’s works continue to draw on a strong theme of sexuality and the union between male and female. She was taught by her grandmother, the acclaimed Mithila artist Mahasundari Devi.

Prakriti is seated on the earth, her legs open to imply fertility, and branches grow from her shoulders. Her face is a single eye, and a larger eye is embraced by the male Purusha. Creation and fecundity are shown as intertwined and inseparable from the bodiless spirit.

Prakriti and Purusha
are Sanskrit terms for eternal male and female elements. The terms come from a
branch of Hindu philosophy associated with Tantric teachings. Purusha is male
energy, and signifies spirit or consciousness. Prakriti is female, embodying
the basic matter that constitutes the universe. The concepts are also found in
classical literature such as the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita, where they
are often portrayed as two primordial lovers, Shiva and Shakti. Out of these two principles, it is
believed that the world was born. 

In Prakriti-Purusha, Kumari shows Prakriti and Purusha as lovers, circled by a border of repeating motifs, with bodies entwined and two profiles making a single face.

Pushpa Kumari draws on the iconography of Mithila wall paintings to create her own interpretations of traditional stories and historical events, and to reflect on issues facing many women in regional communities in India. 'Saving the girl child' employs images of fecundity and Mother Nature — often used in Mithila painting to celebrate marriages and union — to protest against the death of female babies, who are often regarded as a burden to their parents in parts of India, in contrast to sons, whose births are often celebrated.

Dowry comments on the dowry system, officially illegal, but still very common in India. Dowries can include goods, cash, property or other items that the bride’s family agrees to give to the groom and his relatives as a condition of the marriage.

Tragically, dowry deaths occur as a result of this system, when young women are either murdered or driven to suicide by the harassment and torture of their in-laws in an effort to extort an increased dowry.

Surya and Sangya (The Story of the sun and his wife) depicts a story in which Sangya, the daughter of a sage and the goddess of clouds, is married to the sun, Surya. At first she is very happy, but she becomes frightened when Surya’s heat becomes too great as his power and arrogance grows.

She runs away from him and takes the form of a horse roaming the earth. He searches for her and also becomes a horse so he may go near her. During this time they fall in love once again and remain as husband and wife.

Mithila artworks were traditionally painted only by women. As artists transferred the customary designs to paper, the art forms have changed and developed in turn. A younger generation now address political and feminist themes and public issues as well as traditional stories, and — for the first time — a group of talented male artists have begun to create works in the Mithila style. Pradyumna Kumar is part of this first generation of male artists.

Pradyumna Kumar is Pushpa Kumari’s brother-in-law. He began painting in 2002 under her tutelage and is one of the first generation of male artists to practice this form.