The Study and Support of Rural and Tribal Arts and Crafts

K. G. Subramanyan (1924–2016) was one of India’s most eminent artists who worked with diverse media and materials, and exhibited extensively both within and outside the country. He was known as much for his wide-ranging scholarship as for his artworks which are full of wit, subversion, folklore and critical social commentary. Member of the arts faculty at M. S. University, Baroda, he was professor emeritus oat Kala Bhavana, Visva Bharati, Santiniketan. In 2012, he received the Padma Vibhushan, India’s second-highest civilian award, for his outstanding contribution to the arts.

In this particularly relevant and contemporary essay, the artist comments on the different ways in which rural and tribal Indian art and crafts are viewed, especially by urban artists, and offers a brilliant analysis of what exactly is the need of the hour to both preserve and develop these valuable ways of producing art.