Description
Dilip Shyam is one of the renowned Gond Artist who after graduating left his village, Patangarh, for Bhopal with high hopes. He had always wanted to be a painter like Jangarh, his paternal uncle, as well as his inspiration. He then instilled a lot of time and effort into his paintings which speak of his imagination and creativity. He also worked at the Museum of Man kind in Bhopal, where his paintings adorn some of the walls. Later, he left his job and presently works as a free lancer artist and has earned a great recognition all-over India. Each figure or motif in a composition is filled with skill, creativity and versatility. Gond artists have seen their art flourish, as they transform their legends as well as their thoughts, with equal ease into paintings, with bright colours (except the pen and ink drawings) and patterns. Interestingly, each artist has his or her preferred pattern and each of them can often recognize the work of a Gond artist simply by looking at the pattern filling the figures/motifs. While some of the fillers are traced to tattoo motifs, others are inspired by nature such as the mark of a plough in a field, seeds, sheaves of grain, scales of a fish, footprints of animals, stars, the crescent moon, or the weave of a fabric or basket. Dilip Shyam was honoured with the Jangarh Singh Shyam award in 2008 and has also been awarded by the State Government of Madhya Pradesh for his contribution to Gond Art. Dilip Shyam creates Wall Art as well, one of his works created at Aloft Hotel, Aerocity, New Delhi, an innovative art form for creating and displaying Tribal Art in a contemporary ambiance using similar themes and medium.