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Sita Devi
Early Indian Mithila Folk Art Painting

1970

About the Item

Early Indian Mithila Folk Art Painting Traditional Indian Mithila Painting artist signed verso. Pencil, ink, natural dye watercolor, on handmade paper 22x30 framed under glass 26x36. Sita Devi (1914–2005) was an Indian artist, specializing in painting in the Madhubani tradition. She is one of the most well-known Madhubani artists from India, and was one of the first to receive national recognition for the art form, receiving a number of awards for her work including the Padma Shri (one of India's highest civilian honors) in 1981, as well as the Bihar Ratna Samman in 1984. She was influential in activism for local development in her village of Jitwarpur, in the state of Bihar, and taught Madhubani art to local residents, especially women, during her career in an effort to encourage financial stability. Her paintings have been praised for their individual style, particularly their use of color, have been widely exhibited, and are archived in India as well as in museums in France, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan. Sita Devi was the first to bring the intricate Bharni style of Madhubani painting out of village homes and into urban drawing rooms which had fetched her the Padma Shri in 1981. She was honored for the first time with a state award in 1969 and the national award in 1975. Sita Devi’s collectors included the first President, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi, Babu Jagjivan Ram, and Lalit Narayan Mishra. According to her eldest son, Ram Dev, she was regarded as the mother at Jitwarpur village for her social commitment. It was because of Sita Devi that the village first had a primary school. Madhubani painting, also called Mithila painting, is a unique style of painting, practiced in the Mithila region of Nepal and Indian States of Bihar. Painting is done with fingers, twigs, brushes, nib-pens, and matchsticks, using natural dyes and pigments, and is characterized by eye-catching geometrical patterns. Traditionally the paintings were drawn on interior walls in the village houses by Hindu women of the Brahmin and Kyshath castes who handed down their visual knowledge from one generation to the next. The folk paintings represent a variety of symbolic meanings mainly associated with the celebration of fertility in Madhubani weddings and seasonal rituals, but also include the major gods and goddesses of the Hindu pantheon, in particular, Sita, the wife of the god Ram, and a central figure in the Hindu epic the Ramayana.
  • Creator:
    Sita Devi (1914 - 2005, Indian)
  • Creation Year:
    1970
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 26 in (66.04 cm)Width: 32 in (81.28 cm)Depth: 1 in (2.54 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Lake Worth Beach, FL
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU192214665992

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