Skip to main content

Sita Devi Art

Indian, 1914-2005

Sita Devi was born in 1914, in the Jitwarpur, Madhubani district, India. She was famous for drawing in the Bjarni style, which involves outlining the subject in black and filling the areas with color. 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. Her artwork finds a place in the permanent collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris, the Mithila Museum in Japan and many other international institutions.

to
1
1
1
1
Overall Height
to
Overall Width
to
1
1
1
1
1
1
6,910
3,235
2,514
1,217
1
1
1
1
1
Artist: Sita Devi
Figures and Birds Indian Mithila Folk Art
By Sita Devi
Located in Lake Worth Beach, FL
Figures and Birds Watercolor Traditional Indian Mithila Painting artist signed. Pencil, ink, natural dye watercolor, on handmade paper 17.7x22.7 framed under glass 24x29. 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...
Category

1960s Folk Art Sita Devi Art

Materials

Handmade Paper, Watercolor, Pencil

Related Items
19th-Century Swiss School, Montbenon, Lake Geneva
Located in Cheltenham, GB
This mid-19th-century Swiss school drawing depicts the beautiful Esplanade de Montbenon in Lausanne, Switzerland. The picturesque gardens of the Esplanade de Montbenon provide a spl...
Category

1830s Folk Art Sita Devi Art

Materials

Paper, Watercolor, Gouache, Pencil

Un Rassemblement - Figurative Drawing
By Milo Quam
Located in Soquel, CA
Wonderfully provocative sketch drawing of a gathering of men and women in pencil by outsider artist Mylo Quam (American, 1941-1996). Signed lower right. Presented in giltwood frame with black mat under glass. Image size: 8.25"H x 10.50"W. A long-time Woodstock area resident, Mylo Quam was a self-taught painter and draughtsman whose provocative figural work has been compared to Renaissance painters Sandro Botticelli and Hieronymous Bosch, as well as to twentieth-century artists Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt. Quam was an avid reader who derived inspiration from such varied arenas as Shakespeare, the occult, the Bible, Eastern and Western mythology, politics, and popular culture. "I look at everything," the artist was quoted as saying in 1990. "I read the comic pages. Anything visual. There's very little I don't think is a subject for art." Born in North Dakota, Quam studied Greek language and other classical subjects at Brandeis, Boston, and New York Universities, and worked as a translator of Greek plays while just 17 years old. After a successful career as an actor that included numerous Off-Broadway performances and a leading role in the 1968 Broadway production of Royal Hunt of the Sun, Quam turned his focus to painting. His first one-man exhibition was at the Boatman Gallery, NYC in 1969 and was followed by twenty solo shows over the course of his career at venues including Gallery A, Flynn Gallery, CFM Gallery, Brewster Gallery, Imperial Gallery, Runyon Winchell Gallery and the Gallery of Erotic Art, all in New York City. Quam's work was also exhibited at the John Pense Gallery in San Francisco, the Clark-Whitney Gallery in Massachusetts, the Barrett House and Desmond Weiss Galleries in Poughkeepsie, and for many years at the Ann Leonard Gallery in Woodstock. Quam's paintings were exhibited internationally, as well, notably in a solo exhibition in Haiti-- the first by an American artist in that country. In addition, he was one of four artists to represent the United States in La Bienalle di Venezia, Italia of 1986. As a young man, Quam designed sets and/or costumes for the Actor's Playhouse in New York City, the Lucas Hovig Ballet Company, and the Opera Municipal de Marseilles, France. He also created illustrations for The Story of O...
Category

1970s Outsider Art Sita Devi Art

Materials

Pencil, Paper

Fiesta en Xalitla / Amate Paper Mexican Folk Art Painting Frame
By Edalinda Perez Velazquez
Located in Jesus del Monte, MX
FREE SHIPPING TO WORLDWIDE! Artisan: Edalinda Perez Velazquez Picture painting with Chinese ink and acrylics over Amate Paper. - Dimensions: 28" x 20" x 2" in or 72 x 51 x 4 cm - ...
Category

2010s Folk Art Sita Devi Art

Materials

Paint, Paper, Watercolor

Malcah Zeldis Folk Art Gouache Painting Wine & Cigarettes Woman Outsider Artist
Located in Surfside, FL
MALCAH ZELDIS Reclining Woman Wine and Cigarettes gouache on paper Hand signed and dated bottom right. titled in pencil on paper verso. Matted to 13 X 1...
Category

1980s Folk Art Sita Devi Art

Materials

Paper, Gouache

Outsider Folk Art American Mid-Century Naive WW2 Self Taught WPA Depression Era
By Ralph Fasanella
Located in New York, NY
Outsider Folk Art American Mid-Century Naive WW2 Self Taught WPA Depression Era "Victory for Now" Ralph Fasanella (1914-_1997) "Victory and After,” gouache on paper. Signed, titled...
Category

1940s Outsider Art Sita Devi Art

Materials

Gouache, Paper

Malcah Zeldis Folk Art Gouache Painting Outsider Circus Trapeze Horse Acrobats
Located in Surfside, FL
MALCAH ZELDIS Circus, Trapeze Artists, Horse rider and Acrobats gouache on paper Hand signed and dated bottom right. titled in pencil on paper verso. Fr...
Category

1980s Folk Art Sita Devi Art

Materials

Paper, Gouache

Festividades Virgen de Guadalupe / Amate Paper Mexican Folk Art Painting Frame
By Alejandro Diaz Nava
Located in Jesus del Monte, MX
FREE SHIPPING TO WORLDWIDE! Artisan: Alejandro Diaz Nava Picture painting with Chinese ink and acrylics over Amate Paper. - Dimensions: 28" x 37" x 2" in or 72 x 93 x 4 cm - Weigh...
Category

2010s Folk Art Sita Devi Art

Materials

Paint, Paper, Watercolor

"The People People 4, " Acrylic Paint and Watercolor on Paper, 2006
Located in Chicago, IL
In this series entitled "The People People," Tracy Crump uses washes of grey, white and aqua to both conceal and reveal sensitively drawn figures. Each figure stands alone as an indi...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Outsider Art Sita Devi Art

Materials

Paper, Ink, Acrylic, Watercolor

The Wimbledon hoax! or Waterloo review!!!
By George Cruikshank
Located in Middletown, NY
A remarkable published sketch replete with primo pensiero; a window into Cruikshank's genius for sociopolitical caricature. Double-sided preparatory drawing in graphite with watercolor and ink on light-weight cream wove paper, 19 1/4 x 8 7/8 inches (487 x 224 mm), the full sheet. Signed boldly in brown ink, lower right image area. Uniform age tone, marginal wear including some minor areas of edge wear and two very minor associated losses at the lower left sheet edge. Colors appear to be slightly attenuated. There are three tabs of archival tape at the top sheet edge, verso; at right corner, left corner, and center. All condition points are entirely consistent with the age and nature of the paper and media. Multiple inscriptions in ink and graphite in Cruikshank's own hand. A maquette for the engraved image of the same title, used as the frontispiece to The Scourge, xii, published on June 18, 1816, by J. Johnson Cheapside, London. Impressions of the engraving for which this is a study may be found in the collections of the British Museum and the Yale University Library. Holiday-making 'cits' drive, ride, and walk (right to left) on a dusty road, in the direction of a sign-post (right) pointing 'To Wimbledon' (left); the opposite arm points (right) to Battersea. On the extreme left is the back of a coach, with outside passengers, one with a huge frothing tankard. A fat man trudges between two women, followed by a bloated dog. A 'cit' on a bucking horse follows. Next is a family party: a fat woman...
Category

Early 19th Century English School Sita Devi Art

Materials

Handmade Paper, Graphite, Watercolor

'Mending', African American Woman Folk Artist, Houston, Dallas, Blues Museum Oil
Located in Santa Cruz, CA
Signed lower center, in fabrics bowl, 'Ruth Mae McCrane' (American, 1929-2002) and dated upper center, in calendar, February 1989. Ruth Mae McCrane taught...
Category

1980s Folk Art Sita Devi Art

Materials

Paper, Gouache

'The People People 2, " Acrylic Paint on Canvas, 2006
Located in Chicago, IL
In this series entitled "The People People," Tracy Crump uses washes of grey, white and aqua to both conceal and reveal sensitively drawn figures. Each figure stands alone as an indi...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Outsider Art Sita Devi Art

Materials

Paper, Ink, Acrylic, Watercolor

Malcah Zeldis Folk Art Gouache Painting Sports Basketball Arena Coca Cola Sign
Located in Surfside, FL
MALCAH ZELDIS ''Basketball'', 1988, gouache on paper Hand signed and dated bottom right, titled in pencil on paper verso Malcah Zeldis (born Mildred ...
Category

1980s Folk Art Sita Devi Art

Materials

Paper, Gouache

Sita Devi art for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Sita Devi art available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Sita Devi in handmade paper, paint, paper and more. Not every interior allows for large Sita Devi art, so small editions measuring 29 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Geneviève Seillé, Thornton Dial, and Barbara Rachko. Sita Devi art prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $2,500 and tops out at $2,500, while the average work can sell for $2,500.

Recently Viewed

View All