PAINTINGS
MADHUBANI PAINTINGS
23 May 2020
THE ETHNIC ARTS FOUNDATION
(Information from their website mithilapaintings-eaf.org)
In 1977, while conducting research in Madhubani, the American
anthropologist, Raymond Owens, was stunned by the beauty of some of the
paintings on paper. Aware that commercial dealers were grossly
underpaying the artists for mass produced paintings he encouraged
artists to take their time, do paintings they truly cared about, and
offered to buy them for 5 to 10 times the dealers' prices. When Owens
returned to the US he showed the paintings to fellow anthropologist,
David Szanton, who was equally entranced by them.
Together they agreed that when Owens returned to India he would continue
to purchase the best paintings he could find for well over the dealers'
prices, bring them to the US, mount exhibitions and sales, and return
the profits to the painters, a second payment to encourage them to do
their best work. Then in 1980, with several colleagues they established
the Ethnic Arts Foundation (EAF), a non-profit 501(c)3 organization
dedicated to sustaining the Mithila painting tradition, and most
immediately, to hold the funds from sales until Owens could redistribute
them to the artists on his next trip to India.
After numerous trips to Madhubani, Owens died in 2000, but this system
continues today. Over the years the EAF has purchased some 1800
paintings from more than 150 artists. It has organized numerous (even
prize winning) exhibitions and sales in the US, South Africa, India, and
even Iceland, in the process creating an international audience and
market for the artists. It has sold some 900 paintings to individuals,
collectors, and museums, and returned the profits - tens of thousands of
dollars in rupees - to the painters whose paintings had sold.
In the early 1980s, Owens also made two documentary films, "Five
Painters" and the award winning "Munni," about the lives of the
painters, and available from the University of Wisconsin South Asia Film
Center. And in 2000, it obtained and subsidized large quantities of
hand-made acid-free paper for the paintings.
During a two-week visit to the region by members of the EAF in 2001/02,
it became obvious that the continuation of the painting tradition was
threatened by a growing generation gap. A number of middle aged and
elderly painters were still active. However, most of the younger
generation had new interests - computers, commerce, and urban employment
- and had lost all interest in traditional activities like painting.
However, intensive discussions with the artists suggested that a serious
art school in Madhubani might reignite interest and train a new
generation of young Mithila painters. With that in mind, and drawing on a
small bequest left by Owens, the EAF established a free Mithila Art
Institute (MIA) in Madhubani in 2003 to help develop the next generation
of Mithila painters.
Indian Heritage's Pinterest Collection of Madhubani
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