Gond

The Gond people are one of the largest Adivasi communities in India, spread across Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, and Telangana. Their art tradition dates back centuries, originally practised as wall paintings and floor decorations for ritual and ceremonial purposes. The belief underlying Gond art is that viewing a good image brings good luck — and creating art is itself an act of devotion.

In the late 1980s, Jangarh Singh Shyam, a young Gond artist from Patangarh village, was invited to create murals at the Bharat Bhavan arts centre in Bhopal. His work brought Gond painting from village walls to canvas and paper, and from Patangarh to international galleries. Jangarh is credited with developing the modern idiom of Gond painting that is recognised today.

Today, Gond painting is practised by a new generation of artists — many of them Jangarh's descendants and students — who have expanded its visual vocabulary while maintaining its essential character. The art has been exhibited across the world and is held in major international collections.

Gond paintings are characterised by their distinctive filling technique: rather than solid colour, each element — an animal, a tree, a figure — is filled with intricate patterns of dots, dashes, lines, and geometric shapes that give the surface a vibrant, textured quality. This technique is both visually distinctive and deeply meaningful, representing the Gond belief that all life is interconnected.

Contemporary Gond paintings are typically created on paper or canvas using acrylic or natural paints. Compositions often feature fantastical animals — fish, birds, tigers, elephants — in dynamic, swirling arrangements that draw the eye in multiple directions simultaneously.