Exploited and failed by the very people who claimed to truly value his art, Gond artist Jangarh Singh Shyam ended his life in faraway Japan in 2001. Twenty-four years on, his style — Jangarh Kalam — remains as vibrant as it was when he first exploded onto the Indian art scene after being discovered by artist-scholar J Swaminathan in the 1980s.

Gond life — its milieu, rituals and customs — comes alive in ‘Jangarh Kalam from Patangarh Continued’, an exhibition by the Raza Foundation, in collaboration with Triveni Kala Sangam and Progressive Art Gallery (PAG). Curated by poet-critic Ashok Vajpeyi, it brings together 30 artworks by 18 artists from across Madhya Pradesh.

Many of these artists trace their stylistic lineage and artistic vocabulary to the late master: intricate patterns created with fine lines, dashes, dots and bright colours, alluding to flora, fauna, deities, and humans.

Harsh Vardhan Singh, director of PAG, says the exhibition was born out of a desire to both celebrate and critically engage with the evolution of Gond art. “We wanted to trace how this indigenous art form has grown and spotlight how contemporary practitioners are redefining it.” Over the years, some of these artists have developed highly-individualised vocabularies, but Harsh insists that these departures aren’t rejections of tradition; rather, they affirm its adaptability. “Jangarh Kalam still provides the foundational language,” he says.

Vajpeyi says that tribal artists today are “more aware and alert”. “They now constitute a sort of guild. They are no longer dismissed as mere craftspersons but are increasingly acknowledged as painters.”

And this, Harsh says, has led to the expansion of critical discourse around Gond art and a growing market for it — and for tribal art more broadly. Institutions in India and abroad are now acquiring these works as part of their contemporary collections, not just as ethnographic objects, he says. PAG’s acquisition of all works at this show is a step in the same direction.

It’s been two and a half decades since Jangarh’s tragic end, and while Gond art is flourishing, another icon from the community eludes… Vajpeyi says icons in any field are rare. “Jangarh singlehandedly created a new art, a ‘Kalam’. Young artists from the community are showing a high degree of sophistication, yet their art is still full of ancestral memories and motifs. They are creating an art which is away from the homocentric contemporary trends; an art where humans are seen only as part of a rich and vibrant nature.”