Women and art are synonymous in many ways. Yet, women artists are a rarity in our state — a region known for the glorious temple art that looks beautiful by the presence of murals on women. From making rice paste patterns on floor to decorating the house, women are generally known for their sense of aesthetics. But I personally feel there are layers of social constraints and behavioural patterns that pull Odia women away from contemporary art.
An inborn inclination towards art is definitely visible in the adolescent stage of women and we see many girls from all over the state enrolling at the art colleges. For instance, at the BK College of Arts and Crafts in Bhubaneswar, roughly there are at least 20 girls who enrol every year in different departments of fine art. So in its more than 25 years of journey, our state should have had produced at least 500 women artists from only one college. Sadly, we see only a dozen of practising Odia women artists.
In the past too, we had known of Ila Panda who had trained from Santiniketan. Now, among the seniors, only a few names such as Chitra Patnaik and Shailabala Nayak continue in the contemporary scene.
The dismal numbers tell a sad story of the lack of patronage for art in general and women in particular. Our social mindset pushes our women from being creative to becoming conservative. Often visitors to the gallery select artwork to buy but at the very last moment they back out saying that that their wives will decide if they could buy the painting or not.
Or, if a woman is accompanying the visitor, most often she declines to buy artwork straightaway declaring that it is a waste of money. A woman is often responsible for maintaining the budget of the house and thus training them to save money is fine but at the cost of aesthetics is not only surprising, but also discouraging.
We see Odia women preferring to finish household chores and taking a nap or getting involved in sharing gossip with neighbours. Unlike them, in other cities, women utilise time to learn new art forms or get trained to acquire new qualifications. It is our socio-cultural lifestyle that pulls back the aspiration of our women.
It is good to see Odia women in other fields doing very well in their profession, but many are yet to follow their dreams.
In case of artists for example, post-marriage adjustments take a heavy toll on the creative aspirations of the women. Since painters do not earn a monthly salary, the profession is often considered not important. Just like adage of charity begins at home, patronage for art must begin in the family first. The husband and in-laws need to appreciate the intellect in the women that makes her think imagine and express on the canvas with colours. Family members must give her the freedom to choose or rather create artistic items to decorate the house. She must be given a free hand while making these decisions.
Apart from family, the government’s support initiative and corporate social responsibility are an important factors that could identify women artist and boost them to pick up the paintbrush once more or reach new heights if they have not given up already.
There are hardly a couple of women art camps and exhibition that are held annually. While a widely-known steel company hosts a camp for women once a year, the Rashtriya Lalit Kala Akademi and Odisha Lalit Kala Akademi organise a camp each in the state.
However, this can be hardly considered enough. Until there are regular initiatives, rewards and gestures of appreciation, neither will the artist believe in herself nor will the family.
The problems such as lack of galleries in the state, dearth of art collectors due to lack awareness in the Odisha market regarding the worth of artwork, only add to the woes of women artists.
It is time that women artistes take small steps to bail out their artist counterpart. Odissi dancers, film actors and other performing artistes, who are well-established, need to come to the rescue of women painters and sculptors and help them get the right exposure.
It is surprising that Odissi dance is growing in popularity everyday whereas art that needs extreme creativity and technical expertise are immensely ignored in our state.
The situation can be changed only when women from all spheres of life join hands to promote art in all forms be it by grooming the children to appreciate art or supporting the better half to collect pieces of art or even taking up the brush and canvas and filling it with colours of beauty and love, Odia women need to value their inborn and inherent inclination towards art.
