He is one of the leading collectors of contemporary art in India, but during the last three years Anupam Poddar and his mother Lekha have been sifting though works by tribal artists from remote corners of the country. With art historian and designer Annapurna Garimella, the two shortlisted a group of around 30 artists from over 170, and commissioned them to produce work that could feature alongside their existing collection in the exhibition Vernacular, In the Contemporary. The first in the series of the two-part exhibition opened at the Devi Art Foundation, Gurgaon recently. “We began discussions five years back. The aim was to build on the Poddars’ collection. Different forms of art were added, from more recent Gond art to Patachitra, Mysore paintings and paper-cuttings from Gujarat,” says Garimella, who has on display bronzes sculptures, Madhubani paintings, and recent work of artists like Anwar Chitrakar, Kapil Sharma, Neelkant Choudhury, Bibhu Maharana, Radha Sollur and Reena Umbersada among others.

Touted as the largest ever show of contemporary tribal art in India, the exhibition comes at a time when interest in the art form is just beginning to build in the country. Ironically, the poster-boy of the movement is Jangarh Singh Shyam, who initiated the globalisation of Indian tribal art over two decades back, before his death in 2001. “He formed the idiom, which is being taken forward by his family,” says Sunaina Anand, director, Art Alive Gallery. She is hosting the exhibition Jangarh Kalam: Contemporary Art of the Adivasis, featuring a collection of 24 paintings by four artists, including Jangarh’s son Mayank Shyam and nephew Bhajju Singh Shyam.

Usually confined to museum collections, tribal art is now finding place on the gallery walls as well. If last year Mumbai gallery Chemould and Pundole hosted a show of works by Jangarh, his wife Nankusi, son Mayank and daughter Japani, Pundole Art Gallery too held a show of Gond artists with the likes of Bhuribai. In May, in Delhi, London-based W+K Exp gallery had an exhibition of Gond sculpture, Dog Father, Fox Mother, their Daughter & Other Stories and in Kolkata’s CIMA Gallery tribal artists feature regularly in the mainstream shows.

Contributing to its success are the contemporary themes that have found representation with the intricate patterns, lyrical figures and vibrant colours pioneered by Jangarh. “The artists should be given creative independence. There is a tendency to follow market dictates,” says Garimella. Devi Art, for instance, has a range of rather experimental works —- from Varsha, where Kapil Sharma has translated Pichwai into digital format, to Reena Umbersada’s warli work Biblical Women and chitrakar artist Anwar Chitrakar’s graphic novel panels Are Maoists from Lalgarh or is Lalgarh the Maoists ?

The audience is not confined to India though. If the museum of Asian Art in San Francisco has a major collection of Madhubani artist Ganga Devi’s works, Paris-based art collector Hervé Perdriolle has been collecting Indian tribal art since 1996. In April, Jyotindra Jain curated the Other Masters of India: Contemporary Creations of the Adivasis at the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris, where the display ranged from Pithora mural paintings to architectural bas-reliefs by women artists from Chhattisgarh and exhibitions of Jangarh and Warli artist Jivya Soma Mashe; and a month later in London connoisseurs admired a 70 kg fibreglass elephant, Udata Hathi, painted by Gond artist Venkat Shyam for the Elephant Parade Mela.