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Bhuri Bai
Bhuri Bai
	Bhuri Bai receiving the Padma Shri award from President Ram Nath Kovind
Born	Pitol Khurd
Nationality	Indian
Style	Bhil art
Awards	Padma Shri (2021)
Honours	Shikhar Samman, Madhya Pradesh

Bhuri Bai is an Indian Bhil artist. She was born in Pitol village, situated on the border of Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. Pitol is a village of Jhabua district in Madhya Pradesh. Bhuri Bai belongs to the community of Bhils, the largest tribal group of India. She has won many awards including the highest state honour accorded to artists by the Madhya Pradesh government, the Shikhar Samman.^[1] She was awarded India's fourth highest civilian award the Padma Shri in 2021.^[2]^[3]

Early life

Like her contemporary Jangarh Singh Shyam, Bhuri Bai was encouraged by J Swaminathan of Bhopal's Bharat Bhavan to start using acrylic colours and paper to make paintings. Before that, she, like other members of her community, would create art on the walls of her home. Bhuri was proficient in the making of Pithora paintings.

"In the village, we had to work so hard to extract colour from plants and clay. And here I was given so many shades of colour and a ready made brush!"^[4]

Besides painting, Bhuri Bai is also adept at the skill of hut-making, which she learnt from her mother Jhabbu Bai. She contributed to the construction of the Bhil hut in the Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya or Museum of Man in Bhopal, where she resides.^[5] In fact, when Bhuri Bai first arrived in Bhopal, she was engaged as a construction labourer at Bharat Bhavan—a job that earned her Rs 6 per day. It was here that she first met Jagdish Swaminathan, who spotted her talent and encouraged her to paint.^[6] Bhuri bai started her work alongside her community artist Lado Bai.^[7]

Style and themes

Bhil art is considered by some to be the oldest of India's tribal art forms. It bears similarity to the aboriginal art of Australia, especially in its use of multi-coloured dots as in-filling.^[8]^[9] Bhuri Bai was the first artist of her community to start painting on paper. Her typically colourful canvases usually depict mythological themes, bucolic scenes and man-animal interactions, although later works have incorporated modern elements like airplanes and cellphones.^[10]

Exhibitions

2017 Satrangi: Bheel Art, Ojas Art, Delhi ^[11]
2017 "Given Power: From Tradition to Contemporary", Blueprint21 + Exhibit320, Delhi
2010–2011 "Vernacular, in the Contemporary", Devi Art Foundation, Bangalore
2010 "Other Masters of India", Musée du Quai Branly, Paris
2009 "Now that the Trees Have Spoken", Pundole Gallery, Mumbai
2008 "Freedom", Centre for International Modern Art (CIMA), Kolkata

Awards and honours

Shikhar Samman, Government of Madhya Pradesh, 1986 ^[12]
Ahalya Samman, 1998
Rani Durgavati Award, 2009
Padma Shri Award, 2021

References

^ "Search Results: Bhuri Bai". Saffronart. Archived from the original on 11 June 2024. Retrieved 15 March 2019.
^ "Padma Awards 2021 announced". Press Information Bureau. Ministry of Home Affairs. 25 January 2021. Archived from the original on 14 October 2023. Retrieved 26 January 2021.
^ "Shinzo Abe, Tarun Gogoi, Ram Vilas Paswan among Padma Award winners: Complete list". The Times of India. 25 January 2021. Archived from the original on 14 October 2022. Retrieved 25 January 2021.
^ "Bhuri Bai of Pitol - Bhil Artists Of Madhya Pradesh". Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts. Ministry of Culture. Archived from the original on 27 September 2022. Retrieved 15 March 2019.
^ "Bhuri Bai Jher". Bhil Art. Archived from the original on 26 February 2024. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
^ Choudhury, Rabindra Nath (7 October 2017). "Woman gets Bhil tribal art world recognition". The Asian Age. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
^ "Lado Bai - Bhil Artists Of Madhya Pradesh". Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts. Ministry of Culture. Archived from the original on 25 September 2022. Retrieved 26 March 2019.
^ "Tribal tones". Deccan Herald. 18 October 2014. Archived from the original on 22 February 2024. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
^ "Gond art and its counterparts in India and Australia: Comparing the works of Bhil, Gond and Rathwa tribal artists – Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat". Tribal Cultural Heritage in India Foundation. 14 April 2015. Archived from the original on 2 March 2024. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
^ "Bhuri Bai". Sutra Gallery. Archived from the original on 11 June 2024. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
^ "Satrangi 2017: An exhibition Of Bheel Art". Ojas Art Gallery. 2017. Archived from the original on 25 February 2024. Retrieved 10 June 2024.
^ "शिखर सम्मान", विकिपीडिया (in Hindi), 3 February 2018, retrieved 15 March 2019