Lado Bai
Bhil Artist Community Icon PioneerBorn in 1954 in a small village of Badi Bawadi,Jhabua in Madhya Pradesh, Lado Bai is an early proponent of Bhil art and an inspiration to many. With more than fifty years of experience, Lado Bai started painting right from her childhood. After getting married at a young age, she started work as a construction labourer. It was here that her stone and wall murals were discovered by Jagdish Swaminathan, artist and co-founder of Bharat Bhavan . Under his guidance, Lado Bai started working on paper and canvas and started her artistic career.
Lado Bai’s work is characterized by the dominance of animism and nature based themes. Spirituality, local traditions and rituals also find their place in her larger than life compositions. Elements of community, environment and strong sense of individualism blend together in harmonious, bold shades, replete with thousands of dots - an essential element of Bhil paintings. However, unlike other paintings these dots play a special role in setting Lado Bai’s work apart i.e. these dots set in a wave like or zig-zag manner give the illusion of movement. In Lado bai’s paintings, figures, birds and animals seem to be flying, moving and being life-like on canvas!
Bold backgrounds, dark hues and white dots are regular features of Lado Bai’s artwork where while human figures take precedence, it does so with the support of themes close to the artist's heart. She often paints scenes from her village - rituals of Gatla, people travelling in bullock carts, local flora and fauna. Human figures take precedence in her art in scenes like hunting, village life and tribal rituals of the Bhil community. While she began her career by painting with natural colours and even charcoal she now paints with acrylics as well. Her charcoal works and practice remain only a few in number due to a lack of demand for the medium.
Lado Bai’s life and work remain an inspiration to all artists and give the message of staying true to their roots, never giving up in the face of adversities and maintaining their passion for what they love. A globally recognized icon, we are proud to have her as part of the Rooftop family. To have worked with her has been our honour.
