In Village of Painters, Frank J. Korom introduces readers to the Patua narrative scroll painters from the village of Naya in West Bengal. Anchored in fieldwork and based upon a 2007 exhibition, Village of Painters shows how the Patua repertoire continues a tradition of innovation in storytelling, image-making, and song that provides an alternative modernity through the localization of global influences. Korom begins by introducing the reader to the Patuas through his personal story of arrival in Naya. The reader enters the village with him, and follows his footsteps to meet the village and the Patuas as Korom meets them, from his first friend and future consultant to entire families of artists. After encountering images of September 11, 2001, he begins to question how the Patuas are able to incorporate contemporary events into a centuries-old repertoire. In particular, Korom questions how these artisans have transitioned to cash economies, participated in modernity, and shifted a local tradition into global discourse.
In order to address these questions, Korom dedicates a large part of the book to the history and context of the Patua artisans. This begins with a description of the narrative scrolls’ roots, with a focus on how vital change is to keeping the tradition relevant and living. Starting with their use in communication over long distances, the pat images became more diverse to meet the needs of a demanding and increasingly distracted audience. Korom provides the artists’ own explanations of this dynamic, including multiple histories of the Patua sub-caste, to demonstrate again the importance of recognizing the continual adaptation of these narratives to different contexts. Throughout, Korom finds that the Patuas have historically resisted social categories, especially in terms of religion, where they have oscillated between Islam and Buddhism in pursuit of patrons and social equality. By further detailing the Patua relationship with Naya’s environment, history, and the arrival of technology such as radio and TV, Korom emphasizes how changing sets of influences have changed the way that the Patua tell stories. In the face of old and new social problems, including rising unemployment and literacy problems, the Patuas have used and continue to use their stories to mediate everyday life, often attempting to calm tensions within their communities.
In the second chapter, Village of Painters turns to the material scrolls, describing how the contemporary art form has evolved over time. Beginning with the physical composition of the scroll paper itself, this chapter addresses several of the choices that these artists make when designing a pat. Korom thus walks the reader through the production of a narrative scroll, from the creation of the paints to the painting itself, and from the composition of the story to the backing holding it all together. In identifying past processes and alternative methods, these descriptions create a strong sense of the unique yet related quality of Naya’s scrolls. In order to address the other key elements of the scrolls, Korom describes two examples of the singing and telling of tales. He demonstrates how narrative singers mediated issues relevant to their particular time and place through a combination of image, sound, and story. Although dependent on patronage in the past, these examples show how the Patua have voiced politically active agendas through storytelling prior to and in the face of modernity. Korom points out that even among the Patua of Naya, different artists voice different interpretations, with the specific example of men’s and women’s different interpretations of women characters.
Having established the continually changing repertoire and form of these painted and sung narratives, Korom turns to the confrontation with modernity, where he again highlights the Patua resilience through their interpretation of modernity. As patronage has decreased, the Patua have had to entice new audiences and turn to new venues for a living, leading to a market in Patua scrolls as the pat become commodified through tourism. With the tendency to forget the songs since they lead to little profit, continuity of the repertoire has thus become a greater concern for the Patua. Korom demonstrates the potential for resistance based upon the contested nature of art in the encounter between material culture and globalization. Through a greater diversity of stories to tell and economic empowerment based upon a larger market, the Patua have continued to struggle for an alternative modernity. Korom argues that, based in a passion for the craft and the necessity of storytelling for their survival, the Patua have worked to create a modernity that is neither indigenous nor foreign, but a hybrid of marketing and local agency. While many artists still tell the old stories, each artist recontextualizes the stories to make each one relevant to everyday, modern life.
Overall, Village of Painters admirably grounds a reflection on the problem of a localized, transnational tradition in the voices of the artists. Beginning with “The Patua’s Creed” and ending with “A Patua’s Plea,” Korom repeatedly provides the artists’ understandings of the topics at hand, creating a strong sense of both Naya itself and how these problems work out on the local level. After the final chapter, where Korom has fully dealt with the questions raised in the introduction, Village of Painters includes a series of plates selected from multiple topics and divided into sacred and profane. However, despite earlier discussion of the multiple styles and differences in composition, much of the variation among these plates remains generally un-discussed. While the focus throughout tends toward the contextualization and specific agendas involved in the creation of these painted scrolls, the treatment of these images tends to set aside that same specificity. Given the succinct nature of this volume, though, Korom strongly links the stories, images, and songs of the Patua in Naya to the issues of modernity, presenting one community’s alternative to the problems of globalization.
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[Review length: 960 words • Review posted on February 16, 2009]