भज्जू श्याम / Bhajju Shyam
Bhajju Shyam was born in 1971 in the Gond tribal village of Patangarh, in the forests of central India.
The family sent their three children to school, but were too poor to put them all through the full term, so sixteen year old Bhajju left his village and came to the city of Bhopal in search of work. He found a job as a nightwatchman, until an uncle of his asked him to become his apprentice. The uncle happened to be Jangarh Singh Shyam, the most brilliant Gond artist of the time, and the one who brought Gond art from the walls of the village into the public eye. Bhajju started by filling in the fine patterns on Jangarh’s large canvases, but when his talent became apparent, Jangarh told him one day that the time had come to strike out on his own.
Bhajjus work began to be known throughout India, and his first international exposure came in 1998 when he was part of a group exhibition at the Musee des Arts Decoratifs in Paris. Since then his work has been shown in the UK, Germany, Holland and Russia. In 2001, he received a state award for Best Indigenous Artist.