Chitralakshana - Story of Indian Paintings

Author: Mulk Raj Anand
Publisher: National Book Trust
Year: 2004/2005
Language: English
Pages: 120
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8123741499

Description

These are the earliest paintings we have found. They have bold, strong lines and are in vivid ochre, red and yellow earth colours, or soot black. Or they are scratched on Stone. They show that our ancestors knew how to make colours and brushes.

They ground gerua, real chalk, crushed coloured stones, and boiled the powder in the fat of animals. Then they lifted the hot colour with long brushes made of straw and put it on the rock face. Some of these paintings have lasted for thousands of years.

Our prehistoric paintings are similar to those found in Matopos in Zimbabwe, Altamira in Spain, and Lascaux in France. It is likely, then, that the people of the Stone Age belonged to the same stock all over the world.

The simplicity, directness and vitality of primitive paintings has inspired some of the greatest modern artists of the world.