Buddha Art – High on popularity

While Buddha paintings as art works and commercial home décor are gaining in popularity, connoisseurs look forward to more creativity

Arundhuti Banerjee

It has become trend for painters and households to choose Buddha as subject of painting or home décor. The first impression one can get from Buddha is peace. There is no doubt about the fact that Buddha stands for peace and spirituality. Though Buddha’s philosophy of life has been established as a religious practice, Buddhism; interestingly common people do not tend to relate Buddha with the religious side but with the essence of the religion - ‘expression of peace’.

“When you look at a painting of Lord Shiva, it represents Hindu religion. But people always relate with the peace and spirituality when they see a closed or half opened eyes of Buddha’s face. So it has crossed the religious barriers and has become subject of commercial art,” said Avani Rao, the curator and art critic of Icon Art Gallery. “Any art form should be interpreted from the expression of the art. So, I would like to consider all those commercially created items like a calendar where they have used Buddha as subject or illustration and not as paintings.”

Artist Sanjay Ashtaputra also thinks the subject of Buddha has commercial value. “People prefer to buy Buddha because when they stand in front of a Buddha painting or wall hanging, they get positive vibes and calmness from the close eyes of Buddha. And it has a Feng Shui value.”

According to Feng Shui, Buddha painting brings happiness at home and office. These paintings are used to inspire Zen meditation and Zen vision. It also appears like a third eye of enlightenment that guides people to the path of Nirvana. The Feng Shui element of fire is full of Yang energy which intensifies good fortune and brings fame and respect, which exists in Buddha painting.

But the problem with Buddha paintings is the limited work that is happening. Apart from using various colours and textures, artists connoisseurs are not getting any experimental works as it has become the repetition of two expression of Buddha face, either closed eyes or half closed eyes. “I do not like modern artists’ paintings on Buddha as they are not showing enough creativity and there is a repetition,” said Sanjay.

“Well, I think there are some painters who are making difference by doing some experimental Buddha art works from young groups,” said Avani who curated a group exhibition on Buddha paintings and art works. “In maximum of those paintings, participating artists had used some sign to portray Buddha, instead of using close eyed face of Buddha. As I was talking about the secular side of Buddha art, some of the participants were Christian,” she concluded.