The Transnational Field of Mithila Paintings ; The Transnational Field of Mithila Paintings: Multi-scalar Mediations in the 1970s

Abstract

International audience ; Mithila paintings (Bihar, India), being both local and global, can meet the condition of a transnational cultural field. This notion is developed in recent theories based on Bourdieu's conception of field, but generalized on an international or global level. The beginning of the commodification of Mithila paintings represented both a radical reconfiguration of a ritual practice and the inscription in a wider post-Independence project focused on economic development. Among other handicrafts and folk art items, Mithila paintings took place within a national-state-centered politico-economical field. In the 1970s main transcultural mediators as Véquaud, Moser-Schmitt or Owens come into play, fond on the paintings themselves and driven by countercultural Indophilia and/or applied anthropology. They were followed by an array of international visitors and art dealers. Both dissension and cooperation characterize the interaction between global agents constructing the Maithil transnational field. In the early 1970s a nexus existed between Indian government institutions and international mediators, generating the construction of a now transnational field especially focused on Mithila paintings. After 1976, this transnational cultural field grew more autonomous from the national-state-centered cultural, political, and economical fields, because of the disengagement of Indian government institutions, contributed to the emergence of a non-governmental internationalization of the Maithil art scene via structures like the MCAM (Master Craftsmen Association of Mithila), the EAF (Ethnic Arts Foundation and still later the Mithila Art Institute).