Painting depicting Ancient Art
The painting titled Ancient Art by child artist Aanya Mahajan from Chandigarh, Punjab, received an Honourable Mention in Khula Aasmaan international online art competition for January to march 2022. Aanya has used pen & ink on A4 size paper to do this painting. Aanya says that her painting shows early humans hunting for food. It also shows the use of tools and weapons such as bow and arrow by humans in ancient times to gather food for their survival.
Listen to child artist Aanya Mahajan talk about this painting
Ancient or prehistoric art
Early humans from ancient or prehistoric civilisations engaged in creating art despite being in hostile conditions and with little availability of any kind of materials to express their art forms. While there is evidence of these artistic creations in different parts of the world dating back to times earlier than 50,000 B.C., the best known site for such ancient art or prehistoric art forms in India is the rock shelters at Bhimbetka. In fact, Bhimbetka is now a UNESCO world heritage site. The most common subjects that the early artists chose to depict include animals, birds, hunting for food, tools and weapons such as bows and arrow, human figures and other similar topics. The artists used colours extracted from natural sources such as plants, flowers and minerals to create these artworks. They often used wall surfaces of the caves or rocks in the rock shelters for their paintings.
Some of the Bhimbetka rock shelters feature prehistoric cave paintings and the earliest are about 30,000 years old. These cave paintings show themes such as animals, early evidence of dance and hunting. The Bhimbetka site has the oldest known rock art in the Indian subcontinent, as well as is one of the largest prehistoric complexes. Read this article to know more about Bhimbetka.
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