Chhath festival scene with anthropologist and camera

Baua Devi depicts here the Chhath festival, a four-day celebration distinct to the Bihar region. She captures the festival’s energy and intimacy; small details include a mother disciplining her child by pulling his ear.

The artist includes, at bottom right, the American anthropologist Raymond Owens (1934–2000) with his video camera, giving this painting a journalistic quality. Owens went to Mithila in 1976–1977 to study flood control and irrigation. Captivated by local paintings, Owens abandoned his research project and devoted the rest of his career to working with village artists, establishing the Ethnic Arts Foundation and leaving a bequest that helped establish the Mithila Arts Institute.

This painting furthermore explores the politics of vision: we see an artist’s depiction of an “outsider” documenting a regional festival. Baua Devi thus becomes an “inside” observer, rendering her familiar world for an audience whom she knows will be nonlocal, whether Indian or Western.