Two great art forms from Jharkhand: Sohrai and Khovar!

Two great art forms from Jharkhand: Sohrai and Khovar!

Traditionally, tribals artists and householders in Jharkhand have been using natural colours to make Sohrai and Khovar paintings on walls, caves but in recent times they have taken to paper. This is very much like the famous Madhubani paintings of Bihar which are now found on fabrics and ceramics. Sohrai form is made during the festive season of Diwali and harvest times while khovar [Kohbar?] is made during weddings.

Avoiding synthetic colours, Sohrai artists use red, black, yellow and white soils, cow dung, coal and powdered leaves to make colours. They never use artificial colours. Also, instead of brushes the artists use brooms and combs to draw and paint.

Both these art forms would have met with extinction if people like the well-known environmentalist and eminent curator of tribal art Bulu Imam had not intervened and made them known to the wider world. An artists who now makes a living as a painter explains the simple economics – ‘I make paintings of different animals which are bought by Imam for Rs 500 each. He sends my work to exhibitions.’ The artists admits she paints around two works of art a day and is happy to earn Rs 1,000 almost everyday as a matter of course.

From a neglected form to recognition – Khovar and Sohrai have trevelled a long way. They are now made on high quality handmade art paper and may be seen at exhibition venues or at select outlets in very limited numbers. The art forms are not mass produced and retain their authenticity to a great extent. To ensure this each painting exported from the Cooperative is personally curated by Bulu Imam. In March 2000 five tribal artists worked on site for one month at the Djamu Gallery of the Australian Museum in Sydney to create artworks. 2000-2001 also saw exhibitions of the artworks in Cymroza Gallery, Bombay, Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London, Crafts Victoria, Melbourne, Bellevue Gallery, Berlin, Gallery Therese Dion, Montreal.

In September 2003 the art was exhibited in the Boras Kunstmuseum, Sweden, and exhibited during the Asia-Pacific-Weeks at the Heinrich Boell Foundation in Berlin and the Volkerkunde Museum, Heidelberg. In 2004 the art has been exhibited at Ludwigsberg in southern Germany, and at the State Museum of Ethnography (Volkerkunde), Dresden.

Today Khovar and Sohrai art forms have entered Museums and National Galleries in Australia and other countries, and have turned up in the syllabus in art departments around the world, including India. Artists and their works have been compared with Picasso and Matisse, and the work of Juliet has even been compared to that of Miro by Dr.Kapila Vatsyayan. The Khovar and Sohrai tribal art being brought to paper is one of the great developments of art in modern times. Sanskriti is the exclusive centre for this art.

[courtesy: Sanskriti - Hazaribagh, The Telegraph]