For a long time it has been my dream that I should have an independent website featuring the Sohrai and Khovar painting and presenting it with its background in the early past and the middle and the present, so that people interested in the art might be able to get a glimpse of what we have done and are doing. In the course of this, the idea came to make a website for sale of paintings and it became eminently possible to highlight the art through the story of its journey and at the same time be able to present the paintings in the economic value which has been created by the series of exhibitions around the world. This kind of website is good for two reasons, one that it can familiarize people with the actual perspective of the art in its natural and unpolished reality, and secondly that it might be able to show as in international mural residencies the scale to which finesse may be brought to the naieve and simple village art. The added advantage of the project has been that a document is created for posterity and becomes a historical record in the digital space from where it can be used for the purposes of illustrating the journey of the history of the project- Khovar and Sohrai paintings of Hazaribagh descended from the rockart tradition of the Damodar valley in Jharkhand. In my opinion this is a unique project and a unique opportunity for those in search of excellence to see and analyse it. It would not be surprising therefore that in the process of appreciation several interested admirers may find paintings which they would like to buy and put up in their homes and offices.
What constitutes an artwork which is worthy of calling top drawer? In art there is no guide book and the matter is left entirely to the viewer. Using my prerogative as a Curator I am here presenting works of which I feel to be the highest quality without assigning any particular reasons and I trust my judgement in the matter and I hope my audience will agree with me. In the ultimate analysis the decision rests with the person who pays the money.
Realizing that most of the art in this website is highly eclectic and therefore quite high priced, therefore I felt it would be pragmatic a set of paintings which would focus at an artistic excellence which while it was original could be priced lower. In order to achieve the seemingly impossible we discussed the matter with our artists and came up with a set of formats which would be standardized and lend themselves to the ambience of modern décor and thus fulfil the purpose of creating highly valuable artworks which could be priced lower. Obviously this was to balance excellence with practicality, and after having experimented with curating a very large number of paintings I have selected from the body of this work paintings which I believe merit high distinction but can be priced much lower than work of seemingly the same quality. See: New Arrivals
Bulu Imam
Director, TWAC
11th April, 2022