The recent six-day residential workshop that was held in Netarhat on tribal and folk art has created something of lasting value, a coffee table book of paintings reflecting the rich and diverse tribal and folk heritage of the country.
The 67-page richly mounted coffee table book, Tribal and Folk paintings of India, was released on Saturday afternoon at Audrey House.
State chief secretary D.K. Tiwari along with welfare department secretary Himani Pande released the book after inaugurating a two-day art exhibition at the same venue. Its price will be decided shortly.
Deputy director of the information and public relations department, Avinash Kumar, said the book was a compilation of paintings made during the six-day workshop from February 10 at Netarhat.
“The workshop, attended by 72 tribal and folk artists from across the country, was organised by the Dr Ram Dayal Munda Tribal Welfare Research Institute of Ranchi, popularly known as Tribal Research Institute (TRI), jointly with the state tourism directorate and Jharkhand Tourism Development Corporation,” Avinash Kumar said.
The director of Dr Ram Dayal Munda Tribal Welfare Research Institute, Ranendra Kumar, said that the coffee table book not only had paintings of various artists who took part in the workshop, but also information about the artists, their background and the context of their art forms.
“This book will be an invaluable reference point for art lovers,” Ranendra Kumar said.
The paintings reproduced in the book include Mandwa Munda, Jererd, Pyatkar, Sohrai and Khowar of Jharkhand, Jadupatua and Patachitra of Bengal, Saura of Odisha, and Patachitra, palm leaf carvings and Vaishnav miniatures of Assam.
Apart from this, the book also included Thangka paintings of Ladakh, Kangra and Pahari of Himachal Pradesh, Mithila and Madhubani of Bihar, Warli of Maharashtra, Mandana, Phad and Pichwai of Rajasthan, Rogan, Phoria and Mata-ni-Pachedi of Gujarat, Chittara of Karnataka, Cheriyal scrolls of Telangana, Kalamkari of Andhra Pradesh and mural art of Kerala.
