Horizontal painting of two peacocks and a striped animal
early 21st century
Using an Indigenous art technique known as Adivasi painting, the artist captures two peacocks and an unidentified striped animal. Adivasi paintings have two stylistic conventions: the limited earth-toned palette of the Sohrai style and the black-and-white Khovar style (not seen here). Female peacocks, more traditionally known as peahens, do not have the bold blue and green plumage of their male counterparts, so the golds and browns here reflect direct observation.
Sohrai colored in ochre acrylic (earth colors with commercial binders) on paper
Painting: 22 1/2 x 30 1/4 in. (57.2 x 76.8 cm)
Frame: 33 3/4 x 41 3/4 in. (85.7 x 106 cm)
Gift of Joseph E. Reid and Batya Friedman
2022.30.6
Provenance: The artist (Tribal Women Artists Cooperative, Hazaribagh, India); gifted and sold, via Bulu Iman (Founder, Tribal Women Artists Cooperative), to Joseph Reid (d. 2016), Winthrop, Washington, 2008; bequeathed to Batya Friedman, Seattle, Washington, 2016; to Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 2022
