Horizontal painting of birds, fish, and snake

Photo: Scott Leen

Horizontal painting of birds, fish, and snake

The Khovar style within Adivasi painting is completed during spring, which coincides with the marriage season. Using a black-and-white color scheme and depicting nature themes, Khovar-style works were traditionally used to decorate marriage chambers and in matrimonial ceremonies. The techniques have been passed down from mothers to daughters, and they are related to the comb-cut practices seen in ceramic decorations.
Khovar black-and-white comb-cut sgraffito on paper
Painting: 22 1/2 x 30 1/2 in. (57.2 x 77.5 cm)
Frame: 33 3/4 x 41 3/4 in. (85.7 x 106 cm)
Gift of Joseph E. Reid and Batya Friedman
2022.30.12
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
Photo: Scott Leen
location
Now on view at the Asian Art Museum

Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.

Learn more about Equity at SAM

Supported by Microsoft logo