Jhargram, Oct. 26 -- Although celebrated painter Jogen Chowdhury never visited Jhargram's Khwab Gaon, the hand-drawn logo he created for the tribal art initiative in 2018 remains its identity, reflecting his belief that great art could thrive beyond galleries and city studios.
With Chowdhury's passing, artists and cultural workers associated with Khwab Gaon - the "Village of Dreams" - remember a mentor who quietly nurtured their work from Kolkata, encouraging rural artists, helping mobilise funds and lending his name to an experiment that transformed a forest village into a living canvas.
Deep inside the forests of Jhargram, Lalbazar is home to the Lodha-Shabar community. The village was renamed Khwab Gaon by noted litterateur Shivaji Ban...