My favourite painters are Rembrandt, Van Gogh, and Francis Bacon. Their paintings speak to me with the still, sad music of humanity, and their self-portraits are among their greatest works. Three more different men it would be hard to find, yet they share the kind of wisdom that is preoccupied with the self, not in any grandiose sense but in the manner of an inquiry after meaning. "Who am I?" --- there is no more profound question, and no question that elicits answers less satisfying. By putting oneself on a pedestal as the 'subject', it seems to me, a painter is rising to the highest challenge in all of art: to portray the self with all its faults, not in any vengeful or laudatory manner, but with the kind of wry affection that, all-seeing, is all-forgiving. The paintings of Tantrish Karadha are in this category. When I first saw them I was hit with the force of their inner revelation: this is what painting should be, I thought. They are uncompromisingly honest, raw and often harsh. They don't flinch at the horror of this world, yet they are extraordinarily tender, compassionate, filled with beauty and light. They are, I do not hesitate to say, great paintings. As such, they can speak for themselves. -- PWR