Important Notice

Untitled
Signed in Devnagari (lower right)
Cow dung and acrylic on cloth
24 x 37.25 in (61 x 94.8 cm)


PROVENANCE:
Private Collection, New Delhi

Jivya Soma Mashe is one of most well known practitioners of Warli art, "who has been able to make a break with his tradition and yet carry it forward." (Yashodhara Dalmia, The Painted World of the Warlis: Art and Ritual of the Warli Tribes of Maharashtra, New Delhi: Lalit Kala Academy, p. 221) The ephemeral nature of wall art was transformed into a more permanent personal style when Mashe began painting on canvas and paper. Mashe has received much international acclaim both in India, and internationally. In 1974, he met Bhaskar Kulkarni, an artist who brought his art to the attention of galleries in Mumbai. Mashe's first exhibition was hosted by Gallery Chemould at Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai, in 1975, who published the book The Warlis: Tribal Paintings & Legends a decade later. In 1989, along with Gond artist Jangarh Singh Shyam, he represented India at the show Magicians of the Earth at the Centre Pompidou inParis. Mashe and Shyam were also featured at the Musee du quai Branly in Paris in 2010, at the Other Masters of India exhibition curated by Jyotinder Jain.

WARLI PAINTING

Warli art comes from the tribes of the Thane district of Maharashtra, which lies along the foothills of the Sahyadri mountains. The exuberant, swirling geometric patterns of Warli art are countered by the austere white paint with which they adorn brown mud walls. Unlike much Indian folk art, which isrooted in myth and religion, Warli art traditionally depicts social functions, the marriage ceremony in particular. It is a way of inter and intra-personal communication, recording events and transmitting local stories pictorially, without use of the written word.

Warli figuration is based on geometric forms, such as the circle taken from the moon and sun, the triangle simplified from mountains and trees, and the square, which has no natural equivalent and is therefore used to symbolisesacred enclosures. Human bodies are represented by two triangles, which are animated by an extraordinary quality of vibrancy. The composition of a scene in Warli art is based on providing a clear coherence and order while expressing the belief that life is in constant and cyclical movement. There is no linear timeline for events. The trees, crops, abodes, and humans who inhabit and animate the world, are in harmony with the cosmos which provides a divine order.

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