Jivya Soma Mashe
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In the 1970s the Warli Painting ritual art took a radical turn. A man, Jivya Soma Mashe, born in Thane District, 1934, started to paint, not for any special ritual, but on an everyday basis.
His talent was soon noticed, first nationally (it was rewarded straight from the hand of India's senior political figures, such as Nehru and Indira Gandhi) then internationally (Magiciens de la terre, Centre Pompidou), bringing unprecedented recognition, which prompted many other young men to follow suit. They started to paint regularly for commercial purposes and so developed skills that won the women's admiration. These days, few women paint, and they seem happy to leave the task to the men.
Jivya Soma Mashe has an unusual background. He was abandoned by his family at an early age and refused to speak, communicating only by drawing pictures in the dust. This strange attitude soon won him a special status within his community.
The first government agents sent to preserve and protect Warli Painting were amazed by his artistic abilities. Jivya Soma Mashe shows a heightened sensitivity and unusually powerful imagination, which seem to be the legacy of his early introspective period. Paper and canvas freed him from the constraints of working on rough, sheer walls and he transformed the brusque look of the ephemeral paintings into a free, deeply sensitive style. His sensitivity emerges in every detail of his paintings. Strokes, lines and a mass of dots swarm and vibrate on the canvas, coming together to form clever compositions which reinforce the general impression of vibration. Details and the overall composition both contribute to a sense of life and movement. Recurring themes, from tribal life and Warli legends, are also a pretext for celebrating life and movement.
Jivya Soma Mashe sums up the deep feeling which animates the Warli people, saying « There are human beings, birds, animals, insects, and so on.. Everything moves, day and night. Life is movement ».
The Warli, adivasi, or the first people, speak to us of ancient times and evoke an ancestral culture. An in-depth study of this culture may give further insight into the cultural and religious foundations of modern India.
Recent exhibitions :
Richard Long, Jivya Soma Mashe, An Encounter, Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf, 2003 and Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea, Milano, 2004.
Jivya Soma Mashe and the Warli Tradition, Shippensburg University, USA 2006.
Nek Chand, Jivya Soma Mashe, Halle Saint Pierre, 2007.
