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Untitled I

Photo: Scott Leen

Untitled I

1977-78

Jivya Soma Mashe

Indian, 1934 - 2018

Warli is the name of the indigenous community located in the Thane district, which is a part of Western India about ninety miles from Mumbai. Prior to the 1970s, women painted on the mud walls of their homes. Artists then switched from wall decorations to paper under the guidance of the All India Handicrafts Board. In 1971, the Board’s director sent artist Bhaskar Kulkarni to visit the Warlis. Kulharni took a few artists to see the advances made by other communities at the Crafts Museum in Delhi. For example, the Board had already helped artists of the Mithila region to switch from wall painting to paper.



The subject matter of Warli paintings remained consistent throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Artists such as Jivya Soma Mashe continued to paint the social life of the Warli community.
Rice powder mixed with white paint on cow dung (mixed with adhesive-coated burlap)
19 1/2 x 26 in. (49.5 x 66 cm)
Gift of Beth Elpern Burrows
2021.37.1
Provenance: [Gallery Chemould, Mumbai, India]; purchased from gallery by Beth Burrows, Edmonds, Washington, 1978; to Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 2021
Photo: Scott Leen
location
Not currently on view

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.

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