Balu Mashe

Balu Mashe, "Sacred Horse", 2004, acrylique et bouse de vache sur toile, 113x143 cm

Balu est l’un des fils de Jivya Soma Mashe, le légendaire peintre Warli. Balu Mashe a eu, comme son père, l’occasion de participer à de nombreuses expositions en Inde et à l’étranger, tout particulièrement au Japon. Le Mithila Museum situé à Niigata est principalement dédié aux peintures des femmes du Mithila, dans le district de Madhubani proche de la frontière du Népal, mais accueille aussi régulièrement des artistes de la tribu Warli dont est issu Balu Mashe. Parmi ces nombreux artistes à séjourner et à travailler régulièrement au Japon, Balu est le seul à manifester une influence japonisante à travers nombre de ces œuvres. Naturellement porté vers une épure, comme en témoigne certaines de ses œuvres reproduites en 1988 dans le livre Yashodhara Dalmia, "The Painted World of the Warlis", Balu Mashe semble encore accentué cette esthétique simplifiée allant à l’essentiel de la forme.

Eminent Warli painter Jivya Soma Mashe and his son Balu are currently exhibited their works in Gallery Chemould, Jehangir Art Gallery in Mumbai. It was Gallery Chemould which put Warli Paintings on the art scene of Bombay. The late Bhaskar Kulkarni discovered this folk art-form and cultivated Jivya Soma Mashe, then an over-seer of grass lands, as a master craftsman. Jivya's first exhibition at the gallery was in 1975. In 1985 Chemould Publications produced the book, The Warlis: Tribal Paintings & Legends which made Jivya's work known internationally. His first exhibition abroad was in Palais de Menton, France in 1976. Subsequently he showed at Pompidou Centre, Paris in 1989. More recently Jivya has had a two person show with Richard Long in Germany & Italia in 2003 and 2004 respectively. The exhibition ends on July 28, 2007.
There is a farewell event which Kekoo, Khorshed and Shireen Gandhy has organised to bid the artists good-bye before the opening of the new gallery at Chemould Prescott Road.


Balu Mashe, acrylic on board, Mithila Museum, Japan


Balu Mashe, acrylic and cowdung on canvas, 120x150 cm, 2003


Balu Mashe, acrylic and cowdung on canvas, 150x120 cm, 2001


Balu, Sadashiv et Jivya Soma Mashe, photo Hervé Perdriolle, India 1998


Balu Mashe, acrylic on paper, 1998


Balu Mashe, acrylic and cowdung on canvas, 1998



Bibliographie


"The Painted World of the Warlis", by Yashodhara Dalmia. Lalit Kala Akademi, 1988, New Delhi.


"The Warlis Tribal Paintings and Legends" Chemould publications and arts, Mumbay.