HAND PAINTING

At first glance, a Warli painting is a multitude of white, luminous, captivating spots. A shock!The first Indian anthropologists took this shock in the face when they discovered, in 1976, in the semi-darkness of the huts, the Warlis frescoes. These then turned out to be an important testimony to one of the last aboriginal populations discovered on our planet. The canvases painted today by these people, whose tradition dates back to the Paleolithic, are their “treasure boxes”.Descendants of the first inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent, the Warlis are the Aborigines. Their religion is animist, attributing a soul to things and beings. So they worship the rain, the pestle to crush the rice and a multitude of gods. They fear the ancestors, the ghosts, the demons from whom only their gods can protect them if they honor according to the rites led by the Bhagat (shaman). The Warlis are tribal Indians, in India we call the tribals “Adivasis”. There are around 60 million in India with diverse lifestyles or cultures depending on the region where they are.The Warlis number around 300,000, living in the state of Maharashtra in India. They live in small villages with cob houses, all similar, surrounded by an enclosure of branches. Only a few villages have a school, a small grocery store, a blacksmith shop or even a potter's workshop.Their traditional culture is rich. It has been passed down from generation to generation for millennia orally but also through frescoes that Warli women paint on the walls of their house, representing their mythology and scenes from everyday life. Since 1970 and the Indian government's desire to promote tribal art from all over India, men have joined women painters. A major turning point has been taken, the art of the Warlis has left the villages and is enchanting the whole world.For several years now, the Galerie Vent des Cimes in Grenoble, France has been introducing this art and culture through exhibitions of Warlis paintings on canvas. (Source: https://galerie-ventdescimes.com/aborigene-inde-art-warli/)