Jivya Soma Mashe born in 1934, "The Ant", natural pigment and acrylic on canvas, 136 x 176 cm (53,5 x 69,3 in).
Clic on these links to enlarge details : detail 1 - detail 2 - detail 3.
Artcurial Paris Contemporary Art Sale 1406 lot 44 catalogue 1.
Estimates : 5 000 - 7 000 €
Sold for 13 631 € - 21.589 $
"The Ant" is a major work of Jivya Soma Mashe, known as the M.F. Husain of Indian tribal art (Gulf News, Sept. 2007).
For this painting the artist creates for the first time, in this size and for main motif, a spiral made of several hundreds of ants. The spiral is an evocation of the Tarpana, the most important ritual dance of the Warli tribe, to which belongs Jivya Soma Mashe.
The countless number of details which characterize Jivya Soma Mashe's work in general and this painting in particular, make it a unique work, celebrating in this infinite repetition of pictorial gestures, similar to a visual mantra, to a graphic psalmody, a fantastic tribute to life and to movement, founder principles of Indian thought.
The art of Jivya Soma Mashe, as that of the aborigines of Australia, has this outstanding uniqueness of being at the same time resolutely primitive in its spirit and incredibly contemporary in its form.
Contemporary: which is of the same time, of the same epoch. Gandhi, born in 1869 and Proust, born in 1871, are contemporary to one an other as are Andy Warhol, Sayed Haider Raza and Jivya Soma Mashe.
India Today, April 7, 2008 Mashe’s inclusion in the Contemporaray Art Sale is another milestone, for folk/tribal artists have so far been ignored in auctions dealing with Indian art… read more
The Economic Times, April 8, 2008 “We can think that these Other like Jivya Soma Mashe could be more successful during the next few years and their estimates could be still very low compared to the best works by the most renowned native Australian artists”... read more