Warli
White figures on earth-brown ground, built from circles, triangles and lines.
Warli painting is the ritual art of the Warli people of the Sahyadri hills, made by married women on the mud walls of the home for weddings and harvests. Its vocabulary is austere: a human is two triangles meeting at a point, a head is a circle, and whole villages — dancing, farming, hunting, marrying — are built from those parts. The spiral tarpa dance, a line of figures winding around a musician, is its signature composition.
What to look for
- White pigment on a red-brown or ochre ground
- Figures as paired triangles with circular heads
- Crowds and processions rather than single subjects
- The spiral tarpa dance as a recurring motif
How it is made
Rice paste applied with a chewed bamboo stick, on a ground of cow dung and red earth. Contemporary works use acrylic on canvas or paper while keeping the two-colour restraint.
Before you buy
Restraint is the test. Warli that adds shading, extra colour or perspective has usually been adjusted for export; the tradition's power is in what it leaves out.
Other living traditions