Jamini Roy
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Jamini Roy | |
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Born | |
Died | 24 April 1972 | (aged 85)
Nationality | Indian |
Alma mater | Government College of Art,Kolkata |
Known for | Painting |
Movement | Lalit Kala Akademi |
Awards | Padma Bhushan(1954) |
Jamini Roy(11 April 1887 – 24 April 1972) was an Indian painter. He was honoured by the Government of India the award ofPadma Bhushanin 1954.[1]He remains one of the most famous pupils ofAbanindranath Tagore,another praised Indian artist and instructor.[2]Roy's highly simplified, flattened-out style, and reminiscent of European modern art was influenced by the “bazaar” paintings sold at Indian temples as talismans.[3]
Early life and background
[edit]Jamini Roy was born on 11 April 1887 into a moderately prosperousKayasthafamily of land-owners inBeliatorevillage of theBankura district,West Bengal.[4]He was raised in an average middle-class, art loving household which ultimately influenced his future decisions.[5]
When he was sixteen he was sent to study at theGovernment College of Art, Kolkata.[4]Abanindranath Tagore,the founder ofBengal schoolwas vice-principal at the institution.[6]He was taught to paint in the prevailing academic tradition drawing Classical nudes and painting in oils and in 1908 he received his Diploma in Fine Art.
However, the principal E.B. Havell's influence, and Rabindranath Tagore's decisive lecture brought him to a realization that he needed to draw inspiration, not from Western traditions, but from his own culture, and so he looked to the living folk and tribal art for inspiration.[7]He was most influenced by theKalighat Pat(Kalighat painting), which was a style of art with bold sweeping brush-strokes.[8]He moved away from his earlier impressionist landscapes and portraits and between 1921 and 1924 began his first period of experimentation with the Santhal dance as his starting point. Jamini Roy had 4 sons and 1 daughter.
Style
[edit]![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7a/Boating_%286124606361%29.jpg/260px-Boating_%286124606361%29.jpg)
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Roy began his career as a commissioned portrait painter. Somewhat abruptly in the early 1920s, he gave up commissioned portrait painting in an effort to discover his own.[9]
Roy changed style from his academic Western training and featured a new style based on Bengali folk traditions.[10]
Roy is also described as an art machine because he produced 20,000 paintings in his lifetime which is about 10 paintings daily but made sure his artistic aims remained the same.[11]He always targeted to the ordinary middle class as the upholder of art however he was thronged by the rich. Keeping his respect to the middle class reflected on his critical views; he believed that ordinary people were more important than governments because they were the voice of his art.[12]
His underlying quest was threefold: to capture the essence of simplicity embodied in the life of the folk people; to make art accessible to a wider section of people; and to give Indian art its own identity.
He also used indigenous materials like lamp black, organic tempera, earth and mineral pigments to paint.[13]
Jamini Roy's paintings were put on exhibition for the first time in the British India Street of Calcutta (Kolkata) in 1938. During the 1940s, his popularity touched new highs, with the Bengali middle class and the European community becoming his main clientele. In 1946, his work was exhibited inLondonand in 1953, inNew York.He was awarded thePadma Bhushanin 1954. His work has been exhibited extensively in international exhibitions and can be found in many private and public collections such as theVictoria and Albert Museum,London.He spent most of his life living and working in Calcutta. Initially he experimented with Kalighat paintings but found that it has ceased to be strictly a "patua"and went to learn from village patuas. Consequently, his techniques as well as subject matter was influenced by traditional art of Bengal.
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/29/Three_Women.jpg/220px-Three_Women.jpg)
He preferred himself to be called a patua. Jamini Roy died in 1972. He was survived by four sons and a daughter. Currently his successors (daughters-in-law and grand children and their children) stay at the home he had built in Ballygunge Place, Kolkata. His works can be found in various museums and galleries across the globe.
Awards
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In 1934, he received a Viceroy's gold medal in an all India exhibition for one of his work. In 1955 he was awarded thePadma Bhushanby the Government of India, the third highest award a civilian can be given.[14]In 1956, he was made the secondFellow of the Lalit Kala Akademi,the highest honour in the fine arts conferred by theLalit Kala Akademi,India's National Academy of Art, Government of India.[15]
Critical views
[edit]In 1929 while inaugurating Roy's exhibition sponsored byMukul Deyat Calcutta, the then Statesman Editor Sir Alfred Watson said:
…Those who study the various pictures will be able to trace the development of the mind of an artist constantly seeking his own mode of expression. His earlier work done under purely Western influence and consisting largely of small copies of larger works must be regarded as the exercises of one learning to use the tools of his craft competently and never quite at ease with his models. From this phase we see him gradually breaking away to a style of his own.
You must judge for yourselves how far Mr. Roy has been able to achieve the ends at which he is obviously aiming. His work will repay study. I see in it as I see in much of the painting in India today a real endeavour to recover a national art that shall be free from the sophisticated tradition of other countries, which have had a continuous art history. The work of those who are endeavouring to revive Indian art is commonly not appreciated in its true significance. It is sometimes assumed that revival means no more than a return to the methods and traditions of the past. That would be to create a school of copyists without visions and ideals of their own.
… Art in any form cannot progress without encouragement. The artist must live and he must live by the sale of his work. In India as elsewhere the days when the churches and the princes were the patrons of art have passed. Encouragement today must come from a wider circle. I would say to those who have money to spare buy Indian art with courage. You may obtain some things of little worth; you may, on the other hand, acquire cheaply something that is destined to have great value. What does it matter whether you make mistakes or not. By encouraging those who are striving to give in line and colour a fresh expression to Indian thought you are helping forward a movement that we all hope is destined to add a fresh lustre to the country.
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7f/Faces_by_Jamini_Roy.jpg/220px-Faces_by_Jamini_Roy.jpg)
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Key works
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- "Ramayana",1946, Spread across 17 canvases (106 × 76 cm, each) Roy'sRamayanais considered to be his magnum opus. Patronized bySarada Charan Das,Roy created this masterpiece series in Kalighat pata style with natural colors, using earth, chalk powder and vegetable colors instead of dyes. Later Roy also created individual replicas capturing various moments from the entire series. Some of these paintings have been preserved in the National Art Gallery of India and are also in display in theVictoria Memorial Hall.His story ofRamayanabegins with sageValmikiand completes the circle back to his hermitage afterSita's aagnipariksha. All his 17 canvases are frequently characterized by decorative flowers, landscape, birds and animals typical of theBengal School of Art.His lines are simple, bold and roundish initially derived from clay images but they lead to complex moments rendering subtle yet powerful emotions. Jamini Roy's complete“Ramayana”is on display today atSarada Charan Das' residence "Rossogolla Bhavan" in Kolkata along with 8 other large-scale originals. The Das residence today harbors the largest private collection of Jamini Roy paintings with 25 of the master's originals.[16]
- "Bride and two Companions", 1952,temperaon card, 75 x 39 cm. Coates described the painting: "Note the magnificent indigo ofBengal,and how the palms of the bride's hands are smeared with red sandalpaste. Jamini Roy's choice of colours looks at first sight purely decorative. In fact, nearly every thing in his pictures has a reason and a meaning. "[17]It is very flat and heavily outlined. Roy portrays a traditional woman without the artificial beauty and the mythological background portraying the folk-art inspiration that has always been present since his beginnings.[18]
- "Dual Cats with one Crayfish", 1968, tempera on card, 55.5 x 44 cm. Coates wrote: "Yet another new style, colours reduced in number and very restrained, an almost overwhelming sense of formality."[17]
Death and legacy
[edit]Jamini Roy died on 24 April 1972. In 1976, theArchaeological Survey of India,Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India declared his works among the "Nine Masters" whose work, to be henceforth considered "to be art treasures, having regard to their artistic and aesthetic value".[19]
On 11 April 2017, Google India dedicated aGoogle Doodleto celebrate Roy on his 130th birthday.[20]
References
[edit]- ^"Jamini Roy".Jamini Roy.Retrieved22 September2023.
- ^Chatterjee, Abhijeet (11 November 2018)."Bishnupur gets a Jamini Roy facelift".The Telegraph Online.Retrieved22 September2023.
- ^Genocchio, Benjamin (13 November 2009)."After Independence, the Search for Self".The New York Times.Retrieved22 September2023.
- ^ab"Jamini Roy (1887–1972) Biography".Indian Art Circle. Archived fromthe originalon 24 September 2015.Retrieved9 January2014.
- ^"Jamini Roy Biography - Paintings & Artworks, Life History & Achievements".Archivedfrom the original on 11 October 2007.
- ^"Abanindranath Tagore (1871-1951)".Visva-Bharati.24 September 2023.Retrieved24 September2023.
- ^Sinha, Gayatri (16 December 1990)."Folk hero of Indian art".The Indian Express.p. 5.Retrieved23 September2023.
- ^Menon, Anjolie (21 August 2021)."Jamini Roy: Blender of influences".India Today.Retrieved24 September2023.
- ^Jamini Roy - Journey To The Roots.NGMA. 2013.
- ^"Jamini Roy: A painter's quest for an Indian identity".aljazeera.Retrieved11 April2017.
- ^Banerjie, Indranil (31 May 1987)."Jamini Roy: The 'national artist' who produced timeless works of art".India Today.Retrieved24 September2023.
- ^Indranil Banerjie (31 May 1987)."Jamini Roy: The 'national artist' who produced timeless works of art".India Today.Retrieved20 November2019.
- ^"Painting".6 March 2024.
- ^"Padma Awards"(PDF).Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. 2015. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 15 October 2015.Retrieved21 July2015.
- ^"List of Fellows".Lalit Kala Akademi. Archived fromthe originalon 27 March 2014.Retrieved9 January2014.
- ^"K.C. Das".
- ^abBonhams auctionArchived7 November 2005 at theWayback Machine.
- ^"Jamini Roy | artnet".artnet.Retrieved20 November2019.
- ^Nine MastersArchived4 December 2010 at theWayback MachineGovernment Museum and Art Gallery, Chandigarh."Nine Masters: Rabindranath Tagore, Amrita Sher-Gil, Jamini Roy and Nandalal Bose, Ravi Varma, Gaganendranath Tagore, Abanindranath Tagore, Sailoz Mookherjea and Nicholas Roerich."
- ^"Jamini Roy's 130th Birthday".Google Doodles.Retrieved10 April2022.
Bibliography
[edit]- Bishnu Dey; John Irwin (1944).Jamini Roy.Indian Society of Oriental Art.
- Six Indian painters: Rabindranath Tagore, Jamini Roy, Amrita Sher-Gil, M.F. Husain, K.G. Subramanyan, Bhupen Khakhar.Tate Gallery Publications Dept. 1982.ISBN978-0-905005-58-4.
- Jamini Roy in the Context of Indian Folk Sensibility and His Impact on Modern Art: Seminar Papers.Lalit Kala Akademi. 1992.
- Jamini Roy: A Painter Who Revisited the Roots.Niyogi Books. 2022. ISBN 978-93-91125-36-3.
External links
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- Profile on Google Arts & Culture
- Documentary byFilms Division of India–Portrait of a Painter
- Documentary by Virasat Art –The Art of Jamini Roy
- Documentary byNational Gallery of Modern Art–The Four Pioneers
- 20th-century Indian painters
- Fellows of the Lalit Kala Akademi
- 1887 births
- 1972 deaths
- People from Bankura district
- Bengali male artists
- Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in arts
- Government College of Art & Craft alumni
- University of Calcutta alumni
- Modern painters
- Indian portrait painters
- Indian male painters
- Painters from West Bengal
- 20th-century Indian male artists