Jamini Roy

Jamini Roy’s (1887-1972) distinct style, rooted in a strong idiom of Indian folk art, heralded a new beginning of representation and style in the history of Indian modern art. Often referred to as the first Indian modernist, he rejected the sycophantic obeisance to western art forms that many graduating from art schools in his era had blindly followed. Rather, he was instrumental in carving a distinct niche for ‘Indianness’ in modernism.

Roy was born in a village in the Bankura district of West Bengal. He completed his art education at the Government School of Art, Kolkata in 1903. As the initial years would have it, he began his artistic journey by creating landscapes and portraits in the post-impressionistic genre. Soon realising the urgent desire to evolve a distinct style, his oeuvre is rooted in the socio-cultural ethos of India’s artistic and folk tradition. Roy’s reinvention of the folk idiom had become a strong statement, recurring through his practice. It mirrored a culture that was trying to find inspiration in the rich roots and artistic tradition rather than subserviently copying the west.

Roy’s subjects are withdrawn from the everyday life of people and tribes like Bauris, Santhals, Bauls, Mallas, etc. He believed in the universal being more essential than the particular. Making an attempt to shed non-essential characteristics of his subjects, it was a persistent quest for certain universal equilibrium. This quest finally reaches a place where the figures, bereft of any over-the-top decorations and frills, attain a frieze-like architectonic quality.

Roy had shown his works at numerous exhibitions both in India and abroad. His works feature in a number of private collections, institutions and museums all over the world. Jamini Roy was an honourable recipient of the Padma Bhushan.