If you walk into an average middle-class art-loving West Bengal household, you're more likely to find a well-preserved portrait of Jamini Roy than a fancy-looking work by one of India's many modern painters. The paintings had to be kept in good condition since Jamini Roy would not have sold his work if he had doubts about his buyer's passion for art. While most Indian artists of the twentieth century were enthralled by modern art, which paid well, Jamini Roy stood out for his devotion to Indian traditions. He was so enamored with simple Indian folk art that he didn't care if he sold his pieces for a high price; instead, he sold them for as little as 350 rupees. And if he discovers that the buyer is not properly caring for his paintings, he will buy them back. Jamini Roy threw up modern art and kept to his origins after being influenced by the simplicity of Kalighat paintings (Indian folk art), gaining millions of hearts in the process. He also abandoned the use of European pigments and even canvases in favour of more appropriate substitutes. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the Indian government in 1954 for his contribution to art.
Childhood and Early Life
Jamini Roy was born in the hamlet of Beliatore in the Bankura district of West Bengal in the year 1887. Roy was born into a wealthy land-owning family. Ramataran Roy, his father, left his government job to follow his passion for art. Jamini Roy left his hometown when he was 16 years old and travelled all the way to Calcutta (now Kolkata) to enrol in the Government College of Art. He was educated there by Abanindranath Tagore, who is known for his significant contribution to modern painting. Tagore was the college's vice principal, and he educated Roy according to academic tradition. Roy received a Diploma in Fine Arts after completing his study in 1908. Roy stayed committed to the technique he had studied and began painting in the Western classical style. But he quickly recognised that his heart belonged to a different kind of art.
Career
Jamini Roy began his career as a portrait painter, but he wasn't totally satisfied with his work as a commission portrait painter. Outside the famed Kalighat temple in Calcutta, he heard his genuine calling in the year 1925. Jamini instantly recognised what he preferred and was interested in when it comes to art after seeing a few Kalighat paintings on display outside the temple. He saw that Bengali folk art might be used as a stone to bring down not two, but three birds - a method to simplify and depict the lives of ordinary people; to make his art accessible to everybody; and to restore Indian art to its former splendour. His works began to resemble the Kalighat school of art from that point forward. Jamini Roy became fully versed with the lines of the Kalighat idiom by the early 1930s, and he produced a greater quantity of art works. His paintings were the first Indian paintings to be displayed on a British-controlled roadway in Calcutta in 1938. In the 1940s, Jamini's thought process began to bear fruit when his works were purchased by middle-class Indians. But it was the European community's desire in purchasing his works that astonished him. With the passage of time, his paintings became to reflect only the Kalighat painting tradition, as well as the terracottas of the Bishnupur temple. His works were displayed at prominent shows in countries like London and New York City in the following years. By this time, Jamini Roy had completed what he had set out to do when he initially shifted from Western classical to Bengali folk art.
Jamini Roy's Style
The effects of the Bengal School of art may be seen in Jamini Roy's works from the early 1920s. Initially, he produced some superb landscapes and portraits that marked his debut into the Post-Impressionist landscape and portrait genre. Several of his many paintings later in his career were inspired by everyday life in rural Bengal. Then there were those based on religious subjects such as the Ramayana, Radha-Krishna, Jesus Christ, and so on. Jamini Roy also painted images from the lives of the Santhals, a primitive tribe. His brush strokes were mostly broad and sweeping throughout his works. Jamini Roy began painting on materials such as cloth, mats, and even lime-coated wood in the mid-1930s, departing from the traditional practise of painting on canvases. In place of European paints, he began experimenting with natural colours and pigments produced from mud, chalk powder, and flowers.
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