Jamini Roy is remembered as one of the influential and celebrated artists of the 20th century. Born in Beliatore, Bengal, his training began in the European academic-realist style, and his career, painting landscapes and portraits. Soon, he turned his gift to the embrace of the folk and rural traditions of Bengal, particularly the Kalighat patachirtas. He experimented with the visual vocabulary - inspired by the vibrant simplicity of folk-art forms and the ethos of his native Bengal, he used indigenous materials and techniques to explore diverse themes that reflected his rich cultural heritage, all while impressing upon them his distinctive, precisely-delineated strokes. He was awarded the Viceroy’s medal in 1935, the Padma Bhushan in 1955, and was elected a fellow of the Lalit Kala Akademi in 1956. He is lauded a National Treasure, and his legacy cemented as a cornerstone of Indian art history - inspiring generations of artists to follow.
Jamini Roy’s art operates as a deliberate contradiction, both deeply rooted in tradition and quietly revolutionary in its defiance of expectations. While not a modernist in the conventional sense, his works embody a distinctly modern ethos—anchored not in the aesthetics of abstraction or experimentation but in the ethics of cultural reclamation. His rejection of Western academic realism in favour of vernacular idioms was neither a retreat into nostalgia nor a provincial turn; it was a powerful assertion of artistic autonomy.(..)
Gaganendra Shilpa Pradarshasala
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