Jamini Roy, one of the best-known Indian artists and an early modernist, was born on this day. He was taught by Abanindranath Tagore, founder of the Bengal School of Art movement, at the Government College of Art of Kolkata.
Roy trained in academic traditions and soon after graduating began to receive commissions. Most of his early art, portraits and impressionistic paintings, were western in influence. But soon Roy, inspired by the growing nationalist movements and culture, began to seek a way outside western traditions for forms of expression that were from around him.
He began to engage with Bengal folk arts, crafts, temple art and also East-Asian calligraphy. The result was his signature style that used bold, contoured outlines and an uncluttered background, which redefined elements of folk art and infused into it a spirit of modernism and vice versa.
Kalighata paintings were a major influence, though he also sought out other Bengal patas for inspiration. His paintings covered a wide range of subjects, from deities to Christ to Santhal women to mother and child images, some of these being recurrent themes.
From the 1940s, Roy began to achieve international fame. His works can be found in galleries all over the world. At the same time in Bengal, he is a household name, with reproductions of his paintings or their imitations being a common feature at homes.
Roy was prolific. His paintings, though often solemn and serene, with the faces expressing the classical calm of Hindu idols, can also be playful, wicked and fun, such as that of the cat with the lobster. Roy passed away in 1972. Plans have been announced to turn his Ballygunge Place residence into a single-artist museum.
