Download PDF (25 K)JAMINI ROY
Born 1887, West Bengal
Died 1972
Diploma in Fine Arts, Government School of Arts and Craft (1903-08)
Born in 1887 in a small village in Bankura district, West Bengal, Jamini Roy joined the Government School of Art, Kolkata in 1903. He began his career by painting in the Post-Impressionist genre of landscapes and portraits, very much in keeping with his training in a British academic system. Yet, by 1925, Roy had begun experimenting along the lines of popular bazaar paintings sold outside the Kalighat temple in Kolkata. By the early 1930s, Roy made a complete switch to indigenous materials to paint on woven mats, cloth and wood coated with lime. The inspiration for painting on woven mats was the textures he found in Byzantine art, which he had seen in color photographs. It occurred to him that painting on a woven mat might make for an interesting mosaic-like surface.
The Santhals, a tribal people who live in the rural districts of Bengal, were an important subject for Roy. A series of works done a decade before World War II is a very good example of how he captured the qualities that are a part of native folk painting and recombined them with those of his own. He fused the minimal brush strokes of the Kalighat style with elements of tribal art from Bengal (like that of the terracotta work found in the Bishnupur temple in Bengal, where terracotta was often composed into decorative units - some elaborate in design - over portals and across exterior walls of the temples).
Roy's rejection of the then modern style of painting and his foray into the realm of Bengali folk paintings marked a new beginning in the history of Indian modern art. The mother and child, Radha, and animals were painted in simple two-dimensional forms, with flat color application and an emphasis on the lines. The main subjects were often enclosed within decorative borders with motifs in the background. The figure of the Christ was also a subject that Roy often painted.
Roy held several one-man exhibitions and numerous group shows. His works can be found in several private and public collections, institutions and museums all over the world, including the Lalit Kala Academy in Delhi and museums in Germany and the United States of America. He was honored with the Padma Bhushan in 1955. Jamini Roy died in 1972 in Kolkata, where he had lived all his life.
Selected Posthumous Exhibitions
2005 Manifestations III – 100 Artists of Contemporary Art, organized by Delhi Art Gallery at Nehru Centre, Mumbai, Lalit Kala Akademi, Rabindra Bhavan, New Delhi and Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi
2004 Manifestations II – 100 Artists of Contemporary Art, organized by Delhi Art Gallery at Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai and Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi
2003 Manifestations I – Indian Art in the 20th Century, organized by Delhi Art Gallery at World Trade Centre, Mumbai and Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi
2003 Exhibition of Works of Jamini Roy, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi
2003 Poetry and Patriotic Fervor, Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi
2003 Indian Art Pre-Independence, Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi
2000 Face Off 1900-1980s. An Exhibition of Indian Old Masters and Moderns, Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi
2000 Art of Bengal : Past and Present 1850-2000, Centre for International Modern Art (CIMA), Kolkata
1997 Art of Bengal 1850-1950 : Calcutta Metropolitan Festival of Art, Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Kolkata
1998 Temperas and Sketches, Art Bazar, Kolkata
1998 The Simplicity of a Pionee', The Window, Mumbai
1995 From Seeds to Flowers – Jamini Roy and His Roots, Romain Rolland Galerie, Alliance Francaise, New Delhi
1990 Centenary Exhibition, Cymroza Art Gallery, Mumbai
1987 Centenary Exhibition, National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), New Delhi
1987 Centenary Exhibition, Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Kolkata
Select Group Exhibitions
1998 The Window, Mumbai
1987 Centenary Exhibtion, NGMA
1938 British Indian Street, Calcutta
1937 Samavaya Mansions, Calcutta
Awards & Honors
1967 Awarded honorary D. Litt., Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata
1956 Elected Fellow, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi
1955 Awarded Padma Bhushan, Government of India
1935 Awarded Viceroys Gold Medal for 'Mother Helping the Child to Cross the Pool'.b