Jamini Roy

BORN
April 11, 1887 Beliatore

DIED
April 24, 1972 Calcutta

EDUCATION QUALIFICATIONS
1903-08 Diploma in Fine Arts, Government College of Arts and Crafts, Calcutta

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
1953 New York
1946 Exhibition inaugurated by E.M. Forest, Burlington Gallery, London
1938 British India Street, Calcutta
1937 Samavaya Mansions, Calcutta
1929 Government School of Arts and Crafts, Calcutta

SELECTED POSTHUMOUS EXHIBITIONS
2015 Jamini Roy (1887 to 1972) Journey to the Roots, National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), New Delhi and Mumbai
2015 Akar Prakar, Kolkata
2013 Panoply, Nature Morte, New Delhi
2013 The Nude and the Nude The Body in Modern Indian Art, Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi Gallery Collection 2012, Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi
2012 Contemporary A selection of modern and contemporary art, presented by Sakshi Gallery at The Park, Chennai
2011-12 The Body Unleashed, Rubin Museum of Art, New York
2011 Ethos V Indian Art through the Lens of History (1900 to 1980), Indigo Blue Art, Singapore
2011 Manifestations VI, Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi
2011 Progressive Starting States to the Present, Aicon Gallery, London
2011 Manifestations V, Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi
2011 Master Class, Dhoomimal Art Gallery, New Delhi
2011 Time Unfolded, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA), New Delhi
2011 The Fish-Eye Cosmos, Apparao Galleries, Chennai
2011 Roots in the Air, Branches Below Modern and Contemporary Art from India, San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose
2011 The Rise of Indian Modern Art, Aicon Gallery, London
2010 Modern Folk The roots of popular art of the modernist avant-garde, Aicon Gallery, New York
2010 Manifestations IV, Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi
2010 Celebration 2010, Annual Exhibition, Kumar Art Gallery, New Delhi
2009 Indian Art after Independence Selected works from the collections of Virginia and Ravi Akhoury and Shelley and Donald Rubin, Emily Lowe Gallery, Hempstead
2009 In Search of the Vernacular, Aicon Gallery, New York
2009 Kalpana Figurative Art in India, presented by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) at Aicon Gallery, London, The Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR)
2009 Moderns and More, Aicon Gallery, Palo Alto
2008 Multiple Modernities India, 1905-2005, Philadelphia Museum of Art, USA.
2008 Post-Independence Masters, Aicon Gallery, New York
2005 Manifestations III - 100 Contemporary Art Artists, 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 Contemporary Art Artists, 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 the World Trade Center, Mumbai and Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi
2003 Exhibition of works by Jamini Roy, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi
2003 Poetry and Patriotic Fervor, Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi
2003 Pre-Independence Indian Art, Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi
2000 Confrontation 1900-1980. An exhibition of old and modern masters from India, Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi
2000 Art of Bengal Past and Present 1850-2000, Center for International Modern Art (CIMA), Kolkata
1998 Tempera and sketches, Art Bazar, Calcutta
1998 Simplicity of a Pioneer, The Window, Mumbai
1997-98 Jamini Roy Bengali Artist of Modern India, Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida
1997 Art of Bengal 1850-1950 Calcutta Metropolitan Art Festival, Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Calcutta
1995 From seeds to flowers Jamini Roy and the roots of him, 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, Calcutta

HONORS AND AWARD
1967 Awarded the honorary degree of D. Litt., Rabindra Bharati University, Calcutta
1956 Elected member, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi
1955 Awarded Padma Bhushan, Government of India
1935 The Viceroy Gold Medal is awarded to the mother who helps the child cross the pool.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Born in 1887 in the small village of Beliatore, Bankura district, West Bengal, Jamini Roy joined the Government Art School in Calcutta in 1903. He began his career painting in the post-impressionist genre of landscapes and portraits, much in line with his training in a British academic system. However, by 1925, Roy had begun experimenting with popular bazaar paintings sold outside the Kalighat temple in Calcutta. In the early 1930s, Roy made a complete switch to indigenous materials to paint on woven mats, fabrics and lime-coated wood. 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 rug could create an interesting mosaic-like surface.

The Santhal, a tribal people living in the rural districts of Bengal, were an important topic for Roy. A series of works made a decade before World War II is a very good example of how he captured the qualities that are part of native folk painting and recombined them with his own. He fused the minimal brushstrokes of the Kalighat style with elements of Bengali tribal art (such as that of the terracotta work found at the Bishnupur temple in Bengal, where terracotta was often composed in decorative units, some of elaborate design, on doorways and a along exterior walls of 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 modern Indian art. The mother and child, Radha and the animals were painted in simple two-dimensional shapes, with the application of flat colors and emphasis on lines. The main themes were often enclosed within decorative borders with motifs in the background. The figure of Christ was also a subject that Roy often painted.

Roy held several solo exhibitions and numerous group exhibitions. His works can be found in various public and private collections, institutions and museums around 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 on April 24, 1972 in Calcutta, where he had lived all his life.

Notification - We do not usually display Jamini Roy's work, only send it to private art collectors and interested art buyers.

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