Jamini Roy remembered at JKKNIU

Marking the occasion, students of Fine Arts Department of the university organised a daylong painting exhibition at Chhabishala Bottola on the campus. Students of the department took part in the exhibition with their paintings based on traditional themes.

Professor Mohit Ul Alam, Vice-chancellor of JKKNIU, inaugurated the exhibition.

Treasurer of the university Prof. AMM Shamsur Rahman, Tapon Kumar Sarker, head of Fine Arts Department; department teachers-Drabir Saikat, Masum Hawlader, Emdadur Rashed Sukhon and Siddhartho Dey, among others, spoke on the occasion.

“Jamini Roy, pioneer of our traditional art and culture, took his creativity to world standards. Roy cultivated folk subjects as he could not easily accept European Realism as a spur for his own creativity,” said the speakers.

Once agriculture-based rural areas and the people of Bengal was the repository of folk culture and he drew inspiration from the grassroots, they said.

Work on the farmland, worship related to agriculture, decorated pot, alpona, terracotta, clay dolls and so many items related to rural life enriched the folk art of the country and Jamini Roy is its pioneer, said the speakers. “Like many world famous and rooted artistes, Jamini Roy is not very well-known to the younger generation but we should remember such greats and extend our deep gratitude to them,” they concluded.

The exposition of Jamini Roy's works was first held in British India Street (Kolkata) in 1938. His paintings become very popular during the 1940s and connoisseurs included both the Bangalee middle class and European community. In 1946, his work was exhibited in London and in 1953 in New York.

In 1903, at the age of 65, Jamini Roy came to Collate and studied at the Government School of Art. He learnt techniques then in vogue in the West, and achieved early fame as a portrait painter in the European tradition. However, soon Jamini Roy cultivated a personal painting style inspired largely by traditional Indian folk and village arts, particularly those of Bengal.

Jamini Roy was honoured with the Padma Bhushan in 1955. He died in 1972 in Kolkata.