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ROY Jamini
Jamini Roy (1887-1972) was an Indian painter from Kolkata (Calcutta in West Bengal).
Roy achieved success first as a portrait painter. Then in the 1920s he changed his style to use elements from Bengali peasant art. This led to a period of great poverty, but he persevered. He had to make his own paints from basic materials. In 1929 he had his first one man exhibit in Calcutta, sponsored by the artist Mukul Dey. Jamini Roy's work at the time was influenced by Abanindranath Tagore's Bengal School.
In the 1930s, leading Indian writers and critics began to recognize that Roy was forging a new style of art, intrinsically Indian and original. Ultimately Roy gained international fame for his distinctive style.
About 1944, he befriended Austin Coates, who became an ardent supporter. Coates was one of few who Roy let observe him work. In 1929 while inaugurating Roy's exhibition sponsored by Mukul Dey at Calcutta, the then Statesman Editor Sir Alfred Watson said: "In a few moments I shall declare open the exhibition of the works of Mr. Jamini Roy. Those who study the various pictures will be able to trace the development of the mind of an artist constantly seeking his own mode of expression.
His earlier work done under purely Western influence and consisting largely of small copies of larger works must be regarded as the exercises of one learning to use the tools of his craft competently and never quite at ease with his models. From this phase we see him gradually breaking away to a style of his own, moulded by many influences, but ultimately resulting in a treatment of mass and line which is almost Egyptian in its outlook. There is a primitive force, perhaps yet not quite sure of itself, but consciously striving to break into individual expression.
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