Jamini Roy was born in 1887 in the Bankura distict of Bengal. Brought up as an artist under the tutelage of Abanindranath Tagore (elder brother of nobel laureate in literature, Rabindranath Tagore, and himself, a famous artist), he grew up with the same ideas and styles that so many of his contemporary artists had, resulting in a non-uniqueness in his artwork, which was limited to impressionist landscapes and portraits.
Recognizing the need for Indian art and himself to develop a unique style and identity, around 1925, he began experimenting with folk art in India, borrowing ideas from the Kalighat paintings and the terracotta work of the Vishnupur temple. By the 1930s, he had switched over completely to indegenous styles and medium for his art - using his own painting surfaces of cloth, wood or eve cane mats coated with lime, instead of the traditional canvas used by painters, and earth and vegetable colors for paints. His artwork definitively stepped away from the familiar styles of schooled training in art and embraced the wild lyrical beauty of the folk art of Bengal.
His initial days of penury and obscurity gave way to success and fame as his his art found patronage during the 1940s amongst the middle class Bengalis as well as the Eurpoean community, with his work finding appreciation in exhibitions held in London and New York. In 1955, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan, a coveted national honour. He died at the age of 85, in the year 1972.
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