DAG's acquisition of the artist's Kolkata home is not just about preserving his legacy, but setting an example for future, similar initiatives
Clockwise from left: Jamini Roy in his home studio. The bungalow in Ballygunge Place. The courtyard garden where Jamini would often paint. Image: Courtesy DAG
Tucked away in a quiet, bylane of Kolkata’s Ballygunge neighbourhood stands a house that, for many from the city, might feel like home. Its pale pink walls are offset by green, wooden window shutters, a central stairwell overlooks the road through glass panes, and trees flank the structure on all sides. Representative of homes that were built in the city in the 1940s and 1950s, the house would perhaps be quite unremarkable, had it not been for the fact that it had been the home and studio of one of India’s most prolific and popular modernist painters, Jamini Roy.
Born to a landowning family in 1887 in Beliatore in Bengal’s Bankura district, Roy studied European academic-realist painting at the Government School of Arts and Crafts in Calcutta, where Abanindranath Tagore was vice principal. He began his career painting landscapes and portraits, but soon started experimenting with a more indigenous visual vocabulary. Level surfaces, flattening of design in-depth, and the use of dissonant primary colours were aspects of folk painting that Roy incorporated in his work. Also, he took up the volumetric forms of the Kalighat patachitras.
Roy is known for his distinctive style, inspired by the art and craft traditions of folk artists and sculptors, in particular the simplicity and aesthetics of Santhal life. He was awarded the Viceroy’s gold medal in 1935, the Padma Bhushan in 1955, and elected a Fellow of the Lalit Kala Akademi in 1956. Declared a National Treasure artist in 1976, his works cannot be exported.
In 1949, he moved from his home in North Calcutta’s Baghbazar to the neighbourhood of Ballygunge Place, and built a bungalow, over multiple phases. He lived in this home with his family, till his passing away in 1972.
This March, this home was acquired by DAG with the aim of creating India’s first, world-class, private, single-artist museum and cultural resource centre on the life, work and times of the pioneering artist. The Jamini Roy House Museum is due to open next year.