JAMINI ROY (1887-1972)

Partha Mitter, the eminent scholar, wrote of the artist, "Roys's long artistic life spanned almost the entire era of Indian anti-colonial struggle, spilling over into Independent India (1887-1972). He displayed a restless desire to explore dazzling pastiches of styles, Eastern and Western." (P. Mitter, The Triumph of Modernism: India's Artists and the Avant-garde 1922-1947, New Delhi, 2007 p. 100)

For an artist renowned for his stylistic folk images, these landscapes by Roy reveal a rare and early playfulness in his oeuvre. These impressionistic landscapes are as self-aware as they are stunning. Trees, flora and architecture are rendered with a deft elegance as Roy creates images that are both an homage and a pastiche of his modernist contemporaries in Europe. These landscapes reveal Roy's technical ability, creativity and most significantly his commitment to the avant-garde and modernism.