Interview on Jamini Roy

Interview on Jamini Roy

Q: When did you know you were interested in art?

A: Well as a young boy I feel I always had a creative side. My dad also quit his government job to become an amateur artist.  (“culturalindia.net”) I am from an area rich with folk art traditions. (Needham) As a kid I would go around painting on the houses by the streets. I studied the doll makers, carpenters, and potters from my village. (“Jamini Roy Bengali Artist of Modern India”29)

I would say I knew, for myself, when I began going to the Calcutta College of art. That was my training getting me prepared for the art world. It was more of an academic style, but I am a free spirit person. ( Bhattachaya) I had to be myself.

Q: What was the world of art like when you came along?

A: Well ANY field you take up there is always a critic. You always enter hoping you will get a good reaction out of viewers. No negative comments to say about your work. I guess you can say the art field was a tough one. “Western realistic paintings which had dominated Indian art from the mid-19^th century were now challenged by an Orientalizing movement in Calcutta known as the neo Bengal school.”

 I was trained with both of those techniques. (“Jamini Roy Bengali Artist of Modern India” 29) I was not going to forget where I came from. My style is more of the Indian folk art. I felt my duty was to speak for the people, through my work.

Q: What were the key opportunities you had that led to the turning points in you art?

A: Actually my viewers. My audience felt my work was dull and bland. Also, that I was drawing things from western traditions. The living folk gave me the opportunity to draw things from my own culture. They couldn’t relate to the art I was making. (Contemporaryindianart.com)

So I, a true Bengali must create works of art relevant to my heritage. I made a transformation to Kalighat pat,which is a form of art. I did experiments designed, basically to teach myself how to draw as a true Bengali. (Needham) Step by step; I had to inspire a new emotion on the paper, I had a family to support.

Q: What situations in life impacted your work?

A: Well later in the course of my of my career I turned to Kalighat Pat. As far as cultural art, I became interested in folk art. Folk art is the expression of the Bengali people themselves. “It is an art transmitted from generation to generation without any essential changes, the roots reaching deep into the soil.”(Mookerjee 50)

Most of the Kalighat artist went downhill. In the 20^th century, it was from cheap lithographic prints. (Craven 252) I felt that was the work I had to create, what I was used to see in my environment.

Q: What Challenges did you face in order to become, the successful artist you are?

A: Rejection. My career took off as a portrait painting. It later came to a halt when people rejected the western traditions in my paintings. (Perkins) I was basically forced to change my style. I had to make a living to support my family.

How would you feel if a large amount of people said they felt your work was impersonating someone else’s? You would want to change the people views. Right! The techniques I had been practicing for years were being changed. My art skills were being put to a test.

Q: Who did you look up to at the launch of your career?

A: Well as I said previously I would watch the doll makers and potters. I always tried to imitate there work. I never really had anyone I looked up too. I was always self-independent. When I was sixteen I was sent to the Government School of Art in Calcutta. (Wikipedia) I learned things in the art field early.

I feel that my father allowed me to go because I was the youngest of three, and he had already done his disciplining. (Needham) What I can say though that a lot of people look up to me. I try to make works that people actually went through. Personal experiences.

Q: Do you have any personal stories that you feel was the break through about becoming an artist?

A: Well actually when I was 16. When I was allowed to attend the Calcutta College of Art. I was so young but I had the passion. I feel that people underestimated me. I had faith in my learning abilities.

Going to the college actually put me in a competitive field with other artist. I really just wanted to make my work better. I feel you can do anything you put your heart to.

Q: What did you accomplish in your time as an artist?

A: I tried a new method when I was about 30. I began drawing on surfaces made of cloth, wood and lime-coated mats. My paintings consist of a sense of "nostalgic lyricism". (“Mapsofindia”)  The new style of paintings I was going for denied the Bengal school and Western tradition.

I tried to have it capture essence of simplicity of folk people. It would open the opinion to a wider section of the society. (Mathur) This would help on both sides. My own people and Europeans.

Q: What kind of limitations did you run into as both an artist and a person?

A: If I was going to continue or not. At a point I didn’t know exactly what I was going to paint. Was I really impersonating people? Did I really have to paint according to my heritance? All of these questions I asked myself.

I soon found my fate. One thing that upset me at first was that the work I did soon was becoming perfected by others. Or as they would say was being celebrated. (Art Circle) I feel like my work was being copied.

Q:  What personal choices did you make to become successful?

A: I had to be self-independent. I had to go and study the techniques in the art I was trying to create. I had to set my own way of my paintings. I basically created my own language in the area field called "flat techniques". (Indian Art)    

I believe that art shouldn’t belong only in museums and the elite, but also the common folk. (lunablogs) I also feel that art should be inexpensive. It is something special that people should be able to relate too.