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Jamini Roy
Accession No . 3153
Artist Name. Jamini Roy
Title. Krishna and Gopini
Medium. Tempera on cloth
Size. 178.3 x 56 cm
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The Krishna Leela series of painting the artist attempted is of a different character. Jamini Roy represented beautifully the followers of Krishna or Vaishnavas either as making offerings to the lord or on the way to a temple in a procession or going around villages singing kirtans (devotional songs) on the life of Krishna, and seeking alms. It is interesting to see how Roy broke down the figure to the essential form that goes into its making and then synthesised it to suggest a structure. Jamini Roy drew imagery that was authentic using simplification of form inspired by the folk arts of the region that had evolved over the centuries. In this particular painting the artist portrays an evocative image of a rural community with Krishna, garlanded and playing on his flute in the grove with by women folks around him. Instead of the sturdy, erect figures in his other works has stylised the figures with a bent in their axes or tribhanga from the traditional iconography. With stylised and suggestive tree forms, Jamini Roy created an idyllic pastoral scene, a rural utopia of his imagination. The six gopinis or herds women are ecstatic being in the company of Krishna holding fly whisks and stringed instruments in their hands and attending to the lord.
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