• NGMA India

    Jamini Roy

    Accession No . 3163 Artist Name. Jamini Roy Title. Three Gopalas Medium. Tempera on cloth Size. 141 x 81 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. Instead of the sturdy, erect figures as executed in his other works the artist has stylised the figures in this painting 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 three Gopalas or herdsmen holding their sticks and conch shells depict an ecstatic mood.