AP Studio Art at Woodstock: Contextual Research Assignment

BENGAL SCHOOL OF ART

The Bengal School of Art was a movement of art that thrived in India in the early 20^th century. The style of art associated with Indian Nationalism during the time when the nation was still a British Colony – it was a revitalization of Indian culture, history and spirituality. The Bengal School triggered an innovative surge to react against the western academic art styles that were previously promoted by both the Indian and British art schools. The themes that revolved around this form of art involved romantic and misty representations of the Indian terrain, historical sites as well as the depiction of the life in the countryside. Embracing the more traditional methods of creating art (using indigenous techniques as well as media) was difficult for the artists of the time who were more accustomed to western methods and inspirations. This nationalist movement was initiated by Abanindranath Tagore as well as British art teacher Ernest Binfeil Havell who tried to change the teaching methods at the Calcutta School of Art by encouraging students to adopt the Mughal style of art, the students however found this attempted reform degenerating.

Abanindranath Tagore, The Passing of Shah Jahan, oil on board, 1902.

The Modernist ideas that began to form in the 1920’s caused the Bengal School’s influence on creating traditional art to decline severely.

http://ngmaindia.gov.in/sh-bengal.asp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bengal_school_of_art

JAMINI ROY lived from the April of 1887 to the April of 1972. Though he was brought up in a middle-class family of land-owners in the village of Beliatore in Bengal, he spent the majority of his life in Calcutta where he had moved to at the age of 16 to study in the Government School of Art (GSA). There he learnt to paint in the then dominant style of western art that consisted of drawing Classical nudes and using oil paints. He received his diploma in Fine Arts in 1908 but soon discovered that he had a perpetual fervor for creating art that was inspired by his own ethnic Indian culture rather than the western cultures he had studied in GSA. Roy began to focus on Kalighat Pat (folk and tribal art) and soon after became enthralled in his fascination in the Santhal (traditional) dance. He adopted this new style as a reaction against the Bengal School and the Western cultures that dominated Indian Art and deprived it of making its mark in the international world of art. Roy wanted to depict the look of simplicity of the folk people as well as make art accessible to people from diverse backgrounds. He was once quoted:

"I am least bothered whether my paintings is good or bad, and I feel that it is no concern of mine. My sole desire is to make my paintings look different."

Roy liked using the cheap indeginous pigments for his artworks which was not something many contemporary artists had experimented with at that point in time.