Ramkinkar Baij
Ministry of Culture’s National Gallery of Modern Art will organise virtual tour titled “Ramkinkar Baij, Journey through silent transformation and expressions” to commemorate the 115th Birth Anniversary of Ramkinkar Baij on 26th May 2020.
Who was Ramkinkar Baij?
Ramkinkar Baij (1906-1980), one of the most seminal artists of modern India, was an iconic sculptor, painter and graphic artist.
He was born in Bankura, West Bengal
In 1925, he made his way to Kala Bhavana, the art school at Santiniketan and was under the guidance of Nandalal Bose.
Along with Nandalal Bose and Benodebehari Mukherjee, he played a pivotal role in making Santiniketan one of the most important centres for modern art in pre-Independent India.
Contributions to modern art:
- He assimilated the idioms of the European modern visual language and yet was rooted in his own Indian ethos.
- He experimented restlessly with forms, moving freely from figurative to abstract and back to figurative.
- His themes were steeped in a deep sense of humanism and an instinctive understanding of the symbiotic relationship between man and nature.
- Both in his paintings and sculptures, he pushed the limits of experimentation and ventured into the use of new materials.
- For instance, his use of unconventional material, for the time, such as cement concrete for his monumental public sculptures set a new precedent for art practices.
Awards and honours:
He was invited to participate in the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles in 1950 and in the Salon de Mai in 1951.
In 1970, the Government of India honoured him with the Padma Bhushan for his irrefutable contribution to Indian art.
In 1976 he was made a Fellow of the Lalit Kala Akademi.
In 1976, he was conferred the honorary Doctoral Degree of ‘Desikottama’ by Visva Bharati, and in 1979 an honorary D.Litt by Rabindra Bharati University.
