Jamini Roy (b.1887, Bankura, West Bengal) was an Indian painter best known for combining traditional Indian and Western art styles to create unique and complex works. He began his career by painting in the Post-Impressionist genre of landscapes and portraits, very much in keeping with his training in a British academic system. Yet, by 1925, Roy had begun experimenting along the lines of popular bazaar paintings sold outside the Kalighat temple in Kolkata. By the early 1930s, Roy began to use indigenous materials in his works, painting on woven mats, cloth, and wood coated with lime. His inspiration for painting on woven mats was the textures he found in Byzantine art, which he had seen in color photographs. It occurred to him that painting on a woven mat might make for an interesting mosaic-like surface.
Roy joined the Government School of Art, Kolkata, in 1903. The artist garnered impressive success throughout his career, ultimately receiving the Padma Bhushan award from the Government of India in 1954, which is the third highest honor that can bestowed upon a civilian. Today, Roy’s works can be found in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Harn Museum of Art at the University of Florida, and the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi, among others.
Roy died in 1972 in Kolkata, India.