Untitled (Still Life with Skull)

Ramkinkar Baij is one of the most important modernist artists of the twentieth century. He made sketches, paintings, etchings and drawings, but is perhaps best known for his sculpture work that he developed out of his location in Shantiniketan’s Kala Bhavan, which was the fine arts department of Visva-Bharati University, established by the Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore. He learned from artists like Nandalal Bose and later became a member of the faculty himself. The artists of the Kala Bhavan soon learned to take their cues from what they saw around them—whether nature or the lives of the tribal people who lived or moved around Bolpur.  The Santhals, for instance, remained a constant muse for Baij. Whether in his giant sculptures, his drawings or paintings, their impact on him was palpable, and he employed simple forms and materials to delineate their lives or occupations. The lines are also dynamic in this composition, featuring a baul singer (akin to a wandering minstrel) playing his one-stringed instrument, as he captures the musician’s gentle movements through his characteristic fast strokes.