Untitled

Jamini Roy was one of the most iconic artists of twentieth century Bengal. He consciously moved away from his formal academic training to adapt the languages of folk art and fashion himself like a karigar or artisan, who uses symbols from a familiar repertoire of shared stories. To Jamini Roy, ‘folk’ meant an entire gamut of visual expressions, including the home sewn quilt (called kantha) and ritual floor paintings (called alpona). Besides folk deities, Jamini Roy was also fascinated by Christian themes, producing hundreds of works featuring Christ, his birth, or scenes of the Madonna with her child. Many of them were reworked into a rural Bengali setting. In this woodcut that reveals his characteristic, emphatic line he renders the crowned figure of Christ with his face shaped like a conical vessel. Pronounced eyebrows merge with the nose, and the eyes, while drawn large, do not stray out of the face.