Apr-June 2019 ISSN: 0975-9999 (P), 2349-1655(O)

Available online @ www.iaraindia.com SELP Journal of Social Science - A Blind Review & Refereed Quarterly Journal ISSN: 0975-9999 (P) 2349-1655 (O) Impact Factor: 3.655(CIF), 2.78(IRJIF), 2.77(NAAS) Volume. X, Issue 41 April - June 2019 Formally UGC Approved Journal (46622), © Author

REFIGURING SANTHAL LIFE IN ART: RAMKINKAR BAIJ’S ENGAGEMENT WITH MODERNITY

ARNAB DUTTA School of International Studies Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

Abstract

Ramkinkar Baij, the prodigy was born in Bankura in West Bengal in 1910. He went on to study at the Kala Bhavan, Vishwa Bharati University, Santiniketan in 1925. A brief introduction to clay modeling by a visiting French sculptor was enough to capture Baij’s creativity. Groomed by his mentors, Nandalal Bose and Tagore, the clay modeler turned artist. The lack of academic training resulted in unique, individualistic works and an innovative way of engaging with the medium. He was the earliest artist in Santiniketan to experiment with abstract, modern sculptural forms. His innovativeness is reflected in the way he used Santhal wraps with packet colours thinned with linseed oil to create his oil paintings and drew his figures on silk with a shoe brush. Working at a time when traditional art was transitioning to modern art, Baij’s work proved to be crucial to Indian art history. Baij was inspired by real life figures which gave his verbose works an inner suavity. He integrated elements of Santhal tribal art and life into his own work and enhanced them by an understanding of Western expressionism. He could be said to be the first truly ‘modern’ Indian sculptor experimenting with surrealism and impressionism where only momentum rules. Key Words: Ramkinkar Baij, Santiniketan, Expressionism, Santhal, Realism, Surreal. Introduction a poverty-stricken family at Yogipara on 25 In the history of art, the name of May 1906 in Birbhum. Having an innate Ramkinkar Baij has become synonymous with disposition towards art, he used to be ambiguity and abstruseness. In life as well as in automatically attracted by the natural objects death he remained an inexplicable personality, around him. For ages, many an artist all over the who through his paintings and sculptures gave world has tried to give an academically correct birth to some bizarre and unbelievably definition of art, but have failed. Perhaps, the outrageous products. Yet, he was respected as cause behind this is that every as well as any one of the foremost front ranked artist whose kind of art is born out of a creative impulse and works stands apart in its purity of form, in those single or voluble bouts of intense dexterity of texture and simplicity of subject. feeling they imprint the supreme Naturally, he was considered to be a consciousness. Hence, even if we restrict the living phenomenon to have graced this earth in arts to their natural province like: music,

SELP Journal of Social Science 27 Volume. X, Issue 41

Apr-June 2019 ISSN: 0975-9999 (P), 2349-1655(O) literature, drama, painting, sculpture, art and the was himself a tribal. A fable that was able to handicrafts, we are not much better off. So the justify and explain his temperament and natural excitement of making something new, the thrill artistic disposition. Ramkinkar had an intellect; of reflecting the inner most thoughts through perhaps, much like what Gauguin went in elemental modes is the primary driving force search for in Tahiti, what he did not find while which imbues the subconscious of every in France and he felt compelled to abandon the genuine artist. entire civilization of Europe for moments of From his very childhood days, he naïve intelligence and beauty. He celebrated showed no interest in academics and spent his life itself in all his individualistic enterprises. time going around his village observing almost He learnt with passion from all elements of life anything that met his eyes. From his and existence that stirred him. He received an autobiography, we come to know that how he informed education that helped him to continue liked the paintings of various gods and working on an eclectic approach to art, innate goddesses on the walls of his house and copied to his character. This was despite the fact that them. So, in one way visual art became the first he had teachers who had clear views in regard step towards painting. His first work of culture to artistic practice as it was essential to develop too was an exhibition of seasonal revelation. On in India of the 1930s. However, he was a certain rain-washed day, suddenly he saw that fortunate to have in them also mentors who the red mud was totally washed off the road realized his potential and his need to nurture exposing the original blue soil. Immediately, he individualistic artistic expression. He grew took a handful of that mud and begun to make under the benign supervision of Rabindranath a whole lot of dolls. This is how young Baij was Tagore and Nandlal Bose, who were also initiated into sculpture. grooming simultaneously, some of the most However, his parents still thought enterprising young talents in Santiniketan Kala formal education will help their child to make a Bhavan, including Binode Bihari Mukherjee. better living in future. So, despite having The progressive milieu of Santiniketan financial constraints they insisted that he carries encouraged Ramkinkar to develop as an artist on with his studies seldom realizing that destiny who was not only a sculptor but was a painter, has already paved the way for their child printer, a theatre person and a singer as well. No through the colourful alleys of images into the boundary existed for him between any of these hall of everlasting fame. By dint of his painting passions. He was able draw on these pursuits he received free studentship and managed to with creative force and strengthened his own complete his matriculation. The qualities of individual artistic performance. He had a improvisation and innovation was so very natural, holistic view of art and its practice. He inherent in him that leaf extracts, turmeric remained committed to this view till the end of pastes, charcoal etc. easily became young Baij’s his life. His genius was uncluttered and much used ingredients. unflustered. In Rabindranath Tagore's abode of Inspiration on Art peace Ramkinkar sustained his abilities to Ramkinkar Baij was perhaps an artist uphold a vision, a sense of discovery, and who understood 'modernity' and its connections create an idiom that would express his natural to art practice, undoubtedly more intuitively impulses and transform an ordinary reality, than in an informed or acquired manner, at least person, object into a theme of celebration and in his initial years, as a young artist in thereby transforming it into an extraordinary Santiniketan, Bengal. In actuality, contrary to and unique experience. more what is popularly understood, he was not Perhaps one man who could inspire a tribal. However, he had a natural flair to him and add wings to his liberated artistic connect easily with the tribal lifestyle. He had a ambitions was Gurudev himself. Rabindranath spontaneous empathy with all that was tribal, Tagore took upon himself to see that his young born as a result of close and constant boy from a modest family background found association with the Santhal community living his creative realization to the full capacity. He near Santiniketan. A bond was established, sans would converse with him, leave him with words any affectation or pretensions between the artist of encouragement and ideas on which he would and his tribal subjects, visible to all giving rise think and would internalize much what was to a much celebrated myth that Ramkinkar Baij suggested to him by the poet. He was once

SELP Journal of Social Science 28 Volume. X, Issue 41

Apr-June 2019 ISSN: 0975-9999 (P), 2349-1655(O) adviced by Rabindranath to work and fill captures the likeness of the poet, made just Santiniketan with his art so as not to leave a before he died in 1941. Another rare bust study single space untouched by his vision. Bharido is of Ustad Alauddin Khan who was in was the vision he received and he strived to live Santiniketan, and sat for his portrait by up to it all his life. Ramkinkar, through his Ramkinkar. The latter being an admirer of the voice, his baulgaan (songs of roaming faqirs), Ustad for his music and his genius, had great a tribal vision of a world of love and equality, love and understanding for music, music of all as also his theatre, he indeed wrote his own kind. He heard western music, introduced to it plays and he extended his world view into his by his friends who included Satyajit Ray and visual art. He explored all surfaces and Ritwik Ghatak. He, of course was heard singing techniques. His lifestyle rarely aligned with the himself Lalongeeti (the songs of Lallan Faqir), 'bhadralok' sensibility, which it would not be in deep open voice as he also did render songs incorrect to say, was then the ruling ethos at based on Rabindrasangeet. Santiniketan, as perhaps it still is. The art Reframing Modernity produced there was, in some ways, an To some, modern is synonymous with expressed idiom through which this middle the machinations and therefore something class awareness articulated itself most decadent and indecently artificial. To yet profoundly. It need to be observed here that he others, modern stand for the material was constructing his artistic affinities with clear civilization of the west and is therefore to be political overtones when he made portraiture looked down upon vis-a-vis the spiritual painting of freedom fighters, the themes of heights of India. To the young, the radical Non-Cooperation Movement against the British theory of social organization is what is modern, Rule in India. This was before he joined which advocates with impunity, the existing Santiniketan in mid 1920s, as a student of art. and the traditional in their own society and These overtly nationalist themes these are just a few points of view. apparently were soon overtaken by a more The element of modern may also be idealistic and yet real humanity that he found in considered as a character of consciousness. It is the world of the Santhal community. a particular state of tension or concentration Undoubtedly Rabindranath's own world view which accompanies human will and effort when helped the young artist to forsake early in his it grapples with the changed aspect of form, life a high pitched nationalistic overtones for a when it battles and strains to grasp the new. It more real, as he envisioned, the future India and is that which gives a passionate and vigorous capture more exuberantly how India as a free direction to the human activity of a period. The nation could reinvent itself as a dynamic world operation of this character of consciousness is culture. like the undying force of the universe itself At another time Ramkinkar was which urges forth at every fresh creation of suggested by Rabindranath Tagore, while he civilization. The course of its working has been was working on a bust study of the poet, to enter envisaged by the conception of ‘Lila’-- the form the subject of his study as a tiger and with astute that is eternally integrating and disintegrating. observation, as the tiger would suck his object’s Tadve Buh Bhavan Pranojane Nadhyap blood, to achieve what he wanted. And he is Nibrattam (Its shape and character are recorded to have said that after this episode he determined by time and place). had never looked back. And indeed, when one Some works that have come to be looks at his body of work from small but intense known more than others are his large works in etchings, to relatively large oils and monumental sculpture the Santhal family which watercolours of the artist we are compelled to can still be found installed in the campus of notice their ferocious self-absorption and utter Santiniketan. His life studies and portraits of intensity combined with an informed Binodini worked in all mediums of oil, spontaneity. He made some brilliant studies of watercolour, and bronze. However, there a people all close to him in some context. A numerous sculptures that can be a surprise standing sculpture stands outside the Amar delight all over the campus. One is the Kutir near Santiniketan, of Rabindranath by charming elephant playing with a young one Ramkinkar. Another remarkable bust is in sculpted in concrete. Another Santhal family Budapest, Hungry, near Balaton lake, which group called Mill Call, now installed under a

SELP Journal of Social Science 29 Volume. X, Issue 41

Apr-June 2019 ISSN: 0975-9999 (P), 2349-1655(O) fiberglass canopy for protection from the Simplifying the Modern elements of climate rain, hail and storm. Modern art not only reflects the Perhaps this is an attempt for preservation but obvious qualities about it but draws from more definitely inadequate. It certainly needs more profound sources the inherently humanistic expert conservation here. The unfortunate fact attributes of mankind. The modern artist has is that Ramkinkar used material most easily rediscovered the sources of intuition. The very available. junk and discarded bits of contemporary living Sometimes he could afford more but that many contemporary artists have been perhaps more because of an attitude that motivated to employ, affirm the limitless actually can be discerned. Therefore you are reservoirs of spirits, paradoxically creating faced with the problem of preserving sculpture beauty from ugliness, stressing contemporary done in mud and clay, pebbles and cement meaning rather than senseless routine. contrite where material is bound to disintegrate 'Happenings' attempt to capture the direct in an open atmosphere. There is an interesting qualities that are a part of everyday living. The episode, which I think speaks for what the artist subjectivity that currently prompts researches, Ramkinkar, on occasion, thought of his own centred on the man, is already a highly works and their future. developed avenue in art. The art of today is In 1975, that is well fifty years of primarily an interior art and is subjectively Ramkinkar's professional art practice Ghatak oriented. Though it is mainly experienced commenced shooting on him in Santiniketan. through its visual elements, it also The filmmaker sees him as a political icon too. communicates on a philosophical and Ramkinkar was an artist with leftist linings and psychological level. Modern artists seem to see aspirations. He is seen articulating the problems the reality of life only in parts. Most of them that he faces as an artist. He is filmed drawing were searching to realize sensations and not to with graphic details as to how he has saved paint visions. himself from dripping roof by covering the General Trends in Sculpture holes in the roof with his oil paintings. When Ramkinkar Baij, who spent practically asked by Ghatak what he is going to do for the all his life at Shantiniketan, gained a reputation art exhibition that is coming soon. Ramkinkar as a modern sculptor and had a pioneering has this answer, “As the paintings are made by influence on the younger generation. Initially oil on canvas water will not do any damage to trained in the western academic style, he them. I can pull them out for the show. But my created entirely by his own genius. Basing his worry is what I will replace them with to stop subjects on the common people, he worked the rainwater. It costs hundred rupees to buy mostly in a form that was a peculiar synthesis grass for thatching. It is very expensive!” And of the native folk and cubist elements, thus he laughs off a serious situation of both art possessing a social significance and symbolic and living. depth. His works reveals an organic integrity That is also the Baij we are introduced and exuberant energy. Among his illustrious to in Ritwik Ghatak’s incomplete 1975 disciples are Prabas Sen and Shankho documentary on the master. On being asked by Chowdhury. the filmmaker to explain his Buffalo and Fish, While Indian art in the first half of 20th a statue of two buffaloes in a pond, Baij said century reflected the dominance of colonial that he had imagined the tail of a buffalo idioms and a pre occupation with monumental enlarged several times over to capture the sculpture, the post-independence period is movement of a fish in water. At that point, characterized by a freedom of expression, Ghatak commented, “You are a crazy person, diversity of aims and deviation to formalistic there’s no doubt about that.” To which, Baij principles embodying contemporary aesthetic simply smiled. Ramkinkar Baij: A Personality values. Sculpture basically involves creating a Study, by Ritwik Ghatak–one of India’s volume. While one can study sculpture from foremost film directors – is the centre-piece of varied points of view, such as tool, material, the exhibition and certainly does much heavy form, size, proportion, positive negative setting work in establishing an intellectual muse en and expressing the most natural appreciation of scène for Baij’s output. a sculpture comes from the way it is made.

SELP Journal of Social Science 30 Volume. X, Issue 41

Apr-June 2019 ISSN: 0975-9999 (P), 2349-1655(O)

Modern Art in his sculpture problems in its quarrying and transportation to The sculpted Yaksha and Yakshini at New Delhi, delayed the actual commencement the Revenue Bank of India’s entrance in New of the project. While everyone had no doubt of Delhi, mark not only a free India’s his artistic commitment they did have concerns commissioned art projects but also the peculiar over his managerial skills to undertake the situation that underlined the questions of enterprise. However, in January 1967 the ‘modernity’ and of Governmental patronage. sculptures finished and installed the original These sculpture were ideas that grew from the expense estimates had to be considerably need felt by Jawaharlal Nehru to embellish revised. Finally installed, it was over ten years State building spaces with visual icons that lent since they had been commissioned. The general themselves to Modern Indian ethos. Out of the political the outlook of the country as indeed of nine artists invited to submit their proposals, its leaders had changed considerably. The only one submitted models and sketches. The sculptures at the Reserve Bank’s New Delhi proposal of Ramkinkar was accepted. The art Office at Parliament Street scandalised prudish form of the male Yaksha was drawn from the sensibilities of the Delhi gentry who found it Parkham Yaksha in the Mathura Museum. The difficult to justify Yakshini nude presence in art form of the female Yakshini was inspired by public domain. And the matter did not rest till it the Bisnagar Yakshini, Calcutta Museum. Karl was raised in the Rajya Sabha. Blitz gave an Khandalavala, art historian and lawyer, felt that interesting twist to the symbolism contained in these massive figures would go well with the the Sculptures. This time the highlight was on architectural features. The themes of peasant- Yaksha when it carried the title Yaksha Patil, a worker prosperity inspired by Nehru’s photograph of the sculpture was carried along scientific temper, was thus found. Its with a comment, “But artist Ramkinkar's manifestation in the form of the Yaksha and conception of a modern Yaksha, which now Yakshini, at the same time, appealed to the guards the Reserve Bank, has, coincidentally sensibilities of those who valued tradition, enough, taken an amazing likeness to Sadoba which of course is different to different people. Patil, one of the most zealous 'guardians' of Yakshas belongs to a class of demi-gods and wealth and big business in the country”. He they are represented as in service of Kubera the responded to the natural zest for life, and took a God of Wealth. The duty of Yakshas is to guard great interest in human figures, body language, over Kuber’s gardens and treasures. The and in the general human drama. Modern Yakshini is a female counterpart of Yaksha. The Western art and pre and post-classical Indian art Revenue Bank has the sole right to note issue were his main point of reference. He used local and as a banker to the Central and State material advantageously, and worked Government could, therefore, be compared combining the skills of a modeller and a carver. with Kubera - the lord of wealth and thus the His paintings too take on expressionist Yaksha and Yakshini could assume the duty of dimensions like his sculptures, which are filled guarding the Bank's treasure. In the modern with force and vitality. context, the figures could assume allegorical Reconstituting Santhal Art interpretations. They become here symbols of The work of Ramkinkar Baij can be industry and agriculture, vital matter of concern taken as a turning point in the history of to Revenue Bank of India. Ironically, the contemporary Indian sculpture-a significant commission caused him a great distress. departure from the neoclassicism of Europe and Unfamiliar with the ways of government the academic styles taught at the government assignments, Baij was unable to adhere to the schools of art. His early work, spanning the deadline. He made a series of studies for the two 1930s and the 1940s was like a breath of fresh figures, travelling from Kangra to Baijnath for air- original and innovative without any material, and spent almost a decade completing obsession with the past or the decadent present. it. When it was finished in 1966, the sculptures This trend of individual improvisation was also had exceeded the original cost estimate and seen in his 'open air' technique. deadline. Ramkinkar belonged to the period of Ramkinkar, took his own time in transition from traditional to modern art, selecting the exact quality of stone that was creating a style of his own, rooted in his needed. Exploration of sites, stone quality, personality and environment. As an exceptional

SELP Journal of Social Science 31 Volume. X, Issue 41

Apr-June 2019 ISSN: 0975-9999 (P), 2349-1655(O) individual, he was saturated with intense love discussions about ideas of social mobility and for life and an insatiable passion for work. By artistic practice. As a concept Baij’s Santhal 1935, his works already showed interest in Family sits firmly at the centre of this structural quality, something that is exhibition, with concentric circles of interest characteristics of his more mature works in the overlapping and connecting across different 40s and the 50s, which are marked by abstract cultures and generations. as well as surrealistic features. It was obviously This is also true of the exhibition as a at Shantiniketan that he imbibed Rabindranath whole. The works that succeed best at plotting Tagore’s view that tradition, though very themselves in some way against (or maybe important, should not act as a barrier between alongside) Santhal Family are those that slip artist and his artistic growth. His art is outside a direct dialogical relationship with the characterized by tremendous energy, sculpture, instead floating near it with an exuberance and vitality. His figures and forms, attitude of concentration or obtusely enacting it. whether in sculpture or in painting, are dynamic Deceptively witty and easy to miss, Ashim and earthy, possessing a surging movement of Purkayastha’s Found Object/Objects 2003–7 is growth. His sculptures have a typical ‘put of one such work, in which the artist has defaced, door’ quality for they were created on location reclaimed and transformed a collection of 100, and seem to grow out of the environmental 500 and 1,000 rupee notes, all of which feature context. Whether in cement, plaster or stone, the face of Mohandas Ghandi. On each, the their forms as it were, arise and are proliferated Mahatma has been altered in some way by hand by their own laws, such as in his Santhal (appearing, among other things, as Adolf Hitler, Family. They are infused with a certain joyous as Salvador Dalí, as a cowboy, as a Rastafarian, and vital feeling. Regardless of their style, playing a flute, picking his nose and taking a whether abstract, representational or drag on a cigarette), with the effect of conventional, they are alive with their slow destabilizing the iconography of recognition by massive rhythms that respond to changing light creating a subtle shift in the use-value not only and shadow and the forms of nature around. of the currency itself but also of Gandhi’s His monumental oils are image. In this way Purkayastha manipulates unconventional and highly individualistic. subject and object, expressing an essential Ramkinkar did not imitate, forging his own path dislocation in his act of making. towards a desired mode of expression- abstract, Cum Grano Salis cubistic, expressionistic or surrealistic. Hence, His meditative intensity enabled him to there is no stylistic affectation in his work, be it cultivate the field of feeling in such a manner sculpture or printing. His feeling was his law. that it became a receptor of the immanent For him, art was a necessity for filling up a sensations. The entire strength of his creations creative barrenness and poverty of imagination intact rested wholly upon this unique ability to that surrounds over lives. He served an inner reflect the infinite form within the finite objects demand that arose within him waiting for the of the surroundings. The Santhal Family widely creative act for its fulfillers. And he fulfilled considered to be the first public modernist this demand with immense creative ability till sculpture in India depicting a mother, father, his death. He remained consistently a humanist, child and a dog from the santhal tribe at once both in attitude and subject matter. Santhal lifted them out of dismal darkness to the Family, widely considered to be the first public limelight of universal appreciation and Modernist sculpture in India, was made by acceptance of their existence in the social fabric Ramkinkar Baij in 1938. It’s a peculiarly of not only Bengal but of India is a whole. Baij familiar work, depicting a mother, father, child was trying to tell us that an apparent vision and dog from the Santhal tribe, carrying their about these people will not help in unravelling few possessions with them to a new life. For the the stupendous variegations inherent among exhibition Santhal Family: Positions around an them. They were nature's own people and Indian Sculpture the curator Grant Watson in demanded a more proximate viewing. The daily collaboration with Suman Gopinath and activities of the village people attained supreme Anshuman Dasgupta invited a broad range of artistry at his hands. This became an eternal international artists to respond to the sculpture, celebration of life through the toils and tensions embodying and also reflecting on contemporary transformed into a livid struggle of survival.

SELP Journal of Social Science 32 Volume. X, Issue 41

Apr-June 2019 ISSN: 0975-9999 (P), 2349-1655(O)

The Call of the Mill, running to reach spheres of national life, in the growing middle the rice mill on time in hearing the whistle, class and its vision of the political future. captures the hectic schedule imposed on the Perhaps one more extension of his artistic rustic simpletons by the industrial society. This beliefs was that he did not make art with the mundane theme is made a marvel by Baij in intention to preserve them or commercially gain sculpting a piece of wet cloth held by one of the from his works. He created for expression and santhal females overhead so as to dry it while articulation of an idea. He used clay, cement or on their way to the mill creates the inherent what he could afford. It was never easy to dynamicity and the grace involved in the generate expensive material like metal and process of labour. If stone spoke for marble stone. What indeed was more important Michaelangelo so did the mud of Bengal for was for him was to work and create and work Baij. The latter’s dexterity was unearthly as was as an artist for the society. once told by Nandalal Bose to Benod Behari. A visit to the ongoing retrospective Just by observing Baij at work one could see the exhibition at NGMA (National Gallery of initiation of the ‘life’ bestowed upon him by Modern Art) of his, offers some brilliant earthly elements. insights to his creative virtuosity and He stuck to the structural quality of the intellectual commitments. There are works, and human body, not the anatomy as we know it. more especially some smaller ones like The This was about knowing and defining the body Colt, etching, now in private collection. To say through the skeleton. You analyse the body and that he was the pioneer of modernist art in India sculpt it as armature. Distortions, if any, are will not be complete truth. For the modernity is only meant to create certain vitality, as this discernible in India in artists like Rabindranath work does. Look at his wonderful work on Tagore, Gaganendranath Tagore and Jamini Tagore. In Santiniketan, he was the first to bring Roy and more can be added here. However, it in the concept of outdoor sculpture, using the would certainly be truthful to say that he was play of light and darkness to highlight its indeed a modernist, one of the few who make subtleties. He was capable of both, realism as the earliest phase in India, who celebrated it you can see in Mill Call and Santhal Family, but with utmost abandonment and zeal. He has left he could also make an absolutely abstract behind him a great body of work that the lampstand. Modern state of India has yet to learn how to Ideological Ramkinkar conserve and preserve. Not wanting to end on a Ramkinkar taught for many years and resigned note I would like to make an appeal to gave the Sculpture Department in Kala Bhavan all concerned bodies, of government or non- a unique working temper. He came to know two government, to act fast, coordinate sculptors Lisa Vonpott and Margaret Milward, systematically and bring Ramkinkar Baij's artists of European origin. His fascination for contemporary modern legacy into a definite human form widened into rethinking form itself state of permanent existence accessible to all and Western traditions were also for all time. May his art remain a defining icon accommodated by him with an empathy and of Indian stepping into the phase defined as interest in modernist exploration for new idiom Modern’. and visual vocabulary. However, Artist A. Ramachandran vividly recalls expressionism apparently was the idiom that his first meeting with Ramkinkar Baij in 1957. articulated much of his mature artistic work. A photograph of Baij’s monumental work, His sensitivity to the life of the dispossessed Santhal Family-a mother, father, child and dog and the disadvantaged section of society was with their few possessions had drawn him to made more sharp and deep with his inclination Santiniketan. The now Delhi-based artist went towards socialist political thinking and his close on to work closely with Baij for eight years in association with intellectuals of the Left Santiniketan. “Kinkarda was always exploring thinking. He succeeded in translating it with new ideas. He did not use still models but gave intensity in his art. In a way, Ramkinkar’s shape to sculptures by observing the inherent works reflect the ideological Left and his movement of people,” he says. Baij was an attempt to bring contemporary art and culture unconventional teacher singing into active people's politics. An ideological Rabindrasangeet and Bhatiali folk songs with energy was increasingly becoming visible in all his students, and taking them for long walks to

SELP Journal of Social Science 33 Volume. X, Issue 41

Apr-June 2019 ISSN: 0975-9999 (P), 2349-1655(O) sketch the Santhals near Santiniketan. Mostly installed at the Indira Gandhi National Centre seen in cotton shirts and sporting a Chinese for the Arts in Delhi to commemorate the straw hat, Baij was far from a member of the anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi’s trek from cultural elite. He was known to be indifferent to Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi. “What is there in fame or money. In a 2009 interview, quoted on it?” a panel member had scoffed. “Just a man Shodhganga, an online library of Indian with a stick in his hand.” dissertations, artist and teacher Dinkar Kaushik Legacy of Ramkinkar quoted Baij as saying: “I feel an inevitable Ramkinkar was singularly reticent and impulse and it forces me to create. Does it otherworldly as he was single-minded in his matter whether the rich and elite class demands commitment to art and humanity. But this did my art or not?” not stop his work from being noticed and While his initial lessons came from appreciated by sensitive artists and observing local idol-makers, he was also connoisseurs. He was invited to participate in inspired by the terracotta sculptures of the the Salon des Salon des Réalités Nouvelles in Bishnupur temples. His political posters 1950 and in the Salon de Mai 1951. And in the painted during the Non-Cooperation Movement seventies national honours began to come his in 1920 caught the attention of the editor of the way one after the other. In 1970 the Kolkata-based magazine, Modern Review, Government of India honoured him with the Ramananda Chattopadhyay. Baij would go on Padma Bhushan in 1976 he was made a fellow to bring a sense of social commitment to the of the Lalit Kala Akademi, in 1976 he was romanticism of Bengal art. An artist of the conferred the Desikottama by Visva Bharati, masses, he began as a traditionalist, but soon and in 1979 an honorary D.Litt. by the Rabindra started experimenting with more Western Bharati University. Some of his sculptures are approaches, including Cubism and abstraction. preserved and displayed at locations including His protagonists, though, were rooted in India, Kala Bhavan, Santiniketan, Late Rani Chanda in Santiniketan’s khoai, and drawn from the Collection & Academy of Fine Arts, Calcutta, Santhals, the original inhabitants of the land. H.K. Kejriwal Collection & Karnataka Baij had struggled with his identity Chitrakala Parishat, Bangalore, Lalit Kala during the initial years of his art practice. He Akademi, New Delhi, National Gallery of used several names—some of his earliest Modern Art, New Delhi, Reserve Bank of India, works, reproduced in the journal Prabasi, carry New Delhi, Jane and Kito de Boer, Dubai, and the name Ramkinkar Pramanik. A work in the the Delhi Art Gallery in New Delhi. 1920s is undersigned Ramprasad Das. Not Conclusion everyone appreciated his art even in The coming of Baij from his village to Santiniketan and it was Tagore, who, after Shantiniketan, immortalizing the place and seeing his first free-standing outdoor sculpture thereafter departing is all expressed in the in concrete, Sujata (1935), said that he will be various objects he made. In his autobiography, allowed to sculpt as he wanted across the one comes across the kind of definition he tried campus. His student KG Subramanyan once to provide behind the various themes on which compared him to the khepa Bauls or the mad he worked. It was in one sense or the other, his mystics; “an artist crazy with his art, lost so own story of life garbed into the sculpted much in his search as to forget both his person objects through various materials. In light of and his product.” post-modernity, one could reinterpret them as Baij was notoriously unconcerned portraits of unconscious domain expressed about fame and posterity. For the father of through objects of vision. These, in the making modern sculpture in India the joy of art lay in became definitive indicators of his inner-self creation. He was not beyond using it to plug a fused into the rhythm of man and nature. All his leak in a roof, as Ritwick Ghatak documented paintings and sculptures tried to canvas the in his yet to finish movie on Baij, or giving it various moods of interaction between humans away on a whim. His students KG and his surroundings. His was a connoisseur of Subramanyam and KS Radhakrishnan have the school of re-expressionism which delved spoken about the horrors of curating his works into the normal activities of the living creatures for retrospectives. His bas relief sculpture to bring forth beauty and challenges of them in Dandi March too faced scorn when it was to be the nature.

SELP Journal of Social Science 34 Volume. X, Issue 41

Apr-June 2019 ISSN: 0975-9999 (P), 2349-1655(O)

This feeling of embedded lustre, the Calcutta: A. Mukherjee and Co. Private keen observatory quality scooped out the inner Limited. trajectories of the man-nature-being triangular 7. Baij, R. (1980). Atmakatha. Visva-Bharati to express anything in a vibrant manner. He was News. instrumental in introducing modernity in Indian 8. Baij, D. and P. Das. (ed). (1991). Amar art and to go beyond in making a bond with the Kaka Ramkinkar (My Uncle Ramkinkar). surreal. The mixture of cubism, pointillism led Calcutta: A. Mukharjee and Co. Private to the Baijism. Sujata, harvester and lamp stand Limited. fused impressionistic elements with that of 9. Baij, R. and Chakraborty, S (td). (2005). cubic nuances. The interaction of length and Self-Portrait. Calcutta: Monchasa width with spatiality made a timeless appeal in Publishing Project. his works. They transcended the boundaries of 10. Bandopadhyay, P, M. and P. Das (ed). present to speak for the rustic life at all times. (1991). Amar Sahapathi Ramkinkar. None other than another doyen of a sculptor, Calcutta: A. Mukherjee and Co. Private Chintamani Kar said that Baij is a Dionysian, in Limited. the sense being iconoclastic. The ecological 11. Bandopadhyay, P, M. (1980). Ramkinkar. aspect of Baij’s work can be seen in the Visva-Bharati News. Fountain where a hybrid of buffalo with fish 12. Bandopadhyay, R. and P. Das. (ed). (1991). was made. The extremities of the climate of that Ramkinkar: A Rekha. Calcutta: A. particular region make the buffalo to quench its Mukherjee and Co. Private Limited. thirst while simultaneously pointing to the 13. Benodbehari, M. and K. Chakraborty. (ed). necessity of water conservation in keeping the (1983). Chitralekha. Calcutta: Aruna aquatic life intact. He himself said that Prakashani. everything in art is making and breaking. In the 14. Benodbehari, M. and P. Das. (ed). (1991). process, emerge a new dimension, meaning and Ramkinkarbabur Katha. Calcutta: A. appeal. His innovativeness was well reflected in Mukherjee and Co. Private Limited. the Birth of Krishna and Kongsha, having 15. Chaitanya, K. (1980). Ramkinkar-Impact definitive aspects of cubic touch of Europe Monumental. Hindusthan Times. synchronised by Baij with nativity. He was a 16. Chanda, H. (1980). Amar Pratibeshi product of the sub-continent to whom the Ramkinkar. Visva-Bharati News. Shivalinga and the Nataraj was high examples 17. Choudhury, S. (2006). Kinkar-da’s Firm of modernity. While working on various Brush, Some Colours, Some Lines and themes, he created his own avant-garde genre Some Recollections. Ramkinkar Baij of force and vitality. His works became Centenary Exhibition Catalogue. synonymous with the motion of the universe, 18. Choudhury, S. (1980). Kinkardake Jemon making him an eternal crusader of life-force. Dekhechi. Visva-Bharati News. References 19. Das Gupta, A. (2006).Visual Metaphors for 1. Amit, M. and P. Das. (ed). (1991). Shilpo, the Modernist Moments. Ramkinkar Baij Shilpi, Samaj o Ramkinkar. Calcutta: A. Centenary Exhibition Catalogue. Nandan. Mukherjee and Co. Private Limited. Kala Bhavan. 2. Apasamy, J. and Kowshik, D. (1982). 20. Dinkar, K. (1963). Ramkinkar. Lalit Kala Ramkinkar and Santiniketan. The Contemporary. Vol. 2. New Delhi: Lalit Visvabharati Quarterly, Vol. 46. Kala Akademi. 3. Apasamy, J. (1983). Ramkinkar as a 21. Dinkar, K. (1967). Contemporary Indian Pathfinder. Special Issue on Indian Sculpture. Lalit Kala Contemporary. Vol. Sculpture. 6. New Delhi. Lalit Kala Akademi . 4. Apasamy, J. (1970). Trends in Recent 22. Dinkar, K. (1976). Ramkinkar: His Sculpture. Lalit Kala Contemporary. Vol. Contribution to Contemporary Art. Lalit 16. New Delhi: Lalit Kala Akademi . Kala Contemporary. Vol. 22. New Delhi: 5. Apasamy, J. (1976). The Art of Ramkinkar. Lalit Kala Akademi. Hindusthan Times. 23. Emanul, H. (1992). Bengal Sculptures: 6. Bagal, R and P. Das. (ed). (1991). Chokhe Hindu Iconography up to c. 1250 A.D. Dekhte Pachhi Kinkarbabu Ekhono Achen. Bangladesh: Bangladesh National Museum.

SELP Journal of Social Science 35 Volume. X, Issue 41

Apr-June 2019 ISSN: 0975-9999 (P), 2349-1655(O)

24. Jaya, A. and P. Das. (ed). (1991). Shilpi- 43. Mulkraj, A. (1985). Contemporary Indian Manush Ramkinkar. Calcutta: A. Sculpture. Bombay: Marg Publication. Mukharjee and Co. Private Limited. 44. Narzary, J. J. (1980). A History of 25. Edith, B. (2008). Brancusi and his World. Environmental Sculpture and Ramkinkar Carnegie Mellon University Press. Baij. An Annual Art and Aesthetics, Kala 26. Geeta, K. (2000). When was Modernism? Bhavan, Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan. Essays on Contemporary Cultural Practice 45. Narzary, J. J. (1980). Ramkinkar Smaran. in India. New Delhi: Tulika Publication. Visva-Bharati News. 27. Ghosh, Dr. S. (1980). Tradition and 46. Pal, A. (1980). The Man and the Artist. An Modernity: A Note. An Annual Art and Annual Art and Aesthetics, Kala Bhavan, Aesthetics, Kala Bhavan, Visva-Bharati, Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan. Santiniketan. 47. Pal, R. (1985). A Few Paintings of 28. Ghosh, S. (1980). Notes on the Plastic Ramkinkar’s Last Phase. Pratikhan, 4 (5). Formals. An Annual Art and Aesthetics, 48. Paritos, S. (2008). Adhunik Bharatiya Kala Bhavan, Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan. Bhaskaryer janak Ramkinkar. Calcutta: 29. Hore, S. (2006). Ramkinkar’s Drawing. Desh. Ramkinkar Baij Centenary Exhibition 49. Partha, M. (1994). Art and Nationalism Catalogue, Nandan, Kala Bhavan. Colonial India 1850-1922. Britain: 30. JanakJhankar, N. (1978). Some New Trends Cambridge University Press. in Modern Indian Sculpture. Bombay: 50. Prabhas, S. and P. Das. (ed). (1991). Marg Publication. Chokhe Dekhte Pachhi Kinkarbabu 31. JanakJhankar, N. (1995). Modem Indian Ekhono Achen. Calcutta: A. Mukherjee and Sculpture: A Brief History. New Delhi: Co. Private Limited. Lalit Kala Academy. 51. Pradosh, D. (1988). The Art of D. P. 32. Kamal, S. (1984). BharaterBhaskar o Roychowdhury. Calcutta: Birla Academy Chitrashilpi. Calcutta: Yogamaya of Art and Culture. Prakashani. 52. Pran Nath, M. (2001). Contemporary Art in 33. Kar, C. (2002). Ramkinkar. Sukhi India- A Perspective. New Delhi, India: Grihakone, (March). National Book Trust. 34. Koushik, D. (1980). Blossom of Light. 53. Prasad, D. (2007). Ramkinkar Baij's Visva-Bharati News. Sculptures. New Delhi: Tulika Publication. 35. Koushik, D. (1974). Introduction in 54. Prasanta, D. (2011). Ramkinkar: Pioneer of Ramkinkar. Exhibition Catalogue, Kala Modern Sculpture. Kolkata: M. C. Sarkar Bhavan, Santiniketan. and Sons Pvt Ltd. 36. Koushik, D. (2006). Ramkinkar. 55. Pratima, S. (2006). Dictionary of Indian Art Ramkinkar Baij Centenary Exhibition and Artists. India: Mapin Publishing Pvt. Catalogue, Nandan, Kala Bhavan, Ltd. Santiniketan. 56. Radhakrishnan, K. (2012). A Retrospective 37. Kumar, S. (1980). A Room between Two Comprising 350 Works of Ramkinkar Baij. Rooms. An Annual Art and Aesthetics, Kala Frontline, 29 (5). Bhavan, Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan. 57. Radharani, D. and P. Das. (ed). (1991). Ami 38. Kunalkanti, S. and P. Das. (ed). (1991). Tomar PashePashe Achi. Calcutta: A. Chokhe Dekhte Pachhi Kinkarbabu Mukherjee and Co. Private Limited. Ekhono Achen. Calcutta: A. Mukherjee and 58. Sanda , M. (1995). Constantin Brancusi: A Co. Private Limited. Survey of his Work. Oxford: Clarendon 39. Mrinal, G. (2008). Ramkinkar-Challisher Press. Adhunikata. Kolkata: Pratikkhan. 59. Shiva, K. and P. Das. (ed). (1991). 40. Mukherjee, B. (1980). Ramkinkar. Ramkinkarer Jalronger Chobi. Calcutta: A. Exhibition Catalogue, Visva-Bharati, Mukherjee and Co. Private Limited. Chaitra Sammilani. 60. Sivakumar, R. (1997). Santiniketan: The 41. Mukherjee, B. (1980). Sadhak Shilpi Making of a Contextual Modernism. Ramkinkar. Visva-Bharati News. Exhibition Catalogue, National Gallery of 42. Mukherjee, B. (2007). Bandhapather Modern Art. Baire. Samhad Pratidin.

SELP Journal of Social Science 36 Volume. X, Issue 41