Ram Kinker Baij
| Ramkinkar Baij রামকিঙ্কর বেইজ |
|
|---|---|
| Born |
26 May 1906 Bankura, Bengal, British India |
| Died | 2 August 1980 (aged 74) P G Hospital, west bengal, india |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Known for | Sculptor, painter |
| Notable work | Lady with Dog, Sujata, Santhaal Family, Mill Call, jokkho-jokkhi |
| Movement | Contextual Modernism,Ashohojog andolon (non-co-operation movement) by Mahatma Gandhi |
| Awards | Deshikottom by Visva-Bharati University, D.lit by Rabindra Bharati University, Padma Bhushan(1970) |
| Patron(s) | Ramananda Chatterjee |
Ramkinkar Baij (Bengali: রামকিঙ্কর বেইজ) (26 May 1906 – 2 August 1980) was an Indian sculptor and painter, one of the pioneers of modern Indian sculpture and a key figure of Contextual Modernism.
Baij was born in an economically modest family in the Bankura district of the modern state of West Bengal in India. In that sense, he was a Bengali, not an Adivasi, as many people usually think. The surname Baij derived from Boidda and Boijo consequently. His family surname was Poramanik and was abandoned by him in the early 1925. However, many of his artistic creations have been inspired by the lifestyles of rural dalit or Adivasi (Santhal) communities living in and around his place of work Santiniketan.
While in his mid-teens Ramkinkar used to paint portraits of Indian freedom fighters involved in the Non-Cooperation Movement against the British rulers of India. At age of 16 he got noticed by the renowned journalist Ramananda Chatterjee. Four years later Ramkinkar joined the Visva-Bharati University at Santiniketan as a student of fine arts. After obtaining a diploma from the university he went on to head the sculpture department. Eminent painters like Beohar Rammanohar Sinha and Jahar Dasgupta, both students of Shantiniketan were his disciple.
Professor R. Siva Kumar, an authority on the Santiniketan School of Art wrote, "Ramkinkar Baij was born on 25 May 1906 in Bankura in West Bengal, into a family of little economic and social standing, and grew, by the sheer dint of talent and determination, into one of the most distinguished early modernists in Indian art. As a young boy he grew up watching local craftsmen and image-makers at work; and making small clay figurines and paintings with whatever came his way. His talent, prodigious for his age, attracted the attention of local people, especially of the nationalists with whom he was associated. This led him in 1925, on the advice of Ramananda Chatterjee the nationalist publisher and apologist for the new Indian art movement, to mark his way to Kala Bhavana, the art school at Santiniketan. At Santiniketan, under the guidance of Nandalal Bose and encouraged by its liberating intellectual environment, shaped by Rabindranath Tagore, his artistic skills and intellectual horizons acquired new depth and complexity. Soon after completing his studies at Kala Bhavana he became a member of its faculty, and along with Nandalal and Benodebehari Mujhrejee played a decisive role in making Santiniketan the most important centre for modern art in pre-Independent India.
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