Page 133 - Art and Crafts of Bangladesh

130 ART AND CRAFTS

give sensory pleasure to the viewer. Even the knowledgeable western connoisseurs of
art who came to love Indian art could not comprehend the primordial essence of Indian
art. The irresistible sexual pleasure of the supra-sensual aspect of Indian art ultimately
seemed to be indecent to them. According to Janak Jhankar Narzary, the appeal of
sexuality in Indian art is natural and used in a larger sense - life force, energy,
movement, rhythm, pleasure etc. are conveyed through it. Many have accepted this as
the primordial essence which also has a greater meaning. The female forms are
represented in the nude, but their expression is natural, they are beautiful in harmony
with the rhythm of the universe - free from the fragile ideals of the world of morals or
sin and virtue. The ‘beauty’ of the female body that the Indian artists mastered from
92
the European was a new addition to Indian art. The commodification of the female
body has been accepted from the academic trend.
Traditional artisans were encouraged in the early stages of the Calcutta Government
Art School. In 1875 during Henry Hoover Locke’s period the fees were greatly
increased. His intention was to encourage the affluent into art education and discourage
students from poor artisan families. In the time of Ghilardi sculptors began to travel
abroad for education. Havell was enthusiastic about sculpture. His wife Lily Jakobson
was a pupil of Rodin. In the meanwhile, the Indian Society for Oriental Art had been
established in 1907 and Abanindranath resigned from the Calcutta Art School and
began to teach at the Indian Society of Oriental Art. There also he inspired his students
to practice in the medium of sculpture. Above all the role of Rabindranath has to be
mentioned. Whatever is good in today’s Bengal seems to have at its source the noble
and generous touch of his august personality. Rabindranath’s artistic sensibility seems
to have brought in modernism in the true sense to India. He considered art to be a
completely personal field of expression and took it above all racial and traditional
fig. 2.40 Ramkinkar ideas. Ramkinkar Baij came into contact with him and created a new horizon in
Baij, Lampstand, 1938
sculpture under his protection. ‘The art of Ramkinkar constitutes a turning point in the
general trend that had up till 1935 commercialized the art of sculpture... Rakminkar can
be considered the most important and earliest sculptor working in India during the
period of transition.’ 93
Ramkinkar Baij (1906-1980) was born in a poor barber family in Jogipara, Bankura.
From his very childhood he learnt the technique of building clay icons from a
traditional clay artisan of his village called Ananta Pal. The editor of the journals
Prabasi and Modern Review, Ramananda Chattapadhay was captivated by
Ramkinkar’s paintings and background scenes painted for theatres. He sent Ramkinkar
to Santiniketan to learn painting from Nandalal. Ramkinkar was then 19 years old. In
Santinikatan he learnt sculpture from Liza Von Pott, an Austrian sculptor, Margaret
Milward (a student of Bourdelle) and finally a British sculptor called Bateman. They
did not impose the Neoclassical style in teaching sculpture as in the government art
institutions. In the enlightened atmosphere of Santiniketan Rabindranath had
introduced a new method of education. In 1919 Kala Bhavana was established.