The correct answer is Option 3- Ramkinker Baij
Benode Behari Mukherjee and Ramkinker Baij, Bose’s most creative students, gave a lot of thought as how to understand the world. They developed their own unique style of sketching and painting that could capture not only their immediate environment like flora and fauna but also those who lived there. Shantiniketan had a large population of Santhal tribe at its outskirts, and these artists often painted them and made sculptures based on them. Apart from this, themes from literary sources also interested them.
Santhal Family: This is an open air large-scale sculpture created by Ramkinker Baij in 1937. It is made out of metal armature and cement mixed with pebbles, and placed in the compound of Kala Bhavana, Shantiniketan, India’s first national art school. It shows a scene of a Santhal man, carrying his children in a double basket joined by a pole, and his wife and dog walking alongside. Perhaps, it speaks of the family migrating from one region to another, carrying all their frugal possessions. This must be an everyday scene for the artist living amidst the rural landscape. However, he gives it a monumental status. The sculpture is made in the round, which means that we can see it from all sides. It is placed on a low pedestal, making us feel as if we are part of the same space. The significance of this work is that it is regarded as the first public modernist sculpture in India. We do not need to go to a museum to see it as it is placed outside Kala Bhavana. The material of which it is made of is important. The artist has avoided traditional medium like marble, wood or stone, and has preferred cement, the symbol of modernisation. |
