DAG, your claims are false!

Surprisingly, Jamini Roy’s house turned into a private museum has been compared to painter Frida Kohlo’s house museum in a distant country like Mexico. But the same DAG does not look inwards to see the unique museums in Maharashtra. Jamini Roy undoubtedly remains one of the greatest painters of his times and the fame he got can put any Bollywood celebrity to shame. This also shows how much the Bengalis love art and its artists, even today. That the DAG is converting his house into a museum is certainly a matter of great joy. But, what needs to be acknowledged is that this is not the first one, three such museums are already there in Maharashtra, and are being deliberately ignored by galleries and media.

The Times of India on 7th April 2023 published a news that generated quite a curiosity in the artist fraternity- reason being newspapers still do not allot such big spaces to news on Arts. According to this news, DAG i.e. Delhi Art Gallery is going to convert Jamini Roy’s house in Kolkata into a museum. The Delhi Art Gallery already has many of his valuable paintings in its collection and therefore, it is a matter of great joy that these precious works will be converted into a collection and opened for public viewing. However..

The claim that Jamini Roy’s house in Kolkata is going to be the country’s first private painter’s museum is false. Maharashtra has already reached there first. Despite being one of the biggest centres for artists, this big news about Maharashtra is not known to many people outside of Maharashtra. The houses of three great artists like Vinayak Pandurang Karmarkar, Chandrakant Mandre, and Keki Moos already have works of these greats preserved in their homes as private musuems, but sadly the so-called elites of the country do not want to look beyond their world.

Or is it a deliberate attempt to show that what we are doing is unique and first-of-its-kind to start this kind of conservation work in India? Surprisingly, Jamini Roy’s house turned into a private museum has been compared to painter Frida Kohlo’s house museum in a distant country like Mexico. But the same DAG does not look inwards to see the unique museums in Maharashtra. Jamini Roy undoubtedly remains one of the greatest painters of his times and the fame he got can put any Bollywood celebrity to shame. This also shows how much the Bengalis love art and its artists, even today. That the DAG is converting his house into a museum is certainly a matter of joy. But, what needs to be acknowledged is that this is not the first one, three such museums are already there in Maharashtra, and are being deliberately ignored by galleries and media.

The first is the Karmarkar Museum of sculptor Vinayak Pandurang Karmarkar at Saswane near Mumbai. Karmarkar’s house is also neat and tidy like his sculptures. On the second floor of the house, the sculptures of Karmarkar have been arranged beautifully. The garden too has lot of his sculptures. After Karmarkar’s death, all his sculptures from his Deonar studio were moved into this home. Students can visit this museum for a nominal fee to study these sculptures. I visited this museum in 2018. The rainy season had just started. Traveling through scenic Alibaug to Saswane village was a lovely experience. The caretaker opened the museum for me for a nominal fee of Rs. 10. Few tourists visit the museum daily, so it was specially opened for me.

Coincidentally, Karmarkar had worked for a few years with Jamini Roy while in Kolkata. Born in 1891 when British rule in India was at its peak, Karmarkar started making sculptures from clay balls right from childhood. His creations seemed as if he had divine art in his hands. His fame spread far and wide. However brutal the British rule be, one of its good qualities was the British man’s respect for art. One such British officer, the then collector of Raigad, Otto Rothfield, saw Karmarkar’s painting and suggested to his father to send him to the JJ School of Art. Not only this, Rothfield provided financial aid for his education!

Karmarkar was introduced to Surendranath Tagore at JJ School of Art and the art-rich milieu of Mumbai. It was he who invited Karmarkar to come to Kolkata. In 1916, Karmarkar set up his studio at Jhowtala Road, Kolkata and did many commercial works in Kolkata. Later, he went to England with the help of Rothfield. He got education in modern art by visiting many art colleges there. After two years, he returned and started his own studio in Mumbai. An important thing is that Karmarkar’s career as a sculptor began with the sculpture of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and ended with the sculpture of Chhatrapati himself!

During his career he created many great sculptures. The Mermaid is one of his remarkable sculptures. Karmarkar’s sculptures are characterized by not only the external beauty of the human body, but also an enchanting innocent expression by making human body and animals around him as his sculpture subject, exuding an amazing beauty.

Karmarkar’s bungalow is just a stone’s throw away from Mumbai. His daughter-in-law built this museum with great effort. This museum is not very known as it is only a family effort. The museum would have had a much larger global reach if it had been supported at the government level or by a commercial gallery like the DAG. It is good that the DAG’s proposed Jamini Roy Museum is getting a lot of publicity, but it is the misfortune of Maharashtra that the museums of Karmarkar, Keki Moos or Chandrakant Mandare are still devoid of such honor.

The second museum is the house of Keki Moos at Chalisgaon in Jalgaon district. Keki Moos, being confined to his house all his life, he experimented in photography. ‘Chinha’ publication was going to bring out a special issue on Keki Moos, which somehow could not happen. However, Photographer Dilip Kulkarni’s article on Keki Moos in 2020 Lokmat Deepotsav is worth reading. Keki created numerous works of art in various mediums – wood sculpture, painting, photography, origami. His symbolic photograph based on the political philosophy of Jawaharlal Nehru was very popular. After the death of Keki, the art lovers of Chalisgaon converted his house into a museum.

The third example from Maharashtra is Kala Maharshi Chandrakant Mandre’s Art Museum at Kolhapur. Chandrakant Mandre offered his residence to the Government of Maharashtra and a museum of his paintings stands there now. Chandrakant was also a very well-known Marathi film actor, who joined Baburao Painter’s “Maharashtra Company”. There he worked as an actor and film poster artist. Mandre loved landscape paintings. Since 1977, an award for artwork and artist of the year has been named after him. Mandre’s film stills, paintings and sketches are exhibited in this art gallery. This art gallery is located in the residence of the Mandare family at Nisarga Bungalow, Kolhapur. He generously donated this art gallery to the Department of Archeology, Government of Maharashtra.

Maharashtra has always been at the forefront culturally. It is the only state where an art directorate is functioning at the state level for the promotion of visual arts. Maharashtra is the state which has an Art university like JJ School of Art and is the state where attempts have been made not once but thrice to save the painter’s house as an art museum. The efforts have been made sometimes at the family level, and sometimes in the form of collective trusts, without any backing from the international art gallery like the DAG. So, the DAG’s claim about Roy’s museum is false. However, that DAG will run this museum professionally is certain, which Maharashtra has not been able to do so far…

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– Kanak Waikar