c. 1945

Minstrel and Two Ascetics

Indian, 1887 - 1972

Roy’s abstracted figuration recalls, if only coincidentally, the primitivist aesthetic cultivated by Paul Klee. While Klee looked to the arts of Africa and Oceania in his quest to uncover a more authentic artistic voice, Roy drew from the living folk painting traditions of his home region of Bengal to construct a vocabulary of simplified forms in bold, flat colors that would counter the European academic realism favored by India’s wealthy, urban elite. He also cultivated a collaborative studio environment evocative of traditional artists’ workshops in India.