Among the Santiniketan artists, Benode Behari Mukherjee and Ramkinkar Baij stand out for their experimental range. A student at Kala Bhavan from 1919, Benode Behari resisted received wisdom. He set aside mythological and historical themes with the same independence with which he declined to be drawn into the nationalist stream. His sympathy lay with evocations of nature, particularly from his travels in Bihar, Bengal and Nepal. His paintings, with their broad, flat brushstrokes and quick calligraphic line, are an objective art of a selective, interpretive reality. Benode Behari stands apart among his contemporaries for an interpretation of nature that is neither overstated nor sentimental.
This vision of nature came from his deep interest in Far Eastern painting: among the Santiniketan artists, he more than anyone else absorbed the principles of Far Eastern calligraphic painting, which suited his contemplative, analytical mind. Benode Behari is a valuable guide to his own evolution. In his work there is a creative tension between nature and tradition, and between decoration and firm structural drawing, held in a state of delicate balance. While he felt the need to learn from the past, he also believed in the need for progress. After he lost his eyesight in a botched operation, he continued to paint, made collages, and kept breaking new ground; his persistence and his experiments went on to inspire later generations. Another departure, and what made his art compelling, was a new 'subaltern' canon — swarthy, elongated faces with large noses and thick lips, with little in common with either the delicate, oval-faced women of the Bengal School or the figures of the academic artist Ravi Varma.
Ramkinkar Baij is widely regarded as an arch-modernist who made a distinct contribution to both sculpture and painting, and is widely considered one of India's foremost sculptors. In painting, he was not merely the first to display several post-cubist features, but also the first to show a convincing grasp of their underlying logic. It is often argued that Ramkinkar represented a break within the Santiniketan ethos: the crux of this claim is the emphasis he placed on the human world, and especially on the representation of Santhals. While Benode Behari and Nandalal both treated rural life as part of the larger reality of rural nature, Ramkinkar focused on the human figure. His work was an open-ended record of his daily encounters with the world around him.
Ramkinkar is, in many ways, a transitional figure, whose approach to subject and craft moved between romantic idealisation and a socially committed art. As an artist, he stands out for both his adherence to, and departure from, the Santiniketan approach. Eclectic in range, he drew freely from early Indian sculpture, cubist painting, expressionist watercolours and landscapes. Ramkinkar showed an emotional response to his subjects, matched by his willingness to experiment with material and form. In this way, both Benode Behari and Ramkinkar stand outside and beyond the Santiniketan school, representing in their art a vibrant Indian modernity.
Vinayak Pasricha