TRACING TRADITION, SHAPING MODERNITY: THE ART OF MEERA MUKHERJEE & JAMINI ROY FROM THE LECHNER COLLECTION
April 09 - May 02 , 2026
Some collections are built through attuned acquisitions, while others are formed through conversations, friendships, time and exchange. The Lechner Collection belongs to the latter. Formed during Georg Lechner’s years in Kolkata as the Director of the Max Mueller Bhavan in the 1960s, the collection emerged from an intimate engagement with the artists and their studios in the city. These works are therefore not merely the objects collected across the subcontinent, but rather traces of trust, gestures of dialogue, and evidence of meaningful engagement with people and places.
Within this collection, the works by Meera Mukherjee and Jamini Roy stand out, resonating with particular clarity. Though separated by a generation and diverse medium, their works speak a shared visual language that is distinctly Indian and deeply rooted in folk traditions.
Jamini Roy turned towards the vernacular visual vocabularies of the Kalighat Patas, the friezes from the terracotta temples of Bishnupur, and wooden toys. In his work, lines move quietly, yet boldly with certainty. In his paintings the divine and the ordinary dwell side by side, marked by almond-shaped eyes and a rhythmic quality that is uniquely his own. His works depict not just people; they breathe with their songs, stories, and rituals. His forms pulsate with a warmth of heart, embodying delicacy, devotion, and an inner stillness that reflect both the intimacy of ordinary life and the spiritual sensibilities of the traditions that inspired him.
A generation later, Meera Mukherjee forged her own path though the medium of bronze. Inspired by the lost wax techniques, her sculptures are like frozen ballads whose body language captures what she described as the rhythms of daily life. Her travels across the country during the 1960s and 70s, helped her discover her virtuosity in sculpting. By improvising indigenous methods of metal casting with European techniques, she created a distinct modernist expression, producing works that celebrate everyday life, labour, social movements, and human relationships. Evoking a narrative, they emphasise the dignity of people she encountered and the creative intelligence in rooted craft traditions.
Presented together, the works of Jamini Roy and Meera Mukherjee reveal parallel trajectories in Indian modernism. Both resisted rigid distinctions between what is considered folk and what is ‘fine’ art. They showed how modern art practices could emerge from traditional visual languages rooted in the culture of the subcontinent—reimagining tradition as a living evolving source of creativity. This exhibition invites viewers to reconsider the foundation of modern art through the lens of continuity, experimentation and cross-cultural dialogue embodied in the Lechner Collection.
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