Ramkinker Baij is considered the father of modern Indian sculpture. This is an attempt to piece together a puzzle and the issue of posthumous casts.
First, we rely on a Facebook post by his student, Latika Katt, on the demise of Bipin Goswami - another student of Ramkinker. It is said that two of his students, Bipin Goswami and Prabhas Sen, produced Ramkinker’s bronze casts for him.
And then we refer to “Ramkinker: Through the Eyes of Devi Prasad" by Naman Ahuja
So the editions of the 2 two small-sized works are the “Dandi March” and “Prambulator” that were sold by Lalit Kala at least, as per the information above, and very close to his death. These were made by Bipin Goswami at the Garhi studios.
Let's further investigate the note - that he cast the bronze of “Santhal Family in 1981. Note: Ramkinker had already passed away in 1980. So Vishwa-Bharati is essentially behaving as the estate of Ramkinker. The good news is the detail and the thoroughness and the people involved in the process - Sankho Choudhuri, KG Subramanium, Ajit Chakraborty, and, from Latika Katt’s Facebook, including Bipin Goswami.
Image Credit: Asian Art Archive. The same archive has other letters. Documents a posthumous casting to be made under strict supervision.
After his death, the masters/maquettes from his studio were surely divided between NGMA and Nandan (the museum at Vishwa-Bharati).
The NGMA details the history of the contents of Ramkinkar's studio in Santiniketan after his death on August 2, 1980. It records how Visva-Bharati (Kala Bhavana), the Ministry of Culture, and the Lalit Kala Akademi coordinated to survey, catalogue, and transfer his unbaked clay, plaster of Paris models, drawings, and working maquettes into institutional care and national museum reserves to prevent physical loss.” (Biographical Timeline & Preservation Essays pp. 12–28, 310–315, Ramkinkar Baij: A Retrospective (1906–1980). New Delhi: NGMA. Siva Kumar, R., & Radhakrishnan, K. S.)
In Summary
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We have discussed bronze casts for Lalit Kala Academy by Bipin Goswami. We have documented works being cataloged for archival storage to the NGMA & Nandan (The Museum at Viswa-Bharati) after his death in 1980, as well as the government-sanctioned posthumous casts, such as the Santhal Family.
The last thing to be discussed is Cement/Plaster casts (aka master/maquette) in private hands made either by Ramkinker or his students - this would be very provenance-specific with little published research.
