A recipient of the Nobel Prize (1913) for
literature, Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) was
born in an affluent Bengali family. The
versatile genius developed an acute sensibility
towards various art forms such as literature,
poetry, dance and music. He was well aware of
contemporary cultural trends around the world.
Tagore’s journey as a painter began in his late
sixties as an extension of his poetic
consciousness. Though he had hardly any formal
training in art, he developed a highly
imaginative and spontaneous visual vocabulary,
enhanced by a sound understanding of visual art
practices such as modern western, primitive and
child art.
Beginning as a subconscious process where
doodles and erasures in his manuscripts assumed
some form, Tagore gradually produced a variety
of images including fantasized and bizarre
beasts, masks, mysterious human faces, mystic
landscapes, birds and flowers. His work displays
a great sense of fantasy, rhythm and vitality. A
powerful imagination added an inexplicable
strangeness to his work that is sometimes
experienced as eerie and evocative. Tagore
celebrated creative freedom in his technique; he
never hesitated to daub and smear coloured ink
on paper to give life to his disquieting range
of subjects. His drawings and ink paintings are
freely executed with brush, rag, cotton-wool and
even his fingers. For Tagore, art was the bridge
that connected the individual with the world. A
modernist, Tagore completely belonged to the
world of his time particularly in the realm of
art.
Rabindranath Tagore
Dancing Woman, Ink on paper, 26 X 36.5 cm
Rabindranath Tagore
Lady with Flowers, Watercolour on paper, 22 X 35 cm
Rabindranath Tagore
Face, Ink on paper, 27 X 41 cm
Rabindranath Tagore
Landscape, Pastel on paper, 24 X 16.7 cm
Rabindranath Tagore
Landscape, Crayon, 49.5 X 32.4 cm
Rabindranath Tagore
Woman’s face, Ink on paper, 50.8 X 53 cm
Rabindranath Tagore
Head Study, Crayon, 17.3 X 25 cm
Rabindranath Tagore
Head Study, Pen and ink on paper, 21 X 28 cm
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