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Rabindranath Tagore
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"People often ask me about the meaning of my pictures. I remain silent even as my pictures are. It is for them to express and not to explain. They have nothing ulterior behind their own appearance for the thoughts to explore and words to describe, and that appearance carries its ultimate worth."
Born into a wealthy land-owning family of Bengal, Rabindranath Tagore was initiated into art fairly late in his life, at the age of 63. He...
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"People often ask me about the meaning of my pictures. I remain silent even as my pictures are. It is for them to express and not to explain. They have nothing ulterior behind their own appearance for the thoughts to explore and words to describe, and that appearance carries its ultimate worth."
Born into a wealthy land-owning family of Bengal, Rabindranath Tagore was initiated into art fairly late in his life, at the age of 63. He is thus better known for his literary achievements (for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1914) though he has painted close to 2,500 paintings during the few years he was an artist. Over 1500 of these are preserved at the Vishva Bharati University, Santiniketan.
Tagore was attracted to the sketches drawn by his elder brother Jyotirindranath. In 1924, while writing "Purabi" he started doodling on the pages of his manuscript. He also had a habit of crossing out and covering the rejected lines and phrases of his poetry with various kinds of scribbled ink lines. At a certain stage he noticed that these - taken individually or together - had a special rhythmic presence, and a little more doodling transformed some into flowers, others into birds or strange astonishing creatures seemingly with a life and body of their own.
Plus, he being a perfectionist couldn't stand anything untidy, therefore the crossed out lines had to beautified using various means, and that's how he started to paint.
Though he lacked a formal training in art, he used this lack of knowledge to his advantage, which opened new horizons in the use of line and color. In fact, through his work it is evident that his art was a search for a newer form of expression; he was trying to express through his painting all that he couldn't in his verses. If he was seeking peace and enlightenment in his songs, he seemed to explore darkness and mystery in his drawings. Tagore once said, "The world speaks to me in colors, my soul answers in music". In most of his paintings, one notices the use of dark colors and an illumination.
For him, painting was almost like a volcanic eruption of his new found freedom, and thus he used various mediums. Tagore's preferred mediums were ink or watercolor, unlimited crayon, pen and also fingertips. Form, composition, rhythm and a throbbing vitality were an integral part of Tagore's pictorial vocabulary.
Tagore, in his article 'My Pictures', explains his paintings: "The world of sound is a tiny bubble in the silence of the infinite. The Universe has only its language of gesture; it talks in the voice of pictures and dance. Every object in this world proclaims in the dumb signal of lines and colors, the fact that it is not a mere logical abstraction or a mere thing of use, but is unique in itself, and carries the miracle of its existence. In a picture the artist creates the language of undoubted reality, and we are satisfied that we can see. It may not be the representation of a beautiful woman but that of a commonplace donkey or of something that has no external credential of truth in nature but only in its own inner artistic significance.
Love is kindred to art it is inexplicability. Duty can be measured by the degree of its benefit, utility by the profit and power it may bring, but art by nothing but itself. There are other factors of life, which are visitors that come and go. Art is the guest that comes and remains. The others may be important, but art is inevitable."
In 1930, through a series of exhibition in Paris, London, Berlin, Moscow and New York, the world discovered the poet Rabindranath as an important modern painter. Subsequently, his works continued to be exhibited both in India and internationally. He is known to have commented that Indians were not ready to accept him as a painter, and thus he exhibited more of his works abroad.
His reputation as an artist has continued to grow even after his death in 1941. Tagore's contribution to the art of India remains one of the most important to date.
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Born
1861
Died
1941
Education
Self-Taught
1879 Went to England & was admitted to University College. Taught at Visva Bharati, Santiniketan, Kolkata
1878 Went to Ahmedabad to study English
1871 Admitted to the Bengal Academy, an Anglo-Indian School. Kolkata
1870 Started learning drawing & music along with other subjects, Jorasanko, Kolkata
1868 Studied at the Oriental Seminary and subsequently to normal school, Kolkata
Exhibitions
Selected Posthumous Exhibitions
2013-14 'Transition', 20th...
Selected Posthumous Exhibitions
2013-14 'Transition', 20th Anniversary Show, Centre of International Modern Art(CIMA), Kolkata
2011-12 'The Last Harvest', Travelling Exhibition organised by Ministry of Culture through National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), New Delhi at Asia Society, New York; Asian Art Museum, Berlin; National Museum of Korea, Seoul; The National Visual Arts Gallery, Kuala Lumpur; NGMCA, Rome; McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Toronto
2011-12 'Rabindranath Tagore: Poet and Painter', on the occassion of 150th anniversary of the birth of Rabindranath Tagore at Victoria and Albert Museum, London
2011 'Ethos V: Indian Art Through the Lens of History (1900 to 1980), Indigo Blue Art, Singapore
2011 'Circle of Art: The Three Tagores', on the eve of 150th Birth Anniversary of Tagore at National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), New Delhi
2011 'The Master’s Strokes: Art of Rabindranath Tagore', on the eve of 150th Birth Anniversary of Tagore at National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), New Delhi
2011 ‘Manifestations V', Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi
2011 'The Emergence of Indian Modern Art', Aicon Gallery, London
2010 'Paper Trails', Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi
2010 'The Master’s Strokes: Art of Rabindranath Tagore', National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), New Delhi
2010 'Manifestations IV', Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi
2009 'Indian Art After Independence: Selected Works from the Collections of Virginia & Ravi Akhoury and Shelley & Donald Rubin', Emily Lowe Gallery, Hempstead
2005 'Manifestations III', Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi
2004 'Manifestations II', Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi
1987-88 Festival of India, USSR and Japan
1986-87 Barbican Gallery, London; Corner House, Manchester; The Third Eye, Glasgow; Cartwright Hall, Bedford and Museum of Modern Art, Oxford
1985 Jakarta and East Europe
1982 ‘Six Indian Painters', Tate Gallery, London
1981-85 Travelling Exhibition, Tokyo, Djakarta & Eastern Europe.
1973 Rabindra Bhavan Gallery, Visva-Bharatri University, Kolkata
1967 BAAC, Kolkata
1972 Solo Exhibition, Birla Academy of Art and Culture (BAAC), Kolkata
1967 Solo Exhibition, Birla Academy of Art and Culture (BAAC), Kolkata
1965 Solo Exhibition, National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA)
1961 Solo Exhibition, Tagore Centenary Exhibition, Kolkata
1961 Solo Exhibition, Indian High Commission, Karachi
1961 Solo Exhibition, Swiss National Library, Switzerland
1961 Solo Exhibition, Colombo Art Gallery, Sri Lanka
1959 Rome -New York Art Foundation, Rome.
1955,57 Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata
1953 Solo Exhibition, National Library, Kolkata
1953 Solo Exhibition, Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai
1950 Solo Exhibition, ,Allahabad University, Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh
1947 National Gallery of Australia, Melbourne.
1946International Exhibition of Modern Art, Paris
1943 Solo Exhibition, Tagore Society, Prince of Wales Museum, Mumbai.
1943,45,47,49,51,52,69 Kala Bhavan, Santiniketan, Kolkata
Selected Solo Exhibitions
1939 Bangiya Sathiya Parishad, Kolkata
1938 Calmann Gallery, London
1934 Congress House, Chennai
1932 Calcutta Government College of Arts (CGAC), Kolkata
1931 The Newman Galleries, Philadelphia, USA
Honours and Awards
1976 Declared Art Treasure under the Antiquities and Art Treasure Act. 1972...
1976 Declared Art Treasure under the Antiquities and Art Treasure Act. 1972 by Government of India
1921 Founder member, Visva Bharati, Santiniketan
1915 Knighthood by King George, but he rejected it
1914 Awarded the Nobel Prize for his literary achievements
1912 Went to England and published his first work in English Gitanjali
1906 Invited to preside over the first session of Bangiya Sammilani
1898 Became the editor of Bharati
1882 Along with Jyotirindranath established Sarasvat Samaj
1869 Rabindranath's first attempt to write verse
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