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Rabindranath Tagore as Artist: A Legend in His Own Time?

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Rabindranath Tagore

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Abstract

I shall not dwell much on the style and quality of Tagore’s paintings. Instead I would like to begin with a passage that Professor K. G. Subramanyan once wrote:

To most of my generation, talking about Tagore does not come easy. Because to us Rabindranath was more than just a person. He was to us a compelling symbol, a symbol of India’s cultural regeneration. For me personally, and I presume for a number of Indian artists, the work of Rabindranath came like a breath of fresh air.1

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Notes and References

  1. K. G. Subramanyan, ‘Rabindranath and Art: A Personal View,’ in Nandan (1977) 1–2.

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  2. Maitreyi Debi, a close friend of Tagore, complains about the neglect in Bengal in 1930 of his paintings, in ‘Bideshe Rabindra Chitra Pradarshani’ (Exhibition of Tagore’s Paintings Abroad), Sundaram, 1367 (1960) 215–23.

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  3. William Radice, Rabindranath Tagore: Selected Poems (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1985).

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  4. On the exhibitions, see R. Parimoo, The Paintings of the Three Tagores (Baroda University Press, 1973) p. 178;

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  5. on the Paris exhibition, D. Malakar, Artist Rabindranath (Calcutta: Ananya Prakashan, 1978) p.59.

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  6. On Tagore’s decline in the West, see Mary Lago, (ed.), Imperfect Encounter (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1972) Chs. 6 and 7.

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  7. Alex Aronson, Rabindranath through Western Eyes (Allahabad: Kitabistan, 1943).

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  8. On relativism and connected debate there is extensive literature; see, for instance, B. Wilson, Rationality (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1979); and my article, ‘Can We Ever Understand Alien Cultures? Some Epistemological Concerns Relating to the Perception and Understanding of the Other’, Comparative Criticism, ed. E. Shaffer, 9 (Cambridge University Press, 1987) 3–34.

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  9. Rabindra Bhavan, in Santiniketan, contains most of Tagore’s works.

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  10. See Primitivism in 20th Century Art (Catalogue of Exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1986), ed. W. Rubin, 2 vols, especially vol.2: D. E. Gordon, ‘German Expressionism’, pp.369–403, and E. Maurer, ‘Dada and Surrealism,’ pp.535–93.

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  11. See E. H. Gombrich, review of Malraux, ‘Malraux and the Crisis of Expressionism’, in Meditations on a Hobby Horse (London: Phaidon, 1965) pp.78–85.

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  12. S. Ghosh, Okampor Rabindranath (Calcutta: Dey’s Publishing, 1973) p.87.

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  13. Bengali translation of Victoria Ocampo’s Rabindranath on the Summit of San Isidro (Tagore en las barrancas de San Isidro, 1961).

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  14. Comtesse de Noailles, ‘The Visible Dreams of Rabindranath Tagore’, in The Calcutta Municipal Gazette: Tagore Memorial Special Supplement, 1st ed., September 1941; reprint May 1986, pp.176–9.

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  15. Anti-Noailles view quoted in S. Bandopadhaya, Rabindra Chitrakalā, Rabindra Sāhityer Patabhumikā (Santiniketan: Visva-Bharati, 1981) p.280.

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  16. Bidou’s review: in Foreign Comments. See note 4 above.

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  17. Joseph Southall, preface to the Birmingham Exhibition Catalogue (Summer 1930), in Foreign Comments.

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  18. Miinchener Telegramm-Zeitung; Hannoverischer Kurier; Berliner Börzen-zeitung; Mannheimer Tageblatt; Vorwärts; Dresdner Anzeiger: all in Foreign Comments.

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  19. A. P. G. Danil’chuk, A Dream Fulfilled (Calcutta: Firma K. L. Mukhopadhaya, 1986) pp.231–3.

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  20. On Tagore’s impressions of Russia, see ‘Russiār Chithi’, in Rabindra Rachnabali, Centenary Ed., (Santiniketan: Government of West Bengal, 1961–66) X, 673–746.

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  21. A. K. Coomaraswamy, introduction to the Exhibition of Tagore’s Drawings, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1930. Available in Foreign Comments.

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  22. In Foreign Comments.

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  23. See W. S. Rubin, ‘Picasso’, in Primitivism in 20th Century Art II, (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1986) p.241ff., on the importance of primitive art in ‘liberating’ European artists from classical tastes.

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  24. On social Darwinism, see J. W. Burrow, Evolution and Society (Cambridge University Press, 1966); and Wilson, Rationality.

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  25. Letter to Indira Devi, July 1893, in Tagore, ‘Chhinna Patrābali,’ quoted in Bandopadhaya, Rabindra Chitrakalā, p.3.

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  26. Romain Rolland, Inde Journal (1915–1943) (Paris: Editions Vinita, 1951).

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  27. Bandopadhaya, Rabindra Chitrakalā, p.26. Letter of 14 August 1930, on behalf of the National Gallery to the owner of the Möller Gallery, expressing keenness to acquire Tagore’s works chosen by Ludwig Justi, though the Gallery indicated its difficulty in paying a substantial amount. Tagore in his letter to Justi dated 16 August generously presented the works as a token of his appreciation of German hospitality. See Foreign Comments.

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  28. Bandopadhyay. Rabindra Chitrakalā, pp.29–30.

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  29. Ibid., pp.31, 34–5.

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  30. W. S. Rubin, Dada and Surrealistic Art (London: Thames & Hudson, 1969).

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  31. See R. Ringbom, ‘Art in the Epoch of the Great Spiritual’; Journal of Warburg and Courtauld Institutes (London), 29 (1966) 386–418.

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  32. Abanindranath Tagore, Sadanga, May 1914-October 1914 (Modern Review reprint); Some Notes on Indian Artistic Anatomy (Calcutta: Modern Review reprint). The importance of these two pieces for the orientalist art of the Bengal School and its rejection of the Renaissance criteria of representation is discussed in my forthcoming article, ‘The Ideology of Swadeshi Art’. On the exhibition of Bauhaus artists, see Catalogue of the 14th Annual Exhibition of the Indian Society of Oriental Art, December 1922 (International Section: Modern Phases of Western Art; Introduction by Stella Kramrisch, pp.21–3). I am grateful to Mr. Arif Rahman Chughtai for allowing me to use this catalogue belonging to the Chughtai Museum, Lahore.

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  33. Letter of 11 September 1900, in ‘Chithi Patra’, in Bandopadhyaya, Rabindra Chitrakalā, VI, 11.

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  34. Tagore’s portrait is in Krishna Kripalani, Rabindranath Tagore (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1962), facing p.311.

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  35. For a general description of the phenomenon, see Walter Benjamin, ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’, in his Illuminations (London: Fontana/ Collins, 1970) pp.219–53.

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  36. See P. Weiss, Kandinsky in Munich (Princeton University Press, 1979), plate 32c, for Hölzel. Kauffer’s poster is known today mainly as the cover for Art and Illusion, by E. H. Gombrich;

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  37. but see J. Delhaye, Art Deco Posters and Graphics (London: Academy Editions, 1977). I deal with cartoons of Gaganendranath Tagore and the German graphic art in my forthcoming book.

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  38. Tagore, ‘Art and Tradition’, in Rabindranath Tagore on Art and Aesthetics (Delhi: Orient Longmans, 1961) pp.58–64.

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  39. Maitreyi Debi, Mangpute Rabindranāth (Calcutta: Grantham, 1960) pp.l64–5.

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  40. On stylistic analysis of Tagore’s art, see R. Parimoo, The Three Tagores; and more extensively in Bandopadhaya, Rabindra Chitrakala.

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  41. The scholarly contribution to the discussion by W. G. Archer, ‘Art and the Unconscious,’ in India and Modern Art (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1959) pp.49–79.

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  42. See also E. H. Gombrich, ‘Freud’s Aesthetics,’ Encounter, 26 (1966) 35.

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  43. Tagore, Art and Aesthetics, p. 102.

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  44. Ibid., p.70.

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  45. Bandopadhaya, Rabindra Chitrakalā, p.88.

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  46. Tagore, Art and Aesthetics, p.40.

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  47. Tagore, ‘Jibansmriti’, Rabindra-Rachanābali (Calcutta: Visva-Bharati, 1961–66) XIII, 68–73.

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  48. Gombrich, Art and Illusion (London: Phaidon, 1962) pp.89, 154–7.

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  49. Bandopadhaya, Rabindra Chitrakalā, p.38.

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  50. On Tagore’s role in swadeshi nationalism, see S. Sarkar, The Swadeshi Movement in Bengal (Calcutta: People’s Publishing House, 1973)

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  51. and C. Sehanbish, Rabindranath o Biplabi-Samāj (Santiniketan: Visva-Bharati, 1985).

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  52. On Rothenstein’s India visit, see his Men and Memories (ed. and abridged by M. Lago (London: Chatto & Windus, 1978) p.162.

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  53. Bandopadhaya, Rabindra Chitrakalā, p.265.

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  54. Tagore, Art and Aesthetics, p.2.

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  55. Ibid., p.59.

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  56. Ibid., p.63.

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  57. Ibid., p.40.

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  58. See two essays, ‘The Sense of Beauty’, (pp. 1–10) and ‘What Is Art?’ (pp.11–33), ibid.

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  59. The literature is extensive but see George Steiner, After Babel (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980) for a stimulating discussion on the subject.

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  60. Tagore, Art and Aesthetics, pp. 103–4. On Abanindranath Tagore, see note 27.

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  61. Bandopadhaya, Rabindra Chitrakalā, pp.61–6.

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  62. Ibid., p.88.

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  63. Tagore, ‘Chitrakar’, in Galpa Guccha; in Rabindra Rachanābali, VII, 734.

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  64. Tagore, ‘Grarchhārā’, in Punascha; in Rabindra Rachanābali, III, 89.

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  65. Tagore, ‘Chhabi Ānkiye’, in Bichitra; in Rabindra Rachanābali, IV, 955–6.

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  66. Tagore, Art and Aesthetics, p.89.

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  67. Bandopkadhaya, Rabindra Chitrakalā, p.87.

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  68. Ibid., p.94.

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  69. Ibid., pp.97–8.

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  70. Ibid., p.100.

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  71. Ibid.

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  72. See also A. Tagore, Jorasankor Dhāre (Santiniketan: Visva-Bharati, 1971) p.98.

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  73. Ibid., p.101.

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Authors
  1. Partha Mitter
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Missouri, USA

    Mary Lago

  2. Commonwealth Institute, UK

    Ronald Warwick (Literature and Current Affairs Officer) (Literature and Current Affairs Officer)

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© 1989 Partha Mitter

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Mitter, P. (1989). Rabindranath Tagore as Artist: A Legend in His Own Time?. In: Lago, M., Warwick, R. (eds) Rabindranath Tagore. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-09133-1_8

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