Rabindranath Tagore:

As a fine artist

In this series on the life and times of Rabindranath Tagore, in this week’s column, we would explore Tagore as an artist and how he expressed through the medium. Tagore’s paintings should be looked at bearing the fact in mind that Tagore never had a formal education in painting. His was a process of learning through trial and error and Tagore used arts as a logical extension of his ideas through the graphical medium of paintings.

Speaking on Tagore’s paintings, Sushma K Bahl and Dr. Neeru Misra states that Tagore’s ‘numerous designs, scribbles and doodles’ that he made in the process of ‘makings- deletions and additions in his manuscripts’ which has been called ‘manuscript arts’ would have been his formative stages of his later drawings.

However, Tagore’s drawings, phenomenally, bear his signature of genius and maturity, humanity and idealism. Sushma K Bahl and Dr. Neeru Misra observe this aspect of his drawings as, “The artist’s aesthetics reflect his maturity and idealism and appear linked to the ethos of his remarkable work in other disciplines such as writing and music. Simple and spontaneous the oeuvre is impressive for the depth and freshness of Tagore’s imagination. Since he did not have any formal training in art, it is through trial and error that he developed his genre. Rooted in India, the work seems an amalgamation of many different styles with an affinity with Kandinsky, Picasso and Matisse as well as Japanese and Chinese masters, whose works he must have been seen during his travels abroad. A discrete colour scheme in an expressionist mode, with the central form in a pastel palette and surrounding surface covered in black or another dark colour, endow a restrained translucence to his repertoire. To this other craft skills such as carving, woodcut, hand written text, scribbles, rhythmic designs, embellishments and artistic leitmotifs that he learnt through practice, were added to enrich what has sometimes been described as primitive imagery.”

Paintings

They point out that Tagore painted in ‘fast pace’ often finishing picture in ‘one session’ ‘as and when he could find the time from his literary and other work though preferring the morning for its light’. The material as well as mode execute of his paintings were different to a conventional artist who would often use oils for paintings.

They observe, “ Using pen, lead pencil, black ink, coloured ink, pastels, water colours, gouache and natural colours extracted from flora and fauna , but hardly any oils, the artist like to draw as much as paint often working with the back side of the pen and his own fingers and hand, making what he liked to describe as ‘verses in lines’. Besides black and browns, he enjoyed working with golden yellow given its semblance to the ripe rice fields in the autumn and opaque colours for their ruggedness and texture, but on any paper that he could lay his hands on unmindful of its fragility. ”

Sushma K Bahl and Dr. Neeru Misra states that “Tagore believed, ‘One thing which is common to all arts is the principle of rhythm which transforms inert material into living creations’ ”.

Tagore held his debut show in Paris in 1930 which was organised by one of his admirers, was well received by the art lover and had been a procurer to many successful exhibition held in France, Europe and USA.

Diverse traditions

Speaking on diverse traditions and many inspirations of Tagore, Sushma K Bahl and Dr. Neeru Misra observes, “ One encounters several traditions which are distinct for their fine line work, bold forms, graphic texture and special arrangement, be these in the form of facades, figures, shapes and motifs. There are drawings and paintings of faces, portraits, often female, pensive and oval shaped, wearing a disturbed look in their large poignant eyes. Perhaps, the untimely death at a young age of his elder brother Jyotirindranath’s wife Kadambari Davi, with whom he shared a close comradeship, was the trigger for the sad and enigmatic demure of women featured in his paintings. But there were also his reformist views behind his engagement with feminist themes as his work stood for women to be seen and heard beyond the home and hearth. ” Tagore was bold enough to draw nude female figure at the time.

An important component of his genre of painting is portraits of men and self-portraits. They are remarkable in their ‘minimal distortions and closeness to reality’. Nature is a recurrent theme in Tagore’s poetry and it has been a recurrent motif in his paintings as well.

Motif

Sushma K Bahl and Dr. Neeru Misra observe, “Nature-scape is a recurrent motif in much of Tagore’s art. The year spent at Santiniketan and Shilaidaha and his close association with rural India were possibly the reasons for his fondness for painting nature, flora, fauna and landscapes. There are intricate paintings and ink drawings and water colours paintings with wash, featuring trees, forests in his landscape series. His birds unlike anything familiar seem other worldly and a product of his imagination. ‘The flying dove’ in pink and blue looking upward with its wing ready to fly off, while its elongated feet are still stuck in the ground, and ‘The bird’ possibly a cock, wide eyed and looking for a pray; are engaging in images in his nature inspired work.”

A significant aspect of his paintings is masks which has been one of the modes through which Tagore expressed himself. It is obvious that Tagore was influenced by ‘his exposure to cultures and artistic practices of Indonesia and the Far East.’ Looking at his paintings and drawings, one may come to the conclusion that Tagore, though not a professional artist has used his drawings and paintings to express his profound humanistic philosophy, love for the mankind and nature.