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Paintings of Rabindranath Tagore: Simplest in form, deepest in spirituality with cosmic feeling

By Prabuddha Ghosh

Many of us know Rabindranath Tagore as a Nobel Laureate, author, playwright, writer, philosopher, and musician; however, very few people know him as an artist, an intense painter with a keen interest in the human form and nature – and truly a national and international figure in Pre-modern and Indian Modernism art.



His works are freely executed with brush, cloth, cotton and even his fingers. Tagore saw art as a bridge connecting the person to the world through the strands of human nature and emotion. Tagore didn't begin painting right away. Doodling was his first foray into the world of drawing. He would usually write something and then cut across the lines. He'd then use his intuitive imagination to fill in the overwriting and other corrections into something that resembled a shape and form.

It may come from the idea of reality in realistic pattern or in abstraction. He let his emotions and imagination take the reins while indulging in art.


In Tagore's work, the human face is a recurring theme. He linked human appearance with emotions and essence as a master novelist, and this transcended into his art as well. Tagore's faces convey a wide range of emotions, including melancholy, mystery, threatening, melodramatic, and romantic.

Tagore didn't offer his paintings titles, but by doing so, he liberated them from the constraints of literary imagination. He wanted his audience to see the paintings in their own way and appreciate them in their own way. His work as a playwright and in the theater affected this portion of his paintings greatly. But, as a genius, he never believed in following the crowd, preferring to find his own way, eventually establishing himself as a trend setter in modern Indian art.


#prabuddha #prabuddhaghosh #prabuddhasart #aimartinme #RabindranathTagore 

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