IP_ Tagore Issue - Final.indd - high commission of india mauritius

In a letter to his daughter,Rabindranath Tagore hadonce commented thatpainting wasn’t really hisforte – had it been so hewould have demonstrated whatneeded to be done. But muchbefore this lament, in an earlierepistle addressed to J.C. Bose(1858-1937), he had mentionedin an ebullient tone that itwould surprise the latter tolearn that he had been paintingin a sketchbook, although theeffort with the pencil was beingovertaken by the effort withthe eraser, such that Raphaelcould lie peacefully in hisgrave without the fear of beingrivaled.The multifarious personality ofRabindranath covered diverseterrains of creative expression,but he ventured into the worldTagore selecting his paintings in Moscowof painting quite late in life.The pages of his manuscripttitled Purabi, a book ofpoems published in 1924, isconventionally identified as thefirst evidence of articulationthrough full fledged visualimages. In the process ofediting and altering the text ofthese poems, the poet beganjoining together the struck-outwords in rhythmic patterns oflinear scribbles, with the resultthat these connected erasuresemerged into consolidated,united and independent identityas fantastic visual forms. Aboutthis process, he later wrote: “Ihad come to know that rhythmgives reality to that which isdesultory, which is insignificantin itself. And therefore, whenthe scratches in my manuscriptcried like sinners, for salvationTagore at his exhibition at the GalleryPigalle with Victoria Ocampo (seated).and assailed my eyes with theugliness of their irrelevance,I often took more time inrescuing them into a mercifulfinality of rhythm than incarrying on what was myobvious task.” (‘My pictures’, 1;28 th May 1930).The Purabi correctivecancellations, deleting theunnecessary and unwanted,finally fused together intoa unity of design; but morethan that, this rhythmicinterrelationship gave birthto a host of unique forms,most often queer, curiousand grotesque. This nearlysubconscious birth of forms,springing up unpremeditatedon the sheet of paper, is anecessary corollary to the poet’sinnate concern with rhythm. Itwas not the sheer delectablebeauty of swirling arabesquesAll paintings illustrated in this essay areby Rabindranath Tagore.that interested the poet, but theemergent unpredictable thatdelighted him. These creaturesmay certainly defy classificationaccording to strict conventionsof zoology, but are very muchvalid as entities in a painter’sworld. They even possessdistinctly identifiable moods,emotions and characteristics,such that they becomepersonalities rather than blankforms.The manuscript is a privateand personal domain;as the presence of theseemergent forms began todemand more independentexistence, the poet-painterturned to full scale paintings.However, having originatedfrom the subconsciousplayfulness of the erasures,somewhat unfortunatelyand for a considerable time,Rabindranath’s pictorial practicetended to carry the stigma ofbeing a dilettante’s dabble.While it is true that he didnot possess any academicinitiation into the domain ofthe visual arts, he did takelessons in painting in hischildhood, as most childrendo, from home-instructors.In his reminiscences titledChelebela (my childhood days)Rabindranath had recalled howin the interminable sequenceof home-instructors, an artteacher would immediatelystep in once the instructor inphysical education had justleft. While that is no pleasantrecollection that may inspirelater indulgence in the visualarts, in the Jeebansmriti (Myreminiscences) he had recordeda slightly different childhoodmemory – at bed-time he wouldstare at the patterns of peelingINDIA PERSPECTIVES VOL 24 NO. 2/2010 28 INDIA PERSPECTIVES VOL 24 NO. 2/2010 29