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

his pictorial quest and theenormous output – scholarsclaim that he had broughtalong as many as fourhundred paintings for the1930 exhibitions. What is ofinterest beyond numbers,are the choices exercised byRabindranath as a painter.In a period when nationalistrevivalism was triumphantin the country, he had thestrength of will to proposea larger vision beyond therestrictive criteria of national/geographical boundaries inmatters of creative expression.In fact, it is tempting to viewRabindranath’s pictorial practiceagainst the phrase that assumedthe role of a guiding motto forVisva Bharati, the university heinstituted: yatra viśva bhavatieka nidam – where the wholeworld comes to meet as in asingle nest. This catholicitydistinguished Rabindranath’screative process, and hisapproach to the notion oftradition was thereby liberated.Coupled with this, his Europeantours had probably contributedconsiderably to make the artof those lands a directly feltexperience. But even whenone identifies, for instance,echoes of the expressionistic inthe paintings of Rabindranath,the images in their ultimateINDIA PERSPECTIVES VOL 24 NO. 2/2010 32 INDIA PERSPECTIVES VOL 24 NO. 2/2010 33