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Tagore :: Lest We Forget: The Most Renowned Of Indian Artists

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When art lovers reminisce great Indian artists who have gone before them their thoughts go back to one great artist whose works has made him immortal in the minds of society. This is none other than Rabindranath Tagore of West Bengal, India.

Rabindranath Tagore was a great artist who played a great role in shaping the future of Indian Modern Art. He stressed a lot on India’s spiritual heritage in his works and reiterated his belief that any artist must use what he called an ‘inner eye’ instead of following what the art school taught them. Schools were fine when it came to teaching techniques of painting, writing, coloring and filming, however it was the imagination that Tagore gave most importance to. According to him, true Artists needed to develop their imagination if they wanted to be creative.

Tagore went on to set up one of India’s premier art institutions, the ‘Shantiniketan’ in West Bengal and also won a Nobel Prize for literature. He taught at the government Art School in Calcutta and was instrumental in bringing together artists from Europe and many parts of Asian under one roof to share and amalgamate their artistic talents.

Tagore could not stress enough that students of art should be given the opportunity to see art in many styles and media as they possibly could. He also was of the opinion that an artist should be given the freedom to form his or her own style and expression.

Rabindranath Tagore lived from 7 May 1861 – 8 August 1941 and was perceived by critics as being more interested in literary works rather than paintings or drawings. However, this may have well been because his poetic works were globally recognized and well received and also won him (and the nation) a lot of acclaim; he was acknowledged as the author of the Indian National Anthem, which surprisingly is in the Bengali language instead of the National Language ‘Hindi.’ But, the most startling fact about this passionate painter is that Tagore is believed to have never taken a brush to canvas (never painted a serious painting) till he was 67 years old! However when he died at the age of 81, he had produced as many as a total of 200 works of art in ink and watercolors!! (His contribution to literature and poetry goes much farther and we’ll probably need much more space than this article allows, to cover all of that!).

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