Scholars conclude: All Tagore works inter-connected

In a collection of articles on the Nobel laureate’s paintings published as ‘The Last Harvest — Paintings of Rabindranath Tagore’ recently,leading scholars have come to the conclusion that an overarching principle of rhythm united all of Tagore’s creative outlets.

“His free verse poems with lines of varying lengths spread out across the page — always with a general movement of left to right — have a shape as distinctive as his drawings and paintings,” Radice,a London-based expert on Bengali language and literature,writes.

Art historian and curator R Siva Kumar recounts that while switching from writing to giving finality to his doodles,‘Gurudev’ sometimes erased an entire page of writing and turned it into a page of drawing.

“This freed the image from the text and made it independent,but he did not take to doing in independent paintings until 1928. And when he did,his initial paintings were akin to the doodles,” he observes.

A polymath,Tagore reshaped India’s literature and music in the twentieth century. His vast body of diverse creative expression also includes dance,drama and paintings.

“A large part of man can never find its expression in the mere language of words. It must,therefore,seek its expression in other languages — lines and colours,sounds and movements,” writes researcher Uma Das Gupta quoting Tagore.

The book by Mapin Publishing,comprising over 200 of Tagore’s unique paintings along with essays by leading scholars from around the world,was released here recently at the Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival.

The publication is supported by the Union Ministry of Culture and the National Gallery of Modern Art.

Tagore,however,wanted his paintings to be unlike his writings,less burdened with meaning.