Rabindranath Tagore: His World of Art

DETAILS : Author : Supriya Roy , Sushoban Adikhary Publisher ‏ : ‎ Niyogi Books Publication date ‏ : ‎ July 16, 2014 Language ‏ : ‎ English Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 276 pages ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9383098120 ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-9383098125 Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1500 g ABOUT THE BOOK Rabindranath Tagore: His World of Art, co-authored by the esteemed curators and art historians Supriya Roy and Sushoban Adhikary, is a visually stunning, critically acclaimed monograph. Published by the Lalit Kala Akademi (India's National Academy of Art), this definitive volume offers an intimate, highly analytical exploration of the legendary polymath’s late-career transition into the realm of visual arts, where he produced over 2,300 paintings and drawings. The primary objective of the volume is to trace the organic, fascinating genesis of Tagore’s art, which famously began not with a canvas, but as involuntary doodles, erasures, and corrections in his manuscript poetry notebooks. The authors systematically decode Tagore's artistic universe—which stood in stark contrast to his structured, rhythmic, and harmonious literature—by dividing his output into distinct thematic and psychological phases: The Evolution of Erasures: Documents how his accidental corrections on writing paper gradually mutated into complex, rhythmic geometric patterns, grotesque subterranean monsters, and stylized prehistoric birds. The Expressionist Landscape: Analyzes his haunting, dark, and brooding landscapes. The authors highlight his unique use of local vegetable dyes, ink, and fabric colors applied rapidly with fountain pens, rags, fingers, and broken twigs rather than traditional brushes. The Enigmatic Faces: Explores his deeply expressive, melancholic portraits of women and men, which art critics often link to buried psychological memories, grief, and a transnational modernist sensibility. The Santiniketan Paradigm: Contextualizes his art within Kala Bhavana (the school of fine arts at Visva-Bharati University), showing how his radical, untutored style challenged both traditional Indian academic realism and the classical nationalist aesthetics of the Bengal School led by his nephew, Abanindranath Tagore. Richly illustrated with high-fidelity color plates, archival photographs, and reproductions of rare diary pages, the book serves as a vital bridge for art historians, cultural researchers, and global admirers seeking to understand the avant-garde dimension of Tagore's genius. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Supriya Roy is a widely respected archivist, researcher, and author who served for decades at the Rabindra Bhavana (the Tagore Museum and Archives) at Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan. She is a foremost authority on Tagorean documentation, having curated numerous international exhibitions and edited seminal volumes, including Rabindranath Tagore: An Illustrated Life. Sushoban Adhikary is an eminent artist, art conservator, and profound art critic based in Santiniketan. As the former curator of the Visva-Bharati art collection, his technical expertise in analyzing pigments, brushwork, and structural restorations brings a rare, practitioner-focused depth to the book. His authorial style is celebrated for its poetic grace, rigorous archival discipline, and deep baseline understanding of the cultural soil of rural Bengal.