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Abanindranath Tagore

Posted on August 7, 2021 by admin1  1180

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A year-long celebration marking 150 years of Abanindranath Tagore will start soon, with a host of online workshops and talks paying tributes to the leading light of the Bengal School of Art.

About Abanindranath Tagore

  • He was the nephew of Rabindranath Tagore, born in Calcutta on 7 August 1871.
    • He is hailed as one of the greatest icons of Indian modern art.
  • Interest Areas :
    • He painted a range of subjects. He had a leaning towards painting images with historic or literary allusions. 
    • He liked to paint sets of images dealing with a theme or a text such as the ‘Arabian Nights’ or the ‘Krishna Leela’. 
    • He also enjoyed painting theatrical subjects. Literature and drama held great respect for him and he was an elegant and accomplished writer. 

                                                            Image Courtesy:  The Print 

Major Contributions 

  • He established the Indian Society of Oriental Art and brought in the idea of ‘Swadeshi‘ in Indian art. 
  • His idea of modernizing Mughal and Rajput paintings eventually gave rise to modern Indian painting, which took birth at his Bengal school of art. 
    • It aims to counter the English influence on Indian artists. 
  • A proficient and accomplished writer :
  •  He is also regarded as a proficient and accomplished writer. Most of his literary works were meant for children. 
    •  He was also a published writer of children’s books. Several of his works like Budo Angla, Khirer Putul, Shakuntala and Rajkahini are considered Bengali children’s classics.
  • Bases of works :
    • His works were primarily based on literary and historical iconographies.
      •  A classic example is found in his painting of “Bharat-Mata” (1905), originally conceived by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay as “Banga Mata”. 
      • His paintings reflected a medley of the influences of the Japanese ‘wash’ style and Chinese ink painting; English pre-Raphaelite and Art-Nouveau trends, and also Mughal and Rajput miniature paintings
      • Some of his most famous paintings include Shahjadpur Landscape, Ullapara Station, Alamgir, Passing of Shah Jahan, among others.

Rabindranath Tagore

  • He was born on 7 May 1861 to Debendranath Tagore and Sarada Devi in Kolkata (Calcutta).
  • He is popularly known as ‘Gurudev’.
  • He was primarily known as a writer, poet, playwright, philosopher and aesthetician, music composer, choreographer, and painter.

Contributions made- He released his first collection of poems under the pen name ‘Bhanusimha’ at 16 years of age.

  • He wrote the National Anthems of India and Bangladesh.
  • He wrote the song Banglar Mati Banglar Jol (Soil of Bengal, Water of Bengal) to unite the Bengali population after the Bengal partition in 1905.
  • He also wrote the famed ‘Amar Sonar Bangla’ which helped ignite a feeling of nationalism amongst people.
  • He started the Rakhi Utsav where people from Hindu and Muslim communities tied colourful threads on each other’s wrists.
  • He rejected violence from the British as well and renounced the knighthood that had been given to him by Lord Hardinge in 1915 in protest of the violent Amritsar massacre in which the British killed unarmed Indian citizens.

Awards– In 1913, he became the first Indian to receive a Nobel Prize in Literature for his novel ‘Geetanjali’.

Bengal School of Art

  • It was an art movement and a style of painting that originated in Calcutta, the centre of British power, but later influenced many artists in different parts of the country, including Shantiniketan, where India’s first national art school was founded.
  • It was associated with the nationalist movement (Swadeshi) and spearheaded by Abanindranath Tagore (1871–1951). 
    • Abanindranath enjoyed the support of the British administrator and principal of the Calcutta School of Art, E. B. Havell (1861–1934). 
    • Both Abanindranath and Havell were critical of colonial Art Schools and the manner in which European taste in art was being imposed on Indians.
    • They firmly believed in creating a new type of painting that was Indian not only in subject matter but also in style. 
      • For them, Mughal and Pahari miniatures, for example, were more important sources of inspiration, rather than either the Company School of Painting or the academic style taught in the colonial Art Schools.

Source: TH

 

 
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