Gaganendranath Tagore

{{short description|Indian painter and cartoonist of the Bengal school (1867-1938)}}

{{Infobox artist

| name = Gaganendranath Tagore

| image = Gaganendranath Tagore.png

| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{birth date|1867|09|17|df=y}}

| birth_place = Calcutta, Bengal Presidency, British India

| death_date = {{death date and age|1938|02|14|1867|09|17|df=y}}

| death_place = Calcutta, Bengal Presidency, British India

| nationality = Indian

| movement = Bengal School of Art

| patrons =

| awards =

| known_for = {{hlist|Painting|cartoonist}}

}}

Gaganendranath Tagore (17 September 1867 – 14 February 1938){{cite book|editor1-last=Sengupta|editor1-first=Subodhchandra|editor2-last=Bose|editor2-first=Anjali|title=Sansad Bangali Charitabhidhan|publisher=Sahitya Samsad|location=Calcutta|year=2010|edition=5th|isbn=9788185626659}} was an Indian painter and cartoonist of the Bengal school. Along with his brother Abanindranath Tagore, he was counted as one of the earliest modern artists in India.

Life and career

Gaganendranath Tagore was born at Jorasanko into a family whose creativity defined Bengal's cultural life. Gaganendranath was the eldest son of Gunendranath Tagore, grandson of Girindranath Tagore and a great-grandson of Prince Dwarkanath Tagore. His brother Abanindranath was a pioneer and leading exponent of the Bengal School of Art. He was a nephew of the poet Rabindranath Tagore and the paternal great-grandfather of actress Sharmila Tagore.

File:Pratima Visarjan by Gaganendranath Tagore.png

Gaganendranath received no formal education but trained under the watercolourist Harinarayan Bandopadhyay. In 1907, along with his brother Abanindranath, he founded the Indian Society of Oriental Art which later published the influential journal Rupam. Between 1906 and 1910, the artist studied and assimilated Japanese brush techniques and the influence of Far Eastern art into his own work, as demonstrated by his illustrations for Rabindranath Tagore's autobiography Jeevansmriti (1912). He went on to develop his own approach in his Chaitanya and Pilgrim series. Gaganendranath eventually abandoned the revivalism of the Bengal School and took up caricature. The Modern Review published many of his cartoons in 1917. From 1917 onwards, his satirical lithographs appeared in a series of books, including Play of Opposites, Realm of the Absurd and Reform Screams.{{cite book|last=Terracciano|first=Emilia|title=Bengal School Painting from the Collection of L.T.P Manjusri (1902-82)|publisher=Oliver Forge Brendan Lynch|chapter-url=http://www.pagegangster.com/p/XxATR/42/|chapter=Biographical Notes}}

Between 1920 and 1925, Gaganendranath pioneered experiments in modernist painting.Kasturbhai Lalbhai Museum, Ahmenabad Partha Mitter describes him as "the only Indian painter before the 1940s who made use of the language and syntax of Cubism in his painting".{{cite book|first=Partha| last=Mitter|title=The Triumph of Modernism: India's Artists and the Avant-Garde, 1922-1947|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=krdWkzVLSbkC&pg=PA18|year=2007|publisher=Reaktion Books|isbn=978-1-86189-318-5|page=18}} From 1925 onwards, the artist developed a complex post-cubist style.

Gaganendranath also took a keen interest in theatre, and wrote a children's book in the manner of Lewis Carroll, Bhodor Bahadur ('Otter the Great').

Works

Adbhut Lok: realm of the absurd, 1917, Calcutta: Vichitra Press, a portfolio of thirteen satirical pictures.
Naba Hullod: Reform screams; a pictorial review at the close of the year 1921, 1921, Calcutta: Thacker, Spink & Co.
Birupa bajra (Play of Opposites), 1930, Calcutta: Preonath Das Gupta for the Indian Publishing House.
Bhondor bahadur, Kolkata: Shishu Sahitya Samsad, 1998, classic children's book

Family tree

Gallery

File:জীবন-স্মৃতি - রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর (page 97 crop).jpg|"In this patch of light the maids have gathered,... rolling cotton waste into lamp-wicks, and chatting in undertones of their village homes", illustration in Rabindranath Tagore's Jivan Smriti ([https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:%E0%A6%9C%E0%A7%80%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%A8-%E0%A6%B8%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%AE%E0%A7%83%E0%A6%A4%E0%A6%BF_-_%E0%A6%B0%E0%A6%AC%E0%A7%80%E0%A6%A8%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%A6%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%B0%E0%A6%A8%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%A5_%E0%A6%A0%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%95%E0%A7%81%E0%A6%B0_(page_97_crop).jpg&oldid=753878888 জীবন-স্মৃতি], [https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/22217 My Reminiscences]), 1912

Gaganendranath Tagore - Sat-Bhai Champa.jpg|Sat-Bhai Champa. Watercolour, 34 × 25 cm, Victoria Memorial, Kolkata

Gaganendranath Tagore - Meeting at the Staircase - Google Art Project.jpg|Meeting at the Staircase, c. 1920-1925

Rising son in law in Bengal, painting by Gaganendranath Tagore - Indian Museum, Kolkata.jpg|Rising Sun-in-law of Bengal, a criticism to bride burning. Indian Museum, Kolkata

References

External links

[https://artsandculture.google.com/entity/m04r0_l Profile] on Google Arts & Culture
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7rGW74HYI0 Short film] by Films Division of India on YouTube
[https://collections.vam.ac.uk/search/?q=Tagore%2c%20Gaganendranath Artworks] in the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
[http://ngmaindia.gov.in/virtual-tour-of-gaganendranath-tagore.asp Virtual tour] of artworks on National Gallery of Modern Art website