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that had unaccountably missed its chance of existence’ or me... that ever tries to win me for itself... this life impulse
‘a bird that only can soar in our dreams’. This led him to the I speak of belongs to a personality beyond the ego.’ (Geeta
creation of an antediluvian menagerie. Spurred by the same Kapur, ‘Rabindranath Tagore’, Six Indian Painters, exhibition
spirit of inventiveness he also took to cross projecting the catalogue, The Tate Gallery, London, 1982, p.18) Despite
movement of a living animal on to an imagined body, or the artist’s insistence that his paintings evolved at an
a human gesture onto an animal body and vice versa. almost subconscious level, it is evident from the similarity
This exchange between the familiar and the unknown, the of compositions of the two works in the current lot, that
inhabitation of one in the other, has led him to forms that are at times his pen and ink doodles became preparatory
as expressive as they are inventive.’ (‘Rabindranath Tagore: drawings for more formalised coloured ink works.
Poet and Painter’, www.vam.ac.uk, Rabindranath Tagore:
Poet and Painter, online exhibition catalogue, Victoria and Abanindranath Tagore says of his uncle’s work: ‘...it has
Albert Museum, London, 2011) happened like a volcanic eruption … Just think of it – what
an abundance of colour, lines and ideas was stored in the
Tagore’s paintings can be broadly categorised into three inmost recesses of the heart, for which literature was not
types: human figures, landscapes, and primitive forms that enough nor songs, nor lyrics – Which had to come out at
appear to be inspired by tribal and oceanic art. The current last in paintings.’ (Abanindranath Tagore, reprinted in
lot and the two following lots in the sale fall into this final Bichitra, An Exhibition of Rabindranath Tagore’s Paintings,
category. In this style of work, Tagore reveals his natural exhibition catalogue, National Gallery of Modern Art,
tendency towards a symbolist approach; his subconscious Mumbai, 2000, p.?33)
doodles and these more evolved works seem to tap an
archaic source. The artist states ‘I have a force acting in 45
