Abanindranath Tagore (1871 - 1951)

Copyright © 2012 Mocomi & Anibrain Digital Technologies Pvt. Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Abanindranath Tagore Abanindranath Tagore (1871 - 1951) grew up surrounded by creativity. His family were Kol- kata aristocrats who greatly influenced and spearheaded art and culture in the city. He was born in the Tagore family bungalow in Jorasanko and grew up to be a prolific painter and an extremely influential revivalist of Indian art.

Copyright © 2012 Mocomi & Anibrain Digital Technologies Pvt. Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Abanindranath Tagore A young Abanindranath studied his craft at the Calcutta School of Art where he matured as a painter under the influence of Italian art-teacher Signor O. Gilhardi and British teacher Charles Palmer, who helped him devel- oped his technique in painting.

Copyright © 2012 Mocomi & Anibrain Digital Technologies Pvt. Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Abanindranath Tagore Later he would come in contact with Japanese painter and art-critic Okakura, who was vis- iting India with the phi- losopher Swami Vive- kananda. Okakura taught him that the spirit of a culture is represented in its art which guided him on the path to revivalism. He also learnt from the Japa- nese master painter that gesture and movement of the hand while painting played an important role in spirit of the painting itself.

Copyright © 2012 Mocomi & Anibrain Digital Technologies Pvt. Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Abanindranath Tagore Tagore worked as the Vice Principle of the Government College of Art where he earned a reputation as an Indian renaissance revivalist. The first thing he did was replace the Euro- pean style paintings in the buildings with those from the Rajput and Moghul schools. He invited renowned painters as resident artists at the college to whom students had full access and supported the local hand-loom in- dustry by commissioning fabric that his family bought or was donated to the Indian freedom struggle.

Abanindranath, like Raja Ravi Varma helped modernise Indian painting and during his time as an educator nurtured the talents of other soon-to-be artists such as Jamini Roy, Asit Halder, Nandalal Bose

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