Gaganendranath Tagore

Born on 18 September 1867 into the Tagore family in Kolkata, Gaganendranath Tagore was a self-taught artist and nephew of the great poet and nationalist Rabindranath Tagore.During the period of 1906-07, he used to receive frequent summons to serve on the special jury. During the course of his visits to the court, Gaganendranath would make use of his time making sketches of the jurors and counsel. This is where it's said that he evolved as an artist and cartoonist.In 1907, he founded the Indian Society of Oriental Art along with his brother Abanindranath Tagore, but Gaganendranath remained the moving spirit behind it. His work seems to be inspired and his imagination carried away by anything Indian or Oriental. His earliest sketches and landscapes date back to 1905. His landscapes bear a Japanese stamp as he was inspired by Japanese artist Yokoyama Taikan. His work also shows a great influence of experimentalist art prevalent in Europe in the late 1800's. He was extremely proficient in the European watercolour technique.During 1916-18, he evolved a new language of humor and satire in caricature. His work also found it’s way to magazines and newspapers and thus was born a new department in art called Vichitra Club.In 1923-28 he experimented with cubism, producing a series of pictures filled with blended geometric forms. His work can thus be broadly divided into specific phases. Brush work with Japanese style, some with gold backgrounds, portrait sketches, illustrations for Jeevan Smriti, water colour sketches of rural Bengal, the Himalayan studies, the Chaitanya series, caricatures of Indian life, his semi-cubistic experiments, pictures of folk lore and representations of the symbolism of death and the other world.The largest number of paintings of Gaganendranath now forms part of Rabindra-Bharati Society's collection at Jorasanko, Kolkata. Gaganendranath Tagore passed away on 14 February 1938 in Calcutta. 

His exhibit with us is titled House Interior in Cubisum,a water color on paper.