Tagore works should reach masses: Sharmila

The legacy of Rabindranath Tagore should reach the masses across the country on his 150th birth anniversary in 2011 with more translations in Hindi, says yesteryears actress Sharmila Tagore, herself a scion of the Tagore family. Sharmila is the great grand-daughter of Rabindranath Tagore's nephew Gaganendranath Tagore, considered one of the finest early modern painters in the country. She is currently in the capital on a personal mission.

"The Nobel Laureate's 150th birth anniversary is a great occasion for young people across India, who are not aware of his work, to know the poet's literary and artistic achievements. His literature and art are like an ocean. More of his literary works should be translated in Hindi than in English," Tagore, who is also the censor board chief, told IANS.

The censor board chief said she and her family have taken "several initiatives to carry Tagore to the masses throughout the year".

"We are not part of the government's National Implementation Committee on Tagore's 150th Birth Anniversary. We are working privately," she said.

The leading lady of yesteryears, who is Nawab of Pataudi's Mansur Ali Khan's wife, said "last week she visited a school and found that Bengali pronunciations varied from student to student".

"A 10-year-old student recited a Bengali poem Chitta Jetha Bhoi Shunya (Where the Mind is Without Fear) and his Bengali diction was perfect. It was such a joy. I think every generation must know the depth of Tagore's works," she said.

Sharmila has a "modest collection of art from the family of Tagore at her home".


Full report here Hindustan Times

On the Ravi Varma trail

While restoring the paintings of Raja Ravi Varma, Delhi-based art conservator Rupika Chawla became interested in the artist himself. The result was a lavishly illustrated biography Raja Ravi Varma: Painter of Colonial India. Here she tells Ranvir Shah how she put together the various strands that went into the book

In one way or another, we have all seen knowingly or unknowingly an image of Raja Ravi Varma; either as calendar art, oleographs in our grandmother's homes or in the homes of friends' grandmothers, seen posters and labels based on his paintings or have been lucky enough to see an original at close quarters as they are in museums in Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Baroda, Mysore and Delhi to mention a few and among innumerable private collections.

Well researched
Rupika Chawla, Delhi-based art conservator, has launched Raja Ravi Varma: Painter of Colonial India, a lavish tome with high reproduction quality of the paintings and well researched chapters on the history and background of the artist, his early formative years, his influences, his work across his career and his fine sense of business acumen, not to mention his modern vision in disseminating his own oleographs to create into what has now become a pan-national visual memory of colonial India.

Chawla, who started as a collector of beautiful objects, moved to learning conservation at the National Gallery of Modern Art in an effort to ‘heal and make whole' things of beauty. Her very first project was a Ravi Varma painting in 1983, even though she had seen many of his works earlier.

Full report here Hindu

Tagore's paintings under threat in Nepal

As the 150th birth anniversary celebrations of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore begins in India, some of his legacy lies unrecognised and unappreciated in neighbouring Nepal, in dire danger of theft and destruction.

"There are at least three to four paintings by Tagore hanging in public places in Nepal," says Sangeeta Thapa, art curator and director of Siddhartha Art Gallery in Kathmandu. "Very few people have any idea about their worth. I don't want to say even where they are for fear they will get stolen."

In the past, Thapa says, Kolkata, Varanasi and Allahabad were centres of culture, education and even politics where the who's who, intellectuals and art lovers of Nepal went.

Full report here Economic Times