Photo Feature

The Spirit of Kabi Guru

Zahedul I Khan

In his early thirties in 1893, Rabindranath regretted in a letter that, painting could not be his specialty, as he was not blessed with the gifts of a painter. However, he took much delight in doodling in his manuscripts, transforming his mistakes into beautiful forms. He gradually emerged as a powerful visual artist, creating a fascinating body of more than two thousand works.

In Europe, USA and Russia the countries that he visited in his last foreign tour, Rabindranath held exhibitions of his paintings.

At the age of seventy, Rabindranath had found a new outlet for his creative urge. It was amazing, the way it started.

He painted landscapes, portraits of men and women, animals and strange creatures, masks, flowers and creepers, and also a series of thought provoking self-portraits.

And now when his physical presence is no longer part of our reality, we can only try to figure him out in our mind in different forms. The artists of two Bengals have captured on canvas their own vision of this remarkable icon. Here are the few of these impressions of Tagore which have been displayed at Shilpakala Academy gallery. This one-of-a-kind exhibition will run till May 15, this year, to celebrate 150th birthday of Kavi Guru Rabindranath Thakur.