Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) is lauded around the world as a poet, playwright, musician, and philosopher, yet few outside India know that he was also a highly regarded visual artist. The Last Harvest, produced to mark the 150th anniversary of the year of Tagore’s birth, comprised more than sixty works on paper created by this versatile and prolific visionary, drawn from three collections in India.
In recent decades, many new foreign language translations of Tagore’s writings have appeared, spurring a new surge of interest in his art, politics, and educational philosophy. This contemporary focus is perhaps due to his belief in cross-cultural fertilization and unbridled pursuit of harmony through the notion of global citizenship, a unique world view pioneered by Tagore that is even more relevant today than during his lifetime. Furthermore, Tagore was an important influence on members of the Group of Seven and during his visit to Canada in 1929, he met with Fred Varley and Lawren S. Harris.
The exhibition is curated by Professor Raman Siva Kumar of Visva-Bharati University and is organized by the National Gallery of Modern Art and the Ministry of Culture, Government of India.