Painters demand examination of 'Tagore' paintings by international experts

Eminent painters have demanded examination of 18 paintings purportedly drawn by Rabindranath Tagore in the wake of a controversy after art experts labeled them as fake.

The paintings, borrowed from a private collector, were displayed at the Government College of Art and Craft in the city, but were withdrawn when doubts were expressed over their genuineness.

The Calcutta high court stepped in last Friday by directing that the paintings be submitted to the Indian Museum for examination of their authenticity.

Painter Sunil Das said, "Only a reputed international agency with proven history of art conservation can fix the issue and the government must take the initiative in this regard."

Das, who claimed that 2037 of his art works had been copied, said he supported the reported proposal of Union culture secretary Jahar Sircar about forming an art conservation council comprising art community members to decide the authenticity of a major art work.

He, however, was non-committal on the composition of such a panel or the attributes of the members "in a country like ours" when asked about it.

He referred to a recent auction in London where a set of 12 Tagore paintings were sold for Rs9.9 crore and wondered why no plagiarism charges were leveled then and there.

Celebrated painter Elena Banik went one step further by demanding a CBI probe into the controversy, if possible, and welcomed the high court's move to hand over the paintings to the Indian Museum.

"A move should also be initiated by the Centre to get the paintings examined by international art houses like Sotheby's and Christie's who employ experts to examine paintings," he said.

The Shantiniketan-trained painter, however, ruled out scrutiny of the "fake" paintings by any organisation within the country saying it could compromise its sanctity.

"I myself saw the exhibition paintings. And from my experience of seeing 48-50 original paintings of Tagore during my days at Kalabhavan, I sense that Tagore followed a certain non-academic style and his personality gets reflected in his brush strokes."

The help of psycho-analysts should also be sought while determining these works, she said without elaborating.

Veteran painter Bijan Choudhury said, "Let the issue be resolved once and for all. For a person of Tagore's stature, such controversies are uncalled for and that too on his 150th birth anniversary at a prestigious art institute."

Chowdhury said that Tagore's paintings were created mostly from his doodles and strokes over texts which took a certain shape as he applied more and more colour.

"His paintings thereby took certain cubic or expressionist forms as he was not a formal painter. So the sudden question of authenticity has made the task of collectors and exhibitors onerous from now on."

For painter Wasim Kapoor, any centrally-formed committee to determine authenticity of art works of legends like Tagore, should consist of art historians, art conservators and restorers rather than artistes.

"I feel sorry for the unseemly controversy since it involved Tagore and since I belong to the art fraternity here," he said.

The 18 paintings, borrowed from a private collector, had been labeled fake by art experts, who questioned the style of the paintings and their provenance.

The high court in its directive appointed a special officer, who will be present while the paintings will be handed over to the museum authorities.

A division bench of the court wanted to know the version of the Archaeological Survey of India which has been made a respondent under the purview of the National Treasures Act 1972, and posted the next date of hearing on march 25.