CIIS Faculty Publications
Title
The Alternate Nation of Abanindranath Tagore
Files
Description
This volume provides a revisionary critique of the art of Abanindranath Tagore, the founder of the national school of Indian painting, popularly known as the Bengal School of Art. The book argues that the art of Abanindranath, which developed during the Bengal Renaissance in the 19th/20th centuries, was not merely a normalization of nationalist or orientalist principles, but was a hermeneutic negotiation between modernity and community. It establishes that his form of art-embedded in communitarian practices like kirtan, alpona, pet-naming, syncretism, and storytelling through oral allegories-sought a social identity within the inter-subjective context of locality, regionality, nationality, and trans-nationality. The author presents Abanindranath as a creative agent who, through his art, conducted a critical engagement with post-Enlightenment modernity and regional subalternity
ISBN
978-8132102397
Publication Date
2010
Publisher
SAGE Publications
City
New Delhi
Keywords
Abanindranath Tagore, Indian Art, Bengal Renaissance
Disciplines
Arts and Humanities | Asian Art and Architecture | Fine Arts | History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology | Painting
Recommended Citation
Banerji, Debashish, "The Alternate Nation of Abanindranath Tagore" (2010). CIIS Faculty Publications. 51.
https://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/facultypublications/51