THE POET AT WORK: Rabindranath Tagore stayed at the Government School of Art (renamed Government College of Art & Craft in 1951) in 1928 on an invitation from then principal, Mukul Dey, between August 8 and 31. The poet is seen here in his room at the college.

According to the report published in Metro on March 2, I was “associated” with the controversial exhibition of Tagore’s paintings currently going on at the Government College of Art and Craft.

I was merely an invitee to the opening of the said exhibition, graced by the governor of West Bengal, M.K. Narayanan, on February 27, and I do not know how I was “associated” with it by any means.

And I would like to state here categorically that I was in no way connected with the preparation, organisation, showcasing, curating or selection of the controversial exhibits intellectually, professionally, physically or emotionally under any circumstances whatsoever.

I would like to reiterate that my association mentioned is nothing but mere falsehood.

One of the paintings on display at the Government College of Art & Craft

Ganesh Haloi, Salt Lake

As a scholar working on the paintings of Rabindranath Tagore (under the supervision of Prof Tapati Guha-Thakurta), I strongly condemn the exhibition of counterfeit Tagore paintings in the Government College of Art & Craft, one of the premier institutions for academic training in the plastic arts (Fakes in the time of Tagore frenzy: finger of fraud at art college show, March 2). I believe that Pranabranjan Roy, Ketaki Kushari Dyson and others have very strong grounds in dubbing the paintings fakes. My firsthand experience of the exhibition on February 28 had an unsettling effect on me for a number of reasons. The first and the strongest of the reasons has to do with the paintings themselves. I think, in terms of purely formalist art historical interpretation, the paintings could be rejected as fakes on roughly four grounds — a) Draughtsmanship b) Colour and pigmentation c) Texture d) Format.

In terms of the full-format paintings on the show, the draughtsmanship clearly lacked the vigour and nuance of Tagore, who in his drawings never had any academic hint for the simple reason that he was never trained that way. Most strikingly the full frontal face of a woman (referred to in The Telegraph as “a close copy”) has a nose that is rather carefully and “realistically” modelled. Nothing could be further from an “authentic” Tagore who in all the paintings of his women and men had a typically slender pipe-like nose that ended in two small curved endings in place of nostrils; as Ramkinkar Baij remarked that Tagore had a “typical” nose in all his paintings since he never quite managed to capture the variety of this physiognomic detail.

Now as for colour, the paintings showed a marked inconsistency not only in terms of the range of palette used by Tagore but also in the execution of colours and brushwork.

Interestingly, in the late phase of his work Tagore used colour in a way that gave his paintings a unique lustre, a sort of thick luminosity enabling the forms to acquire a hard shell-like quality. The image of the veils in the paintings of women came very close to this but the “modelled” quality of the faces gave it away. Three of the paintings, as far as I can remember, had an unusually and uniformly thick dark look about them — as if varnished to death — which is also very un-Tagorean.

Naturally, such use of colour created a kind of texture and — what I think we can call — a kind of “tactility” that is far from anything ever done by him. Moreover the paintings — at least some — have a strange “freshly minted” look about them. And finally the format or the “size” of the images is a bit too odd for any standard Tagore painting.

I was surprised and dismayed by the fact that how could such an exhibition ever came to be inaugurated in the presence of some of the “heavy-weights” in the field of art.

So long such things keep on happening in the art world, and that too in the present context and with such lavish government funding, the exhibition of “fakes” can be seen merely as a “regular” symptom of what is clearly a more deeper malaise.

Kallol Ray, Ballygunge Circular Road

I can’t believe how a prestigious institution such as the Government College of Art & Craft can stoop to such a level. I want to ask one question to the authorities of the institution: “Is this evolution or revolution of creativity?”

Biswajit Guha Roy

lIn reference to the March 2 article on Tagore fakes, to avoid such fraudulence we should take recourse to digital imaging processing technology. A customised software (using digital imaging technology) should be able to identify the minute aspects of Tagore’s paintings and can doubtlessly tell us whether a particular painting has those distinctive features.

Pioneers in the field of digital image processing are still actively working on this issue in Calcutta. Dwijesh Kumar Dutta Majumder, a teacher at the Indian Statistical Institute, is a competent authority on this. Such experts may be consulted for a fitting solution to the problem. Such cloning of paintings can only be prevented with the help of cutting-age digital imaging technology.

Rajib Chakraborty

This has reference to the Metro report on Rabindranath Tagore’s fake paintings being exhibited at the Government College of Art & Craft. About 80 years ago, in February 1932, my grandfather, artist Mukul Dey, had sponsored Tagore’s exhibition at the very same venue where a gang of counterfeiters are exhibiting fake Tagore paintings today! What decay and degeneration!

Surprisingly, the official invitation card of this dubious show carried names of intellectuals and artists as Sankho Ghosh, Jogen Chowdhury, Nirendranath Chakravarty, Ganesh Haloi and many more!

I want to ask them, didn’t they enquire from principal Dipali Bhattacharya about the provenance of these paintings prior to letting her print their names on the invitation?

I also wish to draw the kind attention of our respected West Bengal governor, who was been duped into inaugurating this shameful exhibition. It is hoped that he will instruct appropriate agencies to investigate the matter and punish the culprits.

Satyasri Ukil, Santiniketan

It is saddening to know that fake paintings are being attributed to Tagore and the authorities are not even going through an intensive authentication drive for the same. To prevent such counterfeit displays, it is the duty of the displaying authority to check the paintings, via specialised personnel who are proficient in finding out minor deviations from Tagore’s style, or the usage of canvas of those times.

Aamir Lokhandwala

In response to the report on Tagore fakes, I think selling of fake paintings has become all-pervasive, especially after the noveau riche have started buying works of renowned painters at astronomical sums. As far as Tagore’s paintings are concerned, the works should be critically examined by a team of experts before display. This would help us keep away from fake Tagore paintings.

A.S. Mehta, New Alipore

Love of fake

We all love a fake: just look around! (March 3) was a shockingly fantastic column by Victor Banerjee.

Being an alumnus of the Government College of Art & Craft, I do not want to get into this controversy of fake paintings of Gurudev on display at the college.

Rather, I would like to share another painful experience at this exhibition. It was a monotonous, unimaginative display of Tagore works, which only exposed the lack of interest in or understanding about the importance of this exhibition by the organisers.

We, Calcuttans, are exposed to display of international standards by CIMA Gallery, Seagull Arts and Media Resource Centre or Birla Academy of Art & Culture.

Even if you visit the annual show of the students of the government art college, you will find much better display of artworks than what has been done here. The mounting, the framing, the labelling (which is the worst) are a few examples of carelessness on display.

Is this a befitting way to pay our respect to Gurudev?

Mrityunjoy Chatterjee, PGM Shah Road

Victor Banerjee’s tongue-in-cheek guest column was edifying to say the least. How we love to be duped by fake paintings! I never knew that Banerjee is a man of so many parts, who knows all about art as well.

Blessed indeed are those without means who are not duped into buying fakes and then tearing their hair about it. But is it true that Jamini babu put his signature to his own copies — or do we take it with a pinch of salt?

Shipra Chakraborty, CIT Road

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