Gaganendranath Tagore Biography 
Gaganendranath Tagore was a noted artist and cartoonist from Bengal. He, along with his brother Abanindranath Tagore is regarded as the earliest modern artists in India. He was a nephew of the poet Rabindranath Tagore and thus closely linked to Tagore family. Film actress Sharmila Tagore is his great-granddaughter. He was a theatre artist also and has written one book for children - Bhodor Bahadur. Birupa bajra (1930), Naba Hullod (1921) and Adbhut Lok (1917) are other noted works. He was a great-grandson of Prince Dwarkanath Tagore.
He was born in the family of Dwarkanath Tagore, the founder of Jorasanko branch of the Tagore family. Among his three sons - Debendranath, Girindranath and Nagendranath, both Girindranath and Nagendranath died quite young. Girindranath had two sons – Gagendranath and Gunendranath. Ganendranath was the son of Gunendranath and one among his four siblings was Abanindranath Tagore, a noted painter.
Gaganendranath received no formal education. But he learnt the art of painting and water colour from Harinarayan Bandopadhyay. In 1907, along with Abanindranath, he founded the Indian Society of Oriental Art. The journal, Rupam was a product of this society. He studied Japanese brush techniques and included the art of Far East into his works. Chaitanya and Pilgrim series of paintings were noted for his own distinct style. Later he gave up revivalism of the Bengal School and fully concentrated on art.
His satire cartoon works got published in Modern Review, Play of Opposites, Realm of the Absurd and Reform Screams. His political cartoons were quite famous. Between 1920 and 1925, Gaganendranath pioneered experiments in modernist painting. He is widely regarded as the only Indian artist before 1940’s who used Cubism in paintings. He developed a complex post-cubist style from 1925 onwards. His works were exhibited in many foreign countries including Paris, London, Belgium and Holland. This great artist died in the year 1938.
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Updated: January 07, 2014
