OMMENDED Rabindranath Tagore made some wise decisions when he embarked on his career as a painter at the age of sixty.

Already a world-famous writer and something of a B engali national saint, his work was going to attract international attention, re gardless of what he did. So he made it as simple as possible, limiting his visua l vocabulary to what he could handle and encouraging free association by not giv ing names to any of the works. There s a pleasant, rhythmic, blurry, dream-like q uality to his colored-ink drawings, which, though not very exciting, gradually b ecome more appealing as they build familiarity with the great soul that dreamed them. Tagore was indisputably one of the great souls of a century whose history was torn by paranoid tyrants. He was a sage and teacher, respected in the Hindu, Muslim and European communities for his vision of the planet as a stage for uni versal self-development, rather than sectarian strife. Like many untrained artis ts, his work offers sincerity as opposed to virtuosity, but, unlike most of them , it s not about a self that s been alienated or traumatized by the surrounding worl d. His drawings are about the mystery of our planet and the people passing through it. His landscapes invite you to join his immersion in the humid tropical canopy ; his portraits invite you to see into specific people, sweet or cantankerous; h is group ensembles feel like scenes from a novel, as envisioned in the imaginati on of a reader. It s a show that gets better the longer you hang out with it. But it also reminds us just how seldom we ever get to see twentieth-century visual a rts from the countries now called India, Bangladesh and Pakistan. In the entire history of the encyclopedic 132-year-old Art Institute of Chicago, this is the f irst one-man exhibit of either paintings, drawings or prints from an area that s h ome to nearly a fourth of the world s population. The only group show of modern wo rk was one of Indian paintings from Tagore s personal collection, mounted in 1916, three years after he won the Nobel Prize for Literature. (Chris Miller) Through April 15 at the Art Institute of Chicago, 111 South Michigan. Pinterest Leave a Reply You must be logged in to post a comment. Sign up for our free email newsletter Email Address : Newcity Sites *Newcity.com Best of Chicago Booze Muse Boutiqueville Chicago Weekly (U of Chicago) Newcity Film Newcity Lit Newcity Music Newcity Network Newcity Resto Newcity Stage Newcity Summer Categories Art Fairs (30) Art Schools (4) Artist Profiles (86) Art 50 (1) Breakout Artists (10) Gallerist profile (2) Curator Profiles (15) Galleries & Museums (1525) Albany Park (4) Andersonville (11) Bridgeport (36) Bronzeville (6)

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