Untitled (Head of a Man)

Currently not on view

Untitled (Head of a Man)

c. 1935-1940

Rabindranath Tagore (Indian (eastern India, Calcutta), 1861–1941)

Rabindranath Tagore often portrayed abstracted, enigmatic faces of indeterminate gender. Eyes withdrawn, lips tightly sealed, they emerge silently from the still space that surrounds them. Tagore paired some with verses such as, "The pain has ceased/though its pathos lingers/like a still evening/at the close of a rain-cloud day." Parisian artists and critics readily appreciated Tagore's stark portraits, but they were met with puzzlement when he returned to India and exhibited them in Bombay (now Mumbai), where viewers had seen little western expressionist art.

Currently not on view

Object Details

Title:

Untitled (Head of a Man)

Date:

c. 1935-1940

Artist:

Rabindranath Tagore (Indian (eastern India, Calcutta), 1861–1941)

Medium:

Pen and ink on wove paper

Dimensions:

Sheet: 11 1/8 × 8 9/16 inches (28.3 × 21.7 cm)

Classification:

Drawings

Credit Line:

Gift of Stella Kramrisch, 1966

Accession Number:

1966-189-6

Geography:

Made in West Bengal, Bengal Region, India, Asia

Context:

Period: Modern Period

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Currently not on view