ARTICLE
Nandalal Bose (b. 1882; d. 1966)
In 1930, when Gandhi launched the Dandi March, Bose commemorated the event with a linocut image of him with his walking stick – which has now become an archetypical image. On Gandhi’s request, he also made a number of posters for the Indian National Congress’ Haripura Session in 1938, drawing on the art traditions, celebrations and everyday scenes of rural India. He also illustrated Rabindranath Tagore’s book collection Sahaj Path (first published in 1937) with linocut prints. Bose also produced a number of paintings in his distinctive idiom, among which was the celebrated work, Sabari in Her Youth (1941-42), depicting a scene from the Ramayana in which a young girl, possibly of indigenous background, perched upon the branches of a tree waiting for Rama to redeem her. The painting is also considered an homage to Tagore’s vision for Shantiniketan and its spirit of oneness with nature and humanity.
Inspired to revive the mural painting tradition of India, he produced important works such as the landscape Bagadar Road (Hazaribagh) (1943) — rendered in tempera, like the frescoes at the Ajanta Caves, which it sought to pay tribute to — and Abhimanyu Vadh (1946-47), a narrative scene from the Mahabharata that portrays the entrapment and killing of the mythological hero, Abhimanyu. In 1946, he also created wall murals for the Kirti Mandir, a memorial for Mohandas and Kasturbhai Gandhi in Baroda.
Among the many testaments to his commitment to building a visual and cultural national identity, and his stature as an artist at the forefront of the newly independent India, was the original manuscript of the constitution of India (enacted in 1950), which he, along with his students, hand-illustrated. He was also famously requested by India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru to sketch the emblems of the Government’s highest civilian awards: the Padma Shri and the Bharat Ratna.
Bose was, arguably, the most influential and historically referenced artist of his era. His public participation in nationalist discourses, his pedagogic contributions and the unparalleled visibility of his art have cemented his position in the ranks of the new Indian Modernists, earning him numerous accolades, including the Padma Vibhushan in 1954, Fellowship of the Lalit Kala Akademi in 1956, an honorary D.Litt from the University of Calcutta in 1957 and the Tagore Birth Centenary Medal by the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1965. In 1993, the Government of India issued a postage stamp of Bose’s painting Pratiksha, to commemorate his birth centenary.
Most of his paintings are held today by the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi, and in private collections in India and abroad. Throughout his life, Bose was adored by both his teachers and students and, after his death in 1966, has been remembered as a sensitive and encouraging teacher as well as a dauntless explorer who constantly sought new avenues and modes of expression.
Bibliography
Chatterjee, Prerna. 2018. “Celebrating Nandalal Bose, artist who rejected everything British & designed India’s constitution.” The Print, December 3, 2018. https://theprint.in/features/celebrating-nandalal-bose-artist-who-rejected-everything-british-designed-indias-constitution/156874/
Google Arts and Culture. n.d. “Nandalal Bose.” Accessed September 23, 2020. https://artsandculture.google.com/entity/nandalal-bose/m0bsxtb?hl=en&date=1943
Kowshik, Dinkar. 1985. Nandalal Bose, the Doyen of Indian art. New Delhi: National Book Trust, India.
Kumar, R. Siva. 2003. “Nandalal Bose.” In Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. https://doi.org/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.T010273
Mallik, Sanjoy Kumar. n. d. “Nandalal Bose.” Art. Etc. News & Views. Accessed September 23, 2020. http://www.artnewsnviews.com/view-article.php?article=nandalal-bose&iid=22&articleid=558.
Tagore, Rabindranath, O. C. Gangoly, Ramkinkar Baij, et al. 1971. “Nandalal Number.” The Visvabharati Quarterly 34, no. 1–4 (January 1971).