Strokes of poetry

What would Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s poignant verses look like as art? Ask the Padma Shri award-winning artist Paresh Maity, and he’ll show you  his artworks based on Tagore’s last 15 poems.

As part of a travelling exhibition, Shesh Lekha, Paresh’s works will be displayed at Hyatt Hyderabad Gachibowli. The exhibition will have nine paintings and three calligraphies.  

Paresh smiles, when you ask him what inspired him to do this series? “For anyone born and brought up in Bengal, Rabindranath Tagore is in their blood. We’re brought up listening to his poems, singing his songs and even watching his plays. So in a way, his work is imbibed in us,” says the Delhi-based artist.

But, the idea to work on the last 15 poems of Gurudev, as Tagore is fondly called, was initiated  by writer-artist-film producer, Pritish Nandy. “Pritish was translating these poems into English; he called and told me that I should translate these verses into art. So I started reading the poems,” explains Paresh. “These poems were also written in calligraphy by Pritish, those    are on display too,” he adds.

Written months prior to his  death these poems of Tagore speaks about life and its “endless journey”. “The poems are so intense and emotional, that it took me a year to get a thorough understanding before translating them into art,” says Paresh.

Translating the poems with   water-colours, was a “life-changing” process, says Paresh. “After the project was done, I had a fresh take on life. Rabindranath wrote about how he had so many things to do and how one life is never enough to accomplish it. To translate something this extraordinary into art was a wonderful feeling,” he says.

The series first made its  debut in 2011 at the National Gallery of Modern Art in Delhi, but it is only now that  it is travelling to five major cities including Hyderabad.

Hyderabad is quite special to Paresh. “I was in Hyderabad in 1991 to do my MFA from the University of Hyderabad. I was there for barely a few weeks, when I got  invited for a solo show in Delhi, so I left,” he reminisces.

The show was a success and Paresh stayed back in Delhi to complete his MFA.  “Close to 25 years ago, I first came to Hyderabad and though I kept coming in between, this show in a way completes the entire cycle,” says Paresh.