All is not well with Bengal art. The recent controversy over Tagore ‘fakes’ is proof of this.
Doubts about the authenticity of the 18 artworks exhibited as those of Rabindranath Tagore have once again drawn attention to Kolkata’s prolific fake art market. What’s worrying the art fraternity even more is the fact that the works made it to the prestigious Government College of Art & Craft.
Till about a year ago, Kolkata’s fake art market was estimated to be worth about Rs 1.5 crore against India’s total of Rs 35 crore. The city’s forgery industry is known to operate several illegal factories where unsuccessful artists churn out fakes. These fakes then make it to markets across the globe along with authentication certificates, which, too, are forged.
In this case, the college authorities have denied the allegation and said Tagore’s works were sourced from Dhanbad-based Jayanta Banerjee, who in turn got them from the family of Tagore’s aide, Prasanta Mahalanobis. It’s a claim that could be questioned because not all of Tagore’s works have been publicly displayed. In fact, it is difficult to even determine how many of his works exist. Many of his artworks are scattered across the globe as the poet gifted several of them to his friends and admirers in Europe. Much before Tagore’s art was displayed in India, several of his exhibitions were held in Europe, the first one being at the Gallerie Pigalle in Paris (1930).
At Tagore’s residence-turned-museum in north Kolkata, 45 of his prized works lie under lock and key. Several others are preserved at Rabindra Bharati Museum at Jorasanko, the Tagore ancestral home that fostered the Bengal Renaissance during the 19th and early 20th century. Some of them are housed at the National Gallery of Modern Art in Delhi and others at Visva-Bharati, the university Tagore established in Santiniketan.
In April 2009, a team of experts comprising heads of national-level cultural institutions visited Visva Bharati to survey and make recommendations to preserve its cultural heritage, which includes Tagore’s paintings. Their advice: “high-resolution photographic documentation and digitisation of art works”, “extension of storage facility, replacement of storage equipment and central airconditioning” and “publication of monographs, catalogues of its collection”.
In all, around Rs 11 crore was needed to achieve this.
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Work on this is yet to begin, but, perhaps, some of the Rs 50 crore earmarked in this budget for the Nobel laureate’s 150 year birth anniversary celebrations will be diverted to this task.
The museum at Rabindra Bharati University also has a laboratory for the conservation and restoration of paintings and other archival documents, says curator Indrani Ghosh. Every year, the university allocates Rs 1.5 lakh for this purpose. A meagre amount considering that “the cost of restoring a painting starts from about Rs 30,00 and can go up to lakhs,” says G M Kapoor, convenor of Intach, a non-profit organisation engaged in art restoration.
“The paintings [displayed recently] failed to meet the stylistic comparison with Tagore’s other works,” says Pranab Ranjan Roy, the art researcher who raised doubts over the works. Others have also not dismissed the possibility of the works being fakes. “Reproducing artwork requires great skill and precision,” says art critic Anirudh Chari. And Kolkata has immense skill when it comes to art, Chari adds. Students of fine art are taught to reproduce old artworks as part of the curriculum to familiarise them with the techniques of different genres and styles. “These skills can later be used for making a reproduction of the original artwork,” says Saikat Surai, an artist.
Art galleries are worried. “We usually consult an authority and the artist himself for authentication,” says Mandira Verma of Harrington Street Art Centre. “We will now have to be more careful with works of artists who are dead,” Verma adds. Kapoor lists the must-dos: “Provenance or the record of ownership of the work; identification of the brush strokes, colours and patterns by an expert; and lastly, the chemical test of the art work.” Chari says while expert opinion can be subjective, chemical testing of the age of the paper, ink, composition et al is a more reliable option.
Two days ago, Calcutta High Court ordered that the paintings which have triggered the controversy should be seized and kept in the custody of Indian Museum. A probe by the Archeological Survey of India will follow. Tapas Sarkar, the city-based sculptor who had filed a petition against the exhibition, says he hopes this will curb the malpractice.
