Tagore kin brings outsider view of India

Swati Anand / TNN / Jun 11, 2006, 00:17 IST

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The great grand-nephew of Rabindranath Tagore, art curator Sundaram Tagore, has learnt to work his way around the boons and banes of his surname.

Tagore kin brings outsider view of India

BANGALORE: It's a legacy that can be both enviable and cumbersome. But the great grand-nephew of Rabindranath Tagore, art curator Sundaram Tagore, has learnt to work his way around the boons and banes of his surname.
"I think my inkling to art and art forms has definitely got to do with the genes. I would invariably find myself painting, sketching or sculpting and I'm an art historian by education," says Sundaram.
And since his first name sounds South Indian, most people don't associate him with the art genius."It can weigh you down if you feel you're not living up to the surname. After all, he was a giant," he shrugs.
In the city to finalise the details of an exhibition that Sundaram will curate, he says he loves the city's tropical feel. "It's so green and there's a different kind of excitement here," says the New Yorkbased curator.

The exhibition, that is being planned with the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), should be ready by next year. This will be Sundaram's second exhibition in the country. "The theme should be 'Looking East',where I hope to present the international view of the East and India," he says.
Having grown up in the idyllic Shantiniketan, Sundaram is tickled by the fact that what was once the home he grew up in, is now a museum. "When I visited the place recently, the guard asked me to check in my bag. I wanted to tell him that I'd played with tadpoles here. But I was happy to see the stringent security," he says.

Sundaram had collaborated with the late Ismail Merchant as co-producer of the film 'Heights'. They also came together for a theatre production 'The Goddess' with Ayesha Dharker and Manu Narayan. "I remember he told me one night that he wanted to shoot in my gallery. And we actually managed that in one night! That man had immense passion," he reminisces.
When in India, Sundaram's favourite include the interiors of Orissa, Gangotri and Mumbai. And apart from ghar ka khaana, he can survive days on a constant supply of hot steaming idlis.
The globe trotter is on a constant tussle of what one can call home. "It's not really about geography any more. It's more a state of mind," he says.
As for art audiences around the world, Sundaram says, "The New York audience is the most difficult to please. If you can get a nod from them, you can get a nod anywhere else," he says. His gallery is among the 326 in Chelsea.
As for the upcoming Bangalore show, he feels that approval of audiences here will decide the fate of more exhibitions to come. "I don't think art as an investment is the right way to look at it. Hopefully the next generation can change that," he says.

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