44.
Special Exhibit: Tagore - Malura 16.4. - 29.7. 2012
45. Special
Exhibit: Ulrike Albert 1.5.- 3.6. 2012
46. Special Exhibit: Lech - Amersee 10.5. - 29.7. 2012
2012
A
bridge between India and Germany
Oswald Malura meets Rabindranath Tagore
(1932)
(150 Year Rabindranath Tagore – 105 Year Oswald Malura)
Exhibition from 16th of April until 29th of July, 2012
Rabindranath Tagore as a painter
Exhibition in Malura Museum, Oberdießen
Under the guidedance of the Indian Consul General of Munich, Vikram Misri
It gives me great joy to see the Malura
Museum in Oberdiessen hosting the concluding event of the year-long celebrations
of the 150th Birth Anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore.
Known to generations of Indians as Gurudev
(Master or Teacher), Tagore left an indelible imprint on his era. His
multiple talents are known well enough. He compiled over fifty volumes
of poetry, becoming the first Asian to win the Nobel Prize for Literature
in 1913 following the appearance of the English translation of his magnum
opus, Gitanjali (Offerings of Song). He was also an acclaimed novelist,
short-story writer, playwright and essayist. He wrote numerous musicals
and dance dramas, travelogues and two autobiographies. His songs and the
music he composed for them spawned an entire branch of music that carries
his name to this day – Rabindra Sangeet. He was also a prolific
painter who left behind a vast body of work consisting of over three thousand
drawings and paintings that evoke great wonder and admiration even today.
In all these fields, Tagore was a master exponent of his art and much
of his literary work is among the most translated among Asian authors.
It is somewhat staggering therefore
to consider the fact that a man of these multifaceted talents was also
a great humanist, a philosopher and an educator. Though he never completed
his own formal school education, Tagore went on to set up two schools
and an international university, Vishwa Bharati, at Shantiniketan in West
Bengal, as “a center for the study of humanity beyond the limits
of nation and geography”. As a philosopher with a universalist vision
who travelled extensively across continents, Tagore’s focus on the
importance of truth and beauty in life was acknowledged, among others,
by Einstein, a friend and contemporary of Tagore. Indeed, German translations
of Tagore’s work have been available for nearly a century and the
German public is keenly aware of his standing as a writer and philosopher.
This concluding event of Tagore’s
150th Birth Anniversary celebrations is an exhibition devoted to Tagore
the painter. Since the originals are now in a delicate condition and cannot
travel around the world, the works displayed here are high quality digital
reproductions. While these works do not represent Tagore’s full
repertoire, they do indicate the immense variety of themes, subjects and
techniques that he utilized.
It is particularly appropriate and fitting
that this tribute to Tagore’s art should take place in a setting
devoted to preserving the rich legacy of a remarkable German painter,
Oswald Malura. The link between Tagore and Malura, however, goes much
beyond this simple coincidence. As a young man just starting out in the
world of art, Oswald Malura spent three years travelling around the Indian
subcontinent more than eighty years ago. In India, he ended up visiting
Vishwa Bharati, the university founded by Tagore, where he met the great
man himself, made a small film on him and also painted a portrait of Tagore.
This remarkable painting can also be seen displayed in the Malura Museum
today.
I convey my best wishes to the exhibition.
In particular, I would like to thank Oswald’s son, Andrew Malura,
who, together with his charming wife, Elke, is responsible for this remarkable
museum. Both of them are worthy inheritors of the rich legacy of work
produced by Oswald Malura. Their generous offer to host this exhibition
of Tagore’s paintings came at the perfect time and I am deeply grateful
to them.
On behalf of the Consulate General of
India in Munich, I would also like to record my appreciation of the work
done in the organization of this event by the Indien-Institut, the foremost
German organization working in the field of Indo-German cultural relations.
Perhaps fittingly, Rabindranath Tagore himself was an honorary member
of the Indien-Institut!
Vikram Misri
Consul General of India
Munich
Übersetzung in Deutsche:
Dr.phil. Thomas Klihm, Thansau
1932 the paths of Oswald Malura and Rabindranath
Tagore crossed. Today, exactly 80 years later, this memorable encounter
resurrects in an extraordinary way, as paintings of the Bengali artist
and philosopher are displayed. Thereby the exhibition documents the meeting
of two remarkable artistic personalities and simultaneously ventures a
crossover between two countries with very diverse tradition lines.
The biographies of both artists demonstrate
the importance of international exchange for art and culture: In 1932,
a traveling scholarship of the academy of fine arts in Munich enabled
the young painter Oswald Malura to travel to India, which was a rather
extraordinary destination for an art student in those days. The impressions
that he gained during his stay in India had a lasting influence on his
later work. Tagore has equally done numerous stays abroad and promoted
the connection of Eastern and Western Thinking.
Malura and Tagore were pioneers of their
time concerning intercultural communication. Nowadays, a close contact
even across cultural borders is taken for granted. For a long time Bavarian
and Indian Universities have been maintaining cooperation encouraged by
the Bavarian-Indian center of higher education. This institution is committed
to the networking of the two countries. It is of great importance to me
to intensify this dialogue.
With heart-felt gratitude, I thank the
Promoters and Initiators of this Exhibit for allowing us to reap the benefits
of both Artists, while they show us a valuable contribution to the continuing
Cultural Exchange between Bavaria and India.
Munich, in March 2012
Dr. Wolfgang Heubisch
Bavarian State Minister for
Science, Research and Art
Accompanying Words: Dr.
Brigitta Rambeck, Curator
The 150th birthday of Rabindranath Tagore
(7th of May 1861 – 7th of August 1941), widely revered for his work
as a poet, painter, composer and philosopher, has been the reason for
worldwide exhibitions and anniversary events. One of the few personalities
that had the chance to portray and even record a film with the Indian
Nobel Prize winner of literature in his old age was Oswald Malura, a painter
from Munich (9th of October 1906 – 29th of June 2003). Therefore
he was honored by the State of India with the Rabindranath Tagore award
in 1986.
In 1926 Oswald Malura began his studies at the Akademie der bildenden
Künste (academy of fine arts) in Munich where he quickly became a
master student. A Mons traveling scholarship enabled the young student
to travel to India where he lived and painted for three years (1929-1932).
During his stay he got the chance to meet Mahatma Gandhi, Annie Besant
and Rabindranath Tagore. These encounters left a strong and lasting impression
on the young painter and above all the lifestyle and philosophy of Tagore
accompanied him throughout his life.
Based on the experiences Malura had made in India and motivated by his
dream of a peaceful world he wanted to link “personalities with
a similar spirit”. Therefore he created his own little “Shantiniketan“
in a rural village in the surrounding countryside of Munich after the
collapse of the Third Reich. In 1981 he established a “cultural
center” in a former farmhouse in Oberdießen. Today it is continued
by his son Andrew Malura as “Malura Museum” with a permanent
exhibition of the work of Oswald Malura and special exhibitions of other
artists. Furthermore it is still open as a meeting-place for artists,
kids, adolescents and adults interested in art as well as a place for
literary and musical events of all types. On the upper floor of the museum,
where solely Malura´s Indian paintings are displayed, the spirit
of a "Shantiniketan" can be felt spontaneously even by the uninitiated
as an atmospheric experience.
In 1949 the journal that Malura had done during his journey as well as
some of his drawings and paintings were published in a book titled „As
a painter trough India“. A translation into English is in the planning
stage.
To contribute to the preservation of the museum, a registered non-profit
association “Friends of Malura Museum” was founded in 2007
that also supports exhibitions and events. And even in Munich Oswald Malura
had helped to create a meeting-place: His former home in the heart of
Munich was the venue of the legendary “Dream City meeting’s”
inspired by poet Peter Paul Althaus. Another non-profit association called
“Save the Dream City” that was founded in 2010 had set itself
the objective of maintaining this historic site permanently for cultural
purposes, which unfortunately did not succeed.
On the ninth of May 2011 as a start to
the anniversary year of Rabindranath Tagore an extensive biographical
documentation of his life and work was presented in the apartment,where
the former „Dream City meetings” had taken place. Furthermore
the presentation of some of Malura´s Indian paintings and readings
from his book about India helped to pass on the memory of an Indian-German
encounter which was quite unique back then (1932).
Due to the great interest in this early Indian-German exchange by both
the Indian Embassy in Berlin as well as the Indian General Consulatein
Munich on the occasion of the anniversary year of Tagore, it was possible
for the Malura Museum to put together an exhibition of 50 digital reproductions
of art works of Rabindranath Tagore in original size. The collection represents
the essential elements of his painting style as well as most of his favorite
topics. At the same time a large portion of the available paintings and
drawings that Malura had created during his trip to India are displayed.
Posthumously the exhibition is the encounter of a special kind: The Indian
Nobel Prize winner of literature had not turned to visual arts till the
age of 67, i.e. in the late nineteen-twenties. It was this time, when
Oswald Malura visited India and met Tagore, who was then almost half a
century older than the German painter. The confrontation stands for exciting
and insightful moments in the comparative analysis of the works: the somewhat
late-impressionist paintings, done by a young German in India, meeting
the works of the old wise Indian poet-artist, permeated by Indian spirituality,but
yet visibly influenced by European art principles.Furthermore the movie
that Oswald Malura had filmed during his stay in India is going to be
shown as part of the exhibition.
Our sincere thanks go to the Indian Consul
General in Munich, Vikram Misri, whose contribution had made this exhibition
possible.
Translation in English by Louisa Klebe
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