Colour

Gaganendranath Tagore's Colour International Scientific Series is a small but rather curious work, for it appears to make the simple act of studying colour into a visual experiment. The painting is watercolour on card and is accompanied by handwritten notes on the reverse in which Gaganendranath records combinations of colours that work well together and others that he considers less successful. The work feels almost like a personal exercise book, where the artist tests how different colours behave next to each other. He makes colour the object, not the medium, for describing an object or a landscape. And that small size makes this even more interesting because it feels intimate and practical, like it was something he kept close to him while he was thinking through his ideas. He’s interested in how the way he puts contrasting colours together changes how one colour looks against another. This kind of experimentation also fits Gaganendranath’s broader interest in exploring new ways of making art. He alternated between wash painting, caricature and later geometric compositions, never really attached to a single fixed style. What I find most interesting about this is that the painting allows us to see the artist thinking and not just give us a finished image. The handwritten notes make it personal, like looking over his shoulder as he works. It reminds us that behind the more familiar paintings was an artist constantly testing, observing and working out what colour could do.