New London gallery champions art beyond Western boundaries

SUNDARAM TAGORE spoke to Eastern Eye about the new art gallery he has opened in Pall Mall in London, just across the road from the Royal Automo­bile Club, where he likes to stay when he flies in from New York.

Tagore, who currently has galleries in New York and Singapore, said he want­ed to focus on “cross-cultural art” and hoped to bring artists from all over the world to London.

“That’s why we have opened in Lon­don. Our whole identity is based on cross-culture.”

Among the artists he intends to pro­mote is Japan-born Hiroshi Senju, who lives in New York and is renowned worldwide for his sublime waterfall and cliff images.

Tagore will also represent Chun Kwang Young, who was born in South Korea in 1944, moved to the US in the early 1970s and now incorporates elements of both painting and sculpture in his practice.

He will also bring Anila Quayyum Agha, a Pakistani American artist who creates paintings, sculptures, installa­tions and public art exploring gender, politics, and identity, as well as Neha Vedpathak, born in Pune in India and a Detroit-based artist who creates sculp­tural installations and wall reliefs made from paper.

Bangladeshi artist, Tayeba Begum Lipi, who often makes remarkable sculpture using razor blades, is another artist whose work will be shown at the gallery.

Calcutta-born Tagore was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, and lives in New York.

Art is clearly in his DNA for he belongs to the family of the poet Rabindranath Tagore. His artist father, Subhogend­ranath (“Subho”) Tagore, was the grand­son of Hemendranath Tagore, the third son of Debendranath Tagore and the el­der brother of Rabindranath Tagore.

Tagore, who was born in 1961, said of his family tree: “I’m the great grandson of the fourth brother (of Rabindranath), He­mendranath Tagore.”

He previously rented space in Crom­well Place in Kensington three years ago, but the venue closed for renovation. The one in Pall Mall has a long lease.

Earlier this year, on the 25^th anniversa­ry of the Sundaram Tagore Gallery in New York, he recalled: “I opened the doors of my first gallery at 137, Greene Street, in New York City in 2000.

“In those days, New York felt like the beating heart of the global art world, teeming with energy and creative poten­tial. Yet, despite the incredible diversity of talent, art was segmented.

“The vast majority of galleries focused on Western art – most of it made by men. A handful of outliers concentrated on work from particular regions, unnecessarily segregating artists by ethnicity or national­ity – Chinese, Japanese, Russian-thereby imposing limits on their practices.”

Tagore added: “Having roots in India and having lived in North America and Europe, this sense of division never reso­nated with my worldview.”

He talked of family influences: “My family founded a world university, Visva- Bharati, in Santiniketan, India, in 1921, extolling the values of humanism and cross-cultural understanding. Ra­bindranath Tagore described it as a place ‘where the world makes a home in a sin­gle nest’. Having travelled widely for many years, I witnessed cultures coalescing and colliding as never before – a broader, more integrated global narrative starkly different from the Western-centric view that dominated the New York art scene of that era.

“So when I entered the fray, I decided to carve out a new cultural space that would become home to a global commu­nity of artists. It was the natural out­growth of living in the West, while coming from the East.

“I wanted to foster intercultural dia­logue not only because it was woven into my DNA, but because I believed that was the world we lived in, even if it was not yet widely recognised. The intermingling of cultures became the premise of my pro­gramming. It felt natural to me to create a gallery with a global vision, putting cul­ture before commerce.”

He went on: “I began focusing on di­asporic artists and those from underrep­resented cultures outside Europe and the United States, with the aim of bringing them to the forefront. Crossing cultural and national boundaries, these artists synthesised Western visual languages with forms, techniques, and philosophies from Asia, the subcontinent, and the Mid­dle East. By incorporating authentic ele­ments from their own cultures, artists from the periphery added richness and complexity to the artistic language that dominated the Western canon.

“They produced paintings, drawings, sculptures and installations that empha­sised tactility and materiality; aestheti­cally and intellectually rigorous, their work was infused with humanism and spiritual significance.”

He said: “Early in our history, I also chose to highlight exceptional women from the New York School who had long been overshadowed by their male peers. Although I was not consciously seeking to challenge the prevailing notion that Western men made the most collectible art, I believe that was precisely what I ac­complished by widening the tent.

“As our roster grew, the gallery trans­formed into a cultural hub for a multitude of art forms, including poetry, dance, theatre and music.

“We hosted book launches and film screenings that furthered our mission of East-West exchange. Our events featured Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, historian William Dalrymple, film­makers Ismail Merchant, Albert Maysles and Mira Nair, and the noted critic and art historian Irving Sandler, who shaped the narrative of the New York School.

Tagore emphasised: “The importance of creating opportunities for intercultural dialogue became even clearer a year after we opened, when the 9/11 attacks shook the city. Art served as a balm and an anti­dote for a grieving metropolis. People came to understand the significance of the gallery’s mission as they witnessed art’s power to unite disparate communi­ties and dissolve barriers.”

He said: “After developing an enthusi­astic following in New York, I turned my attention to the West Coast. By 2008, we had launched a space in Beverly Hills. Later that year, I realised a long-held dream of establishing a branch in Asia, opening a three-story gallery on Holly­wood Road, in the heart of Hong Kong’s nascent arts district.

“We were the first international gallery of our kind to set up in the city, paving a path others soon followed. It was a magi­cal twelve years – a mix of East and West, tradition and modernity.

“In 2012, the Singaporean government invited me to open a gallery in Gillman Barracks, the former British military com­pound of whitewashed colonial build­ings. Once again, we were the first New York gallery in the district, where we con­tinue to stage major exhibitions.

“Our newest gallery is in London, a city with deep sentimental pull, where I spent countless hours at the British Museum Library as a graduate student and where my father, Subho Tagore, an important painter, honed his craft at what was then St Martin’s School of Art.

“As the gallery grew, we partnered with museums worldwide. With every exhibi­tion, our goal is to spark dialogue – to use art as a vehicle to bring people together and remind them that more unites us than separates us.

“Yet to view art solely through the mar­ket lens is to overlook its true worth. Art is a catalyst for change, capable of trans­forming thought and values.

“I believe we need art, artists, art en­thusiasts, supporters, and arts institutions now more than ever to help bind our dis­parate and discontented world together. I embrace that truth wholeheartedly as I plan for our next twenty-five years.”