Practicing Success

Target Exam

CUET

Subject

Fine Arts

Chapter

The Bengal School and Cultural Nationalism

Question:

Who was Kakuzo Okakura visiting at the beginning of the twentieth century when he collaborated with Ananda Coomaraswamy?

Options:

Mahatma Gandhi

Subhash Chandra Bose

Rabindranath Tagore

Lord Curzon

Correct Answer:

Rabindranath Tagore

Explanation:

Answer: Rabindranath Tagore

The colonial art policy had created a divide between those who liked the European academic style and those who favoured the Indian style. But following the Partition of Bengal in 1905, the Swadeshi movement was at its peak and it reflected in ideas about art. Ananda Coomaraswamy, an important art historian, wrote about Swadeshi in art and joined hands with a Japanese nationalist, Kakuzo Okakura, who was visiting Rabindranath Tagore in Calcutta. He came to India with his ideas about pan-Asianism, by which he wanted to unite India with other eastern nations and fight against Western imperialism. Two Japanese artists accompanied him to Calcutta, who went to Shantiniketan to teach the technique of painting to Indian students as an alternative to Western oil painting.