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Resource name: /E-Library/Disciples/Purani, A. B./English/On Art - Addresses and Writings/Inaugural Address at Art Exhibition.htm
THE OPENING ADDRESS
At the Inauguration of the Exhibition of Paintings and Photographs of the artists belonging to Sri Aurobindo's Ashram and the International University Centre,
Pondicherry at the Jehhangir Art Gallery, Bombay, on 2nd May 1955. Presided by Sir. C. V. Mehba.
Page-72
It gives me great pleasure to invite you to open this small exhibition of paintings and photographs of the artists of Sri Aurobindo's Ashram and the International University centre at Pondicherry. It is not claimed that these works are masterpieces or that the artists are great masters. Nevertheless, we have thought it fit to make an exhibition because artist
Resource name: /E-Library/Disciples/Purani, A. B./English/On Art - Addresses and Writings/Address to Art Students-Bombay.htm
v*
I HAVE undertaken this task not because I want you to accept my
ideas but because I have a liking and respect for some of our young
artists and art students. I admire their earnestness and I want to
be of some service to them in clarifying some of the fundamentals of
art. I want to bring to their
notice that besides European art there are other arts equally great
and that there is much to learn and assimilate in them. I want to
put before them some ideas of Sri Aurobindo on arts,-ideas which he
gave to mankind in order that man may be able to fulfil his destiny,
and live a divine life on earth. I want to tell you, students, that
Title:
-010_Some Extract from Sri Aurobindo^s Significance of Indian Art.htm
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-010_Some Extract from Sri Aurobindo^s Significance of Indian Art.htm
SOME EXTRACT FROM
SRI AUROBINDO'S :
" SIGNIFICANCE OF INDIAN ART ",
I
" Indian architecture, painting, sculpture are not only intimately one in inspiration with the Central things in Indian philosophy, religion, yoga, culture,-but a specially intense expression of their significance".
II
" The great artistic work proceeds from an act of intuition, not really an intellectual idea or a splendid imagination,-these are only mental translations,-but a direct intuition of some truth of life or being, some significant form of that truth, some development of it in the mind of man. And so
Resource name: /E-Library/Disciples/Purani, A. B./English/On Art - Addresses and Writings/On Modern Art - Questions and Answers.htm
II
ON MODERN ART—QUESTIONS & ANSWERS*
Q. The question of Modernist art which began in Europe and is now almost all over the world has been a great puzzle to me: So many claims have been advanced about its achieve' ments in the superlative degree that at times I wonder if my aesthetic faculty is really at fault, because I cannot bring myself round, to appreciate it.
A. You can include in the field all arts—fine as well as plastic, for, behind all Modernist art is working an identical impulse and motive and the same creative force.
Q. But can you tell me the nature of that art-impulse ? I
have seen so many modernist works
Resource name: /E-Library/Disciples/Purani, A. B./English/On Art - Addresses and Writings/On Beauty - Questions and Answers.htm
III
ON BEAUTY
Q. What is the relation between beauty, art and spirituality ? Though I thought of asking you first what is beauty I gave it up realising the difficulty of defining such undefinable terms.
A. If you like I might hazard a statement, not a definition: —"Beauty is the language of the All-pervading Delight of existence calling men to itself."
Q. Does it mean that beauty is universal ?
A. Yes, beauty is everywhere; from everything the All-Delight is calling men. Wherever man perceives beauty it is the Universal delight that is cilling him. And this delight (that he perceives as beauty) is present even in things ordi
Resource name: /E-Library/Disciples/Purani, A. B./English/On Art - Addresses and Writings/On Art and Beauty - The Ladder ofAesthetic Experience.htm
ON ART AND BEAUTY: THE LADDER OF
AESTHETIC EXPERIENCE*
" Art is discovery and revelation of beauty.
The aim of Art is to embody beauty and give delight."
Sri Aurobindo: Future Poetry.
Sri Aurobindo, the great Yogi, besides being a great artist, is a great aesthete. He unhesitatingly gave a higher place to Beauty and Delight than even to Knowledge. He wrote: " The day when we get back to the ancient worship of Delight and Beauty will be our day of Salvation ". He knew that the present age was rather far from the worship of beauty and delight. Art today is isolated from life. The modern European culture that dom
Resource name: /E-Library/Disciples/Purani, A. B./English/On Art - Addresses and Writings/On Picasso - An Address.htm
IV
ON PICASSO
There are so many critics who have given their views on Picasso's art and they are all so different. I give only two :
1."It is non-sense to pretend that no introduction is needed, that the pictures can be left to speak for themselves." —"Picasso." by Anthony Bertram
2.
"There are paintings (of Picasso) that have no discoverable organization at all."—"Meaning of Art"
Herbert Read
I. Picasso Art Periods
We shall examine briefly the technical side of Picasso's painting so that we may be able to judge and understand some of his ideas.
The first period may be called the Negro period (1906. 1910). Durin
Resource name: /E-Library/Disciples/Purani, A. B./English/On Art - Addresses and Writings/Appendix.htm
APPENDIX
An extract from " A Study of History " by Toynbee may be cited here to stimulate the critical consideration of modern art:
" The prevailing tendency to abandon our artistic traditions is not the result of technical incompetence; it is the deliberate abandonment of a style which is losing its appeal to a rising generation because this generation is ceasing to cultivate its aesthetic
sensibility on the traditional Western lines. We have willfully cast of our souls the great Masters who have been the familiar spirits of our forefathers; and, while we have been wrapped in complacent admiration of the spiritual vacuum that we have created, a Tropical African spirit in
Resource name: /E-Library/Disciples/Purani, A. B./English/On Art - Addresses and Writings/On Music.htm
ON MUSIC
"A music spoke transcending mortal speech." Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, Book r, Canto 3.
The Veda speaks of the universe as a song of seven Chhandas-rhythms. A rhythm is a pattern of harmonious vibrations of consciousness; repetition of seven fundamental rhythms maintains the universe,—each rhythm corresponding to a plane of being. The delight which is the basis of all creation throws itself out in the form of this grand universal symphony.
Tagore in his Sādhanā writes: "Music is the highest of the arts because the singer has everything he requires within him. His idea and his expression are brother and sister; very often they are born as twins. In music the
Resource name: /E-Library/Disciples/Purani, A. B./English/On Art - Addresses and Writings/Address to Sir J. J. School of Arts, Bombay.htm
I*
I HAVE been overcome these two days by the world of art rushing upon me here from all sides. My visit to your school and to Art Exhibition that is now on at the Jehangir Art Gallery has let loose forms of beauty from all over the world—not only from the present, but from the long forgotten past. Forms have rushed from Greece, from Italy of the Renaissance, from France of the 19th Century, from the East; memory has awakened sleeping forms of China, Japan and India. From this drab world of everyday I am transported to another world—a world of beauty—beauty which is the highest attribute of the Supreme. This is the great service that art render