CWSA Set of 37 volumes
Letters on Poetry and Art Vol. 27 of CWSA 769 pages 2004 Edition
English
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Letters on poetry and other forms of literature, on painting and the other arts, on beauty and aesthetics, and on their relation to the practice of yoga.

Letters on Poetry and Art

  On Poetry   Sri Aurobindo : corresp.

Sri Aurobindo symbol
Sri Aurobindo

Letters on poetry and other forms of literature, on painting and the other arts, on beauty and aesthetics, and on their relation to the practice of yoga. Most of these letters were written by Sri Aurobindo in the 1930 and 1940s to members of his ashram. Around one sixth of them were published during his lifetime; the rest were transcribed from his manuscripts after his passing. Many are being published for the first time in this volume.

The Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo (CWSA) Letters on Poetry and Art Vol. 27 769 pages 2004 Edition
English
 PDF     On Poetry  Sri Aurobindo : corresp.

General Remarks on the Visual Arts

Art and Nature

There is no incompatibility between the inspiration from within and the dependence on Nature. The essence of the inspiration always comes from within but the forms of expression are based on Nature though developed and modified by the selective or interpretative sight of the artist.

A painter can certainly bring home the aspects of the sea and the beauty of Nature, but he does it as an artist, in the way of Art. He does it by representation and suggestion, not by mere reproduction of the object. The question of Art or Nature being more beautiful therefore does not arise.

Art cannot give what Nature gives; it gives something else.

On Nandalal Bose's Ideas on Art

Nandalal Bose says: "In art three points are essential. We may say that the top point of the triangle is inspiration and the two points of the base are the study of nature and the study of tradition."

Nandalal's saying is true; but the three have to be combined and developed and harmonised in their combination to a sufficient degree before they bear the fruit of finished or great art.

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In a letter to me, Nandalal wrote of love as "the only thing for Art".

It is a way of speaking, I suppose, in accordance with his own experience. It is the creative Force which he calls Love—others might call it by another name because they see it in another aspect.

Inspiration and the Vital

For the last two or three days I have been getting inspirations for painting. But I have a question about that. Do these inspirations come from the vital world? Is this harmful?

It is of course vital. All art comes through the vital. But what manifests through it can only be said when one sees what it produces.

Form and Colour

In order to get a significance through a picture there must be a definite form—form and colour are the essentials of painting and neither by itself is enough. Here [in a painting sent to Sri Aurobindo] there is colour but no form—or only a shapeless shape—as if you were trying to get rid of form and paint only forces or indefinite suggestions. But that is contrary to an art which depends on colour, line and design.

Cinema

I see no objection to your going for two or three days to Madras for this purpose [to make a recording]. I don't suppose you will paint the town red and the Cinema sounds harmless, though if the newspaper pictures are any guide, it is likely to be disappointing; I have yet to see anything that really suggested an artistic piece.

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