Painting as Sadhana

Sri Aurobindo on Krishnalal

(From a sadhak's correspondence)

Sadhak: I was planning to show Krishnalal how to do frescoes directly on cement mortar plaster, but he seems hesitant to experiment even on a small scale. He is preparing the new fresco as they do them at Shantiniketan. And he does not seem to be able to put a greater energy into it—as X says he is weak nervously and physically.

Sri Aurobindo: I don't think X is quite right. He has the timidity of the artistic temperament which is careful and scrupulous about its work and does not want to do work without regard to its capacity and experience.

26 September 1934

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Sadhak: What I meant was that Krishnalal could have done the whole fresco yesterday before 5 p.m.—but he did only a third of it. The fresco is not his original conception or inspiration, after all; he is copying it from an existing picture. Any artist with the mastery of technique he has, should not find it difficult to put more concentration and energy into his work. We read of artists working hours together on their works.

Sri Aurobindo: These things are matters of temperament. It is not a question of mastery of technique only as with a craftsman. A craftsman can go on working regularly always for any amount of time. An artist is not the same. He depends on his temperament (whether he is a poet, painter or sculptor) and its response to a certain flow of force. If anything in it gets dull or jaded or does not respond, he ceases working—or if anything else goes wrong or is not responsive in him. Copy or original makes no difference to his method—he brings the same temperamental attitude to both. Of course there are artists whose temperament is so buoyant that they keep the flow at command almost (like Harin with his poems), painting or working every day for hours together. Others cannot—they work sometimes more, sometimes less— sometimes after long intervals etc.

27 September 1934

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Sadhak: I forgot that artists do not follow a fixed rule like most others—the best of them do a little one day and forget it for several days, begin again and then suddenly finish it in a day—so it is natural that Krishnalal would not hurry up or go by a fixed rule.

Sri Aurobindo: Yes, it is because they are instruments of a Force which does not come when they want but as it wants. 27 September 1934

Sadhak: Yesterday V enthusiastically told Krishnalal that she would like to learn painting, make frescoes etc. Krishnalal replied that it is not easy—it is not as easy as embroidery which is done with repetitive stitches once the design has been made and traced; in painting one has to conceive what is to be painted and the inspiration has to be got. V and I felt that this reply was rather too egoistic and fussy.

Sri Aurobindo: Are you sure that Krishnalal meant anything else than to state the fact? If V had said that to the Mother, she would have had to make the same reply in substance. Painting is an enormously difficult art needing years of training and a special faculty if one is to do in it as well as V does in embroidery.

28 September 1934

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Sadhak: Today J talked to me about how sticky and hard Krishnalal's psychological formations are, how there is a want of largeness and wideness in his outlook on things and how dangerous it would be to him if pressure were put on his vital ego. My idea is that Krishnalal is very quiet and reticent and concentrated in his work. Of course, as X said, "He keeps a wall against you"; he certainly does keep a wall against me and assumes an air of superiority. I gave him all the available facilities for his work, but he behaved like a person rather self-centred and narrow. If I were to keep as stony a wall against him, he would not have easily got these facilities for work.

Sri Aurobindo: I have always thought Krishnalal to be quiet and sincere. Every artist believes he has inspiration, otherwise he would not have the confidence to go on with his work. He has not, I think, a pronounced vital ego. I do not know about his attitude to you, possibly he has been prejudiced by others if he has the attitude J attributes to him and you feel.

28 September 1934

(From as yet unpublished material)