... stimulate thought the following points are offered to the art-student:— I. 1 Modern art is dominated by techenique or in other words the greatest triumphs of modernist art are in the field of technique. II. 2 There is too much domination of " theories "— intellectual ideas—and "isms" in modern art. III 3 Most productions of modernist art are expressions of the undisciplined... always communicates the unceasing flux of human life, the immense, unspectacular narrative which is human society." Basil Taylor 2Here also Herbert Read says:— "For the main tendency of modern art, inspite of certain romantic exceptions, has been towards a reintegration of the intellect." 3To live in the Subliminal world, to dwell there, and to forget the conscious world..-It denies... Herbert Read Page 68 IV. The question may be put: Are we moving towards a Universal art or decadence in art? I have already suggested a line along which a true answer can be found : Modern art is on the right track in the sense that it stresses the subjective expression of the artist. 2. But the subjectivity that he brings into expression is infra-rational. 3. What might help the artist ...
... forms ". In this task of arriving at the correct technique of creating new forms, it may be of interest to consider whether there could be a synthesis of the technical advance attained by modern art in the West and methods of creating forms known in ancient India and countries of the far East. That may, perhaps, help us to find a way out of the present impasse. The Indian method was that of... Bagishwari Lectures). But India should certainly try to contribute something from her deepest soul, something based on her culture,—something that once gave to the world Ajanta and Ellora —to modern art, as to other fields of human endeavour. In short, India, open to the world's progressive currents, must create as her deepest soul dictates, not as some outer domination dictates or determines. As... 'ego' and true individually in man : one is false the other is true—though both may be said to be subjective. It is the false, or rather ignorant subjectivity that finds expression in most of the modern art creations. It expresses the subconscient, the lower-vital region of impulses, the chaotic inner planes of consciousness. It is incapable of meeting our highest aesthetic need. Two elements of the ...
... of a housewife, but the life of an artist as well. Mirra plunged into the world of art and artists. For ten years she was to know this life intimately. Once, in 1951, someone asked Mother why modern art was so ugly. In reply, Mother, in her inimitable way, told us the following story. "I knew a painter who was a student of Gustave Moreau's." Gustave Moreau (1826-98) had his first success in... the Boulevard des Capucines, was the first warning blow against the establishment. There were thirty exhibitors. The battles the Impressionists fought in their time were the major battles of modern art —to break through the prejudices and assumptions of socially accepted art. As Mother said, "The art of the Second Empire was bad. This lasted till about the end of the last century, round about... radically changed. Mirra grew up breathing that air of change. The Impressionists had paved the way for the Post-Impressionists, the Expressionists, the Fauves, the Pointillists, all leading to modern art. By the time Mirra came among the artists, some tenets of the Impressionists had become well established: Truth to sensation, Light governs all, etc. But Truth and Light were Mirra's natural ...
... actually gave out, sometime back, that India never had any art of her own! He also asserted that "so far as modern art is concerned Bombay and Calcutta are as good as suburbs of Paris". He might be glad about his unique discovery and may feel proud of India being a suburb of Paris in her modern art. * "all expression is not art" Herbert Read. Page 77 But to us it appears hardly... century; the artist has, at last, succeeded in liberating himself from tradition and is now trying to find a new purpose and a new way. But to-day he is neither sure of his ground, nor of the direction. Modern art has evoked new psychological forces into play and it seems, for the moment at least, that they dominate the whole field of art. From natural Realism to sense-impression, "pure sensation", "abstract ...
... same time you will find the true artistic expression. With my blessings. 25 May 1963 * I have seen your paintings and certainly there has been progress over the last year. Modern art is an experiment, still very clumsy, to express something other than the simple physical appearance. The idea is good but naturally the value of the expression depends entirely on the value of that... effectively express the inner feelings and the soul, with a true sense of beauty. * Photography is an art when the photographer is an artist. * Photography is said to be a medium of modern art. What is your opinion about this? It all depends on the way in which photography is used. Its natural purpose and common use is documentary; the more exact and precise it is, the more useful ...
... depends on the books! That depends on the dreams! If you give me an example from a dream I shall tell you what the nature of your serpent was, but just like that, "serpents" is too vague. Why is modern art so ugly? I believe the chief reason is that people have become more and more lazy and do not want to work. They want to produce something before having worked, they want to know before having... gesture ). It is in accordance with the impression that the plate ought to be painted; it gives you an impact, you translate the impact, and it is this which is truly artistic. It is like this that modern art began. And note that he was right. His plates were not round, but he was right in principle. What has made art what it is (do you want me to tell you this, psychologically?) is photography. P ...
... terrestrial creation. 15 August 1933 Modern Art and Poetry Not only are there no boundaries left in some arts (like poetry of the ultra-modern schools or painting) but no foundations and no Art either. I am referring to the modernist painters and to the extraordinary verbal jazz which is nowadays often put forward as poetry.... Page 676 Modern Art opines that beauty is functional! that ...
... On Art - Addresses and Writings 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... for two great geniuses who followed in his wake and were able to show the possibilities of Cezanne's new approach to art. They were : Van Gogh and Gauguin. Q. What is their contribution to modern art ? A. I would like to tell you at length the tragic life-story of Van Gogh, but it would be too long. Like Cezanne he took to art without any training. He was very impulsive and of an intensely ...
... Porte de Clichy, i.e. near Montmartre and in the heart of artistic life of Paris. As one can see in many paintings of that time, the quartier looked quite different then. Impressionism Modern art is an effort, still very awkward, to express something other than the simple physical appearance. 6 – The Mother Together with Mirra we have landed in the middle of an upheaval in... evolution of painting in the wake of Impressionism, and point out how the horrors of the Great War had profoundly upset the sense and creation of beauty in all its aspects. When asked: ‘Why is modern art so ugly?’ the Mother answered: ‘I think the main reason is that people have become more and more lazy and do not want to work. They want to produce before having practised, they want to know before ...
... , in the arts, in poetry you find the same foundation in old times. You find a certain “calm strength” founded on the Spirit, and all expression proceeds on the basis of that “calm strength”. In modern art as soon as you begin to give place to, or substitute, vital fantasies and other elements instead of that “calm Page 213 strength” you find that art deteriorates. It becomes an... in Europe. He found Cézanne "remarkable" in his portraits, all of them were "fine" and "showed power". In the evening he said he liked Matisse also. But he found "three things general about modern art : 1. Ugliness. 2. Vulgarity or coarseness. 3. Absurdity". Sri Aurobindo : In their '"nude" studies it is a very low sexuality which they bring out. They call it "Life”! One can hardly ...
... Nature, you will perpetrate either a corpse, a dead sketch or a monstrosity; Truth lives in that which goes behind and beyond the visible and sensible. Photography is said to be a medium of modern art. What is your opinion about this? It all depends on the way in which photography is used. Its natural purpose and common use is documentary; the more exact and precise it is, the more useful ...
... Excellent Once, on seeing two paintings of mine, Mother turned to Pavitra and exclaimed: “Excellent, excellent! These are much more interesting than modern art. They have something... something to say. They are far, far, infinitely better than the others.” ...
... be a hard saying that one must or may discover and reveal beauty in a pig or its poke or in a parish pump or an advertisement of somebody's pills, and yet something like that seems to be what modern Art and Literature are trying with vigour and conscientious labour to do. By extension one ought to be able to extract beauty equally well out of morality or social reform or a political caucus or ...
... ourselves not only with our own way of looking but also as others see us, with equal detachment and impartiality. At least this is the character of the cultured, the representative man of today. Modern art too has sought in some of its significant expressions to demonstrate this) protean nature of truth and reality, to bring out the simultaneity of its multiple modes, to give a living sense of its ...
... dramatist, D. L. Roy, ending in Amara (we) ... A queer amalgam of Sasadhar,* Huxley and goose. Indeed it has been pointed out that the second great characteristic of modern art is the curious and wondrous amalgam in it of the highly serious and the keenly comic. It is not, however, the Shakespearean manner; for in that old-world poet, the two are merely juxtaposed, but ...
... He says one must see the balance and mass, etc., in a work of art, for instance in a Buddha seated in a triangle. SRI AUROBINDO: That is again scientific art, not aesthetic, and besides, has modern art no subject? PURANI: Agastya answers Sarkar by saying that by the Indianness of Indian art what is meant is not so much the subject as the tradition, the training that one follows in one's art ...
... plumbings to the utmost depths, heady leaps to the outermost circumference - that were quite beyond the ken of Morisset and his artistic friends. She was with the laureates of Beauty and the princes of modern Art, but that didn't suffice. Beauty, yes, but beyond Beauty too! She would seize Infinity in the palm of her hand, she would embrace Eternity, she would explore the Kingdoms of the Invisible. ...
... On Art - Addresses and Writings 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 ...
... to have a peculiar quality of 'reality' which makes it a matter of infinite importance in their lives. Any attempt I might make to explain this would probably land me in the depths of mysticism." Modern art-critics fight shy of those depths, yet they cannot help hovering on their verge. Even Richards, with his equilibrium of impulses, is pointing to a quality in art which lifts us for the moment above ...
... Correspondence with The Mother 8 September 1963 Dearest Mother, The following “Words” of yours will go very well as an accompaniment to those on modern art which I am using for the September issue of Mother India . Do you approve of their publication? ( Amal sent both the French original and his English translation. Below only the English is given ...
... blindly the outer appearance without the inner vision. Never let people's ideas influence your mind and impose their advice about the Future Painting. Do not try to adopt the technique either of modern art or of old classical art. But always try to express the true inner vision of your soul and its deep impression behind everything to bring out the Eternal Truth and to express the glory of the Higher ...
... muddled. Finally we gave up for fear of a headache and left the room in total disappointment. The following jokes are to the point: "And this, I suppose, is one of those hideous caricatures you call modern art." "Nope, that's just a mirror." Critic: "Ah! And what is this? It is superb! What soul, what charm, what expression!" Artist: "Yeah! That's where I clean the paint off my brushes!" ...
... closer spiritual communion. An imaginative, scrutinising, artistic or sympathetic dwelling on the details of Nature, her sights, sounds, objects, sensible impressions is a persistent characteristic of modern art and poetry; it is the poetic side of the same tendency which upon the intellectual has led to the immeasurable development of the observing and analysing eye of Science. The poetry of older times ...
... may be a hard saying that one must or may discover and reveal beauty in a pig or its poke or in a parish pump or an advertisement of somebody's pills, and yet something like that seems to be what modern Art and literature are trying with vigour and a conscientious labour to do. By extension one ought to be able to extract beauty equally well out of morality or social reform or a political caucus or ...
... expressed, and it is because you have the possibility of doing this that I encourage you to paint. 1963 I have seen your paintings and certainly there has been progress over the last year. Modern art is an experiment, still very clumsy, to express something other than the simple physical appearance. The idea is good—but naturally the value of the expression depends entirely on the value of that ...
... Coomaraswamy is right there. A poet may do that. If you speak of individual tendencies it is different. An artist may have theories and ideas about art but he does not express his individuality. In modern art, the artist figures much, while in old Indian art he didn't: he remained behind. ...
... paintings would take shape at the end of the month for he made them solely based on the inspiration he received. Nishikanto had a unique style of creating his paintings. His creations may resemble modern art and yet they are characterized with the presence of surrealism and metaphysical elements. This was because he drew inspiration from the poetry of Sri Aurobindo and as a result his art took a turn ...
... Savitri I could not finish, and the Mother asked me to keep it as it was. When the Mother and I were doing the paintings of Book One, Canto 4, there were two or three paintings which looked like modern art. She said jokingly to Mona L. Pinto: You see, now Huta and I are doing modern painting! ...
... Colour is everything. (I showed him the small volume on Cezanne). He liked it better because of the colour plates. In the evening he said he had liked Matisse also. He found three things in modern art - 1. Ugliness, 2. Vulgarity, or what might be called coarseness, 3. Absurdity. In their nude studies it is very low sexuality which they bring out. They all call it "Life" – but it is not life ...
... Churchill 416 Cripps' mission 425-6 War and her disciples 428 need for malleability 432 women's care of their body 438-9 New Woman's ideal of Beauty 440 Atomic bomb 442 sports and yoga 469 'modern' art 473 yogic discipline and destiny 479 things to cherish and defend 486 meditation and concentration 522, 554-5, 664-5 (cf123, 308) 'History' and the truth about the Past 523 (cf 554) reading ...
... the Ashram, of his path of Yoga and other paths, of India's social, cultural and spiritual life, of the country's struggle for political independence, of Hitler and the Second World War, of modern science, art and poetry, and of many other things that arose in the course of conversation. Serious discussion is balanced with light-hearted banter and humour. By recording these human touches, Nirodbaran ...
... again. The legend of British sympathy misled us for a century and now that the phantasm has of itself ceased to haunt us, let no one try to juggle and deceive us again with the mantras of that modern black art. Both Mr. Morley's speech and its effect on the British people are, we repeat, matters of supreme indifference to us, and the British and Anglo-Indian journals who want to frighten us into our ...
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