{"id":60,"date":"2013-07-13T01:25:37","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:25:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=60"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:25:37","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:25:37","slug":"56-art-and-literature-vol-03-the-harmony-of-virtue-volume-03","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/03-the-harmony-of-virtue-volume-03\/56-art-and-literature-vol-03-the-harmony-of-virtue-volume-03","title":{"rendered":"-56_Art and Literature.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

\nSECTION
\n<\/span>EIGHT<\/span><\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\nART AND LITERATURE<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\nArt<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

 
\n                        A<\/font><\/b>LL<\/b> <\/font><\/p>\n

Art is interpretation. Creation is a
\nmisnomer; nothing in this world is created, all is manifested. All
\nexists previously in the mind of the Knower. Art may interpret
\nthat which is already manifest or was manifest at one time, or it
\nmay interpret what will be manifest hereafter. It may even be
\nused as one of the agencies in the manifestation. A particular
\ntype of face and figure may be manifested in the work of a popular artist and in a single generation the existing type of face and
\nfigure in the country may change and mould itself to the new conception. These things are there in the type in the causal world
\nwith which our superconscious selves are perpetually in touch;<\/font>
\n<\/font>they manifest in the psychical and become part of our thought.
\nThat thought we put out into the material world and there it
\ntakes shape and body as movements, as institutions, as poetry,
\nArt and knowledge, as living men and women. Man creates his
\nworld because he is the psychic instrument through whom God
\nmanifests that which He had previously arranged in Himself.
\nIn this sense Art can create the past, the present and the future.
\nIt can re-manifest that which was and has passed away, it can fix
\nfor us that which is, it can prophesy that which will be.<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

                                                                                       
\n*<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nIts normal sphere, however, is interpretation of a less pregnant and forceful kind. Here too, there are three things which it
\ncan interpret in the object it selects, the causal part or thing in
\nitself, the psychical part, or its passing imaginations, phases, emotions; or the physical part, the outward appearance, incident or
\nmovement as our eyes see them. Indian Art attaches itself to the
\ntwo higher interpretations, European to the two lower. They
\nmeet in the middle term of Art, the imaginative and emotional;<\/font>
\n<\/font>but each brings with it the habits of vision, the conventions, the
\nmastering movement and tendency of the soul downward to earth<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage <\/font>
\n\u2013 413<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nor upward to heaven, born of their main preoccupation so that
\neven here, though they meet on common ground, they remain
\ndiverse and unreconciled.<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n*<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nIn dealing with the form the question between them is: shall
\nI reproduce what the eye sees or shall I reproduce what the soul sees? The lower
\ntype of European Art is content with reproducing what the eye sees. This it calls realism and fidelity to
\nNature \u2014 narrowing Nature to the limited confines of the
\nmaterially sensible. The reproduction, of course, is not a real
\nreproduction but only an approximation within the limitations
\nimposed by the canvas, the brush and the paint box. It is really as close an
\nimitation as our instruments will allow, absolute fidelity being rarely possible. This style of Art had perhaps its utility,
\nbut now that we have photographs and can put colour into the
\nphotographs, its separate field is in danger of being taken from
\nit.<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

                                                                                                               
\n*<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nA higher European Art takes imitation of the form as its
\nbasis, but its nobler objective is not the imitation of form, but the
\nimitation of emotion. The artist tries to see and recover on canvas not only the body, but so much of the feeling as the body
\ncan for the moment express. This may often be a great deal. In
\ncertain moments of powerful feeling or critical action a great deal
\nof our psychical selves may come out in the eyes, the face, the
\ngesture, the pose. This the artist imitates. He not only shows us
\nan object or an incident, but he fixes on the canvas a moment in
\nthe soul-life of the object. The habitual mood also stamps itself
\nto a great extent on the face and certain traits of character betray
\nthemselves in expression and feature. These too the imitative
\nartist transfers to the canvas. When not exaggerated or theatrical, this kind of art can be strong, effective and dramatic. But
\nit has serious limitations. So much of the inner truth as the
\noutward form interprets, this Art interprets. Its interpretation<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage <\/font>
\n\u2013 414<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nis second-hand, its vision derived and unable to go beyond its<\/font>
\n<\/font>authority.<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n*<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nA still higher reach is attained by imaginative European Art.
\nImagination, according to the European idea, is creative, not
\ninterpretative. What is really meant is that the imaginative artist
\ntransfers something that belongs to himself into the object of
\nhis study, some fancy that has flashed across or some idea that
\nhas mastered his mind. Either he reads it into his subject by unconscious transference or he deliberately uses his subject as a
\nmere excuse for putting his fancy or his idea into line and colour.
\nThe artist is interpreting himself, not his subject. This egoistic
\nArt has often a very high value and some of the best European
\nwork has been done in this kind. More rarely his imaginative
\nsympathy enables him to catch a glimpse of the thing itself
\nhidden in the form. His imagination usually plays with it and
\nprevents the vision from being true in all its parts, but he is able
\nto do work of the highest attractiveness, vigour or artistic beauty.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n                                                                                                               
\n*<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nIn all these kinds the European binds himself by the necessity of reproducing the actual outward form imposed by material
\nNature. He is a bondsman to form and such do not attain to
\nthat spiritual freedom which is the first condition of the sight spiritual. When he tries to interpret the thing in itself, he degenerates usually into allegory. Recently the Impressionist School in
\nEurope have tried to break the fetters of the form; they have
\ninsisted that what one really sees in an object is not the rounded,
\nsolid material form but something rarer and different. In reality,
\nthey are groping their way towards an attempt at seeing and
\ninterpreting something hidden in the object, something the soul
\nsees before the eye can catch it. Ignorant of the way, they seldom
\nrise beyond a striking and fantastic imagination, but sometimes
\nan inspired eye catches the true vision.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n*<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage <\/font>
\n\u2013 415<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nThe Indian begins at the other end. He sees the thing itself
\neither by sūksma-drsti<\/i>, the soul-sight, or by dhyāna<\/i>, a spiritual
\nunion with the object studied in which the truth it expresses dawns on the mind
\nby the process of revelation. This he transfers to canvas by letting his inspired and informed Will guide the
\npencil and the brush instead of using his intellect or merely technical means to find the best way of expression. He uses technique
\nwith power, but does not rely on it chiefly. The body he paints
\nis the one which will in every part of it express the thing itself,
\nnot the actual material body which largely conceals it. When he
\ndescends into the psychical part and seeks to express imaginations, emotions, or passing phases, he carries his method with
\nhim. Not content with expressing as much of the feeling as the
\nactual body reveals, he sees the emotion in its fullness by dhyāna
\n<\/i>or soul-sight and forces the body into a mould fit for its absolute
\nexpression. He sees the soul and paints it or he sees the heart or
\nmind and paints it. He sees and, can, if he will, paint the body
\nmerely. But usually he does not will it.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage <\/font>
\n\u2013 416<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SECTION EIGHT ART AND LITERATURE Art                             ALL Art is interpretation. Creation is a misnomer; nothing in this world is created, all is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-03-the-harmony-of-virtue-volume-03","wpcat-4-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}