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<p class=MsoNormal align=right style='text-align:center; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><b style='mso-bidi-font-weight:
normal'><span style='mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;'><font size="4">The
Nature and Destiny of Art</font><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><i><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></i></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>TRUE art means the expression of beauty in the
material world. In a world wholly converted, that is to say, <span lang=EN-GB
style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>expresssing</span> integrally the divine
reality, art must serve as the revealer and teacher of this divine beauty in
life. In other words, the artist must be able to enter into communion with the
Divine and receive the inspiration as to what should be the form or forms for
the material realisation of the divine beauty. At the same time, in expressing
true beauty in the physical, he also sets an</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>example, becomes an instrument of education... Art
not only creates beauty, but educates the taste of people to find true beauty,
the essential beauty that expresses the divine truth. That is the true role of
art. But between that and what it is now there is a great difference.</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.5pt;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>The decline comes in the
normal course of evolution which follows a spiral movement. From the beginning
of the last century to the middle of it, art became totally a debased thing,
commercial, obscure, ignorant, something very far from its true nature and
function. But the spirit of art cannot die; only as it rose as a movement of
protest or revolt, the forms it chose were equally bizarre. In attempting to
counteract the general debasing of taste it went to the other extreme, as is
the charac­ter of all movements of nature. One was a servile copy of nature, it
was pointed out or not even that. In those days it used to be called
photographic art, if one were to condemn it: But now it is no longer a term of
condemnation, for photography has developed into a consummate art. Neither
could it be truly yalled realism, for there are realistic paintings which
belong to a very high order. That art was conventional, artificial, I lifeless.
Now the reaction to this movement said: we do not concern ourselves with
physical life any more, the reality as we<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>

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<span style='font-size:10.0pt;
mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;'>Page – 417<o:p></o:p></span></p>

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<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;
mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>see with
outward eyes is no longer our business; we want instead to express the vital
life, the mental life. Hence came a whole host of reformers and rebels –
cubists, surrealists, futurists and so on – who sought to create art with their
head. They forgot the simple truth that in art it is not the head that
commands, but the feeling of beauty in the heart. So art landed into the most
absurd, ridiculous and frightful of worlds. Indeed with the two wars behind us
we have gone further in that direction. Each war has brought down a world in
decomposition. And now we seem to be in the very heart of chaos.</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.0pt;mso-line-height-alt:
11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>Perhaps
we are at the bottom of the curve and it is time to mount up. This
disintegration is a necessary prelude; it is even from a certain point of view
a better condition than that of the epoch of Queen <st1:State><st1:place>Victoria</st1:place></st1:State>
or the <st1:place>Second Empire</st1:place> in <st1:country-region><st1:place>France</st1:place></st1:country-region>,
the age of the practical, successful bourgeoisie, of</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;
mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>snug
contentment and dull mediocrity, of death in life. As I say, the movement of
progress follows a curve. In a certain epoch some fine things are expressed in
a fine way. Then follows an epoch which is tired of the old things, wants to
find new things and express them in a new way. The age of</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;
mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>Louis XIV,
for example, was an age dominated by the sense of artistic creation and it
represented the peak of a certain type of the truly beautiful in art and life.
In the course of social evolution other ideas, other needs appeared – those of
a com­mercial age. So the curve took a downward course. For there is nothing so
antagonistic to art as commerce. For the associ­ation of commerce with art
means the <span lang=EN-GB style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>popularisation</span>
of some­thing which is exceptional: it is putting within the reach of all and
sundry a thing which is understood and appreciated only by the chosen few, the
elite. Perhaps it i_ because of this, because art has no outlet in the world,
it has in these days turned to other directions, into the domains of the mental
and the vital, into sideways and bypaths of consciousness. When, however,
better conditions prevail, when instead of the spirit of mercantilism, there
appears upon earth the sense of a more beautiful reality, then art will be
reborn and come to its own. That seems to be still a long way off. </p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:11.25pt;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;
mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>The art of
this decadent epoch is what I call mushroom art. You know how mushrooms grow?
They grow anywhere and do not seem to form part, for example, of what you
cultivate<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>

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<span style='font-size:10.0pt;
mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;'>Page – 418<o:p></o:p></span></p>

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<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;
mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span
style='mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>or where you cultivate. Just think of it!
There is a spot on the wall which becomes humid and you see it soon covered
with this growth. You have a tree which does not get the sunlight, you will
find its roots covered with mushrooms. It is a kind of spontaneous growth which
is not linked to the spot where it grows. It is not a limb of its environment,
but something ex­traneous added to it. Instead of mushrooms I could have spoken
of parasites: they belong to the same category. You have seen parasite plants?
They grow upon trees, they fix themselves there. They have not their own life and
organs, they do not draw their food directly from earth, as all normal plants
do; they live upon the life of another, make use of the labour of another.
There are also animal parasites that live upon another animal, growing and
profiting by its labour. Parasites or mushrooms have no <i>raison d'êlre </i>to
be where they are-they are invaders, interpolators, anomalies.<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:12.95pt;mso-line-height-alt:
11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span
style='mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>In ancient times, in the great ages, in </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span
  style='mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>Greece</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span
style='mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>, for example or even during the Italian
Renaissance, particularly, however, in </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span
  style='mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>Greece</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span
style='mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'> and in </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span
  style='mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>Egypt</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span
style='mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>, they erected buildings, constructed
monuments for the sake of public utility. Their buildings were meant for the
most part to be temples, sanctuaries to lodge their gods and deities. What they
had in view was something total, whole and entire, beautiful and complete in
itself. That was the purpose of architecture embodying the harmony of sweeping
and majestic lines: sculpture was a part of architecture supplying details of
expression and even painting came up to complete the expression: but the whole
held together in a coordinated unity which was the monument itself. The sculp­ture
was for the monument, the painting was for the monument; it was not that each
was separate from the other and existed for itself and one did not know why it
was there. In </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style='mso-bidi-font-size:
  10.0pt'>India</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style='mso-bidi-font-size:
10.0pt'>, when a temple was being built, for example, what was aimed at was a
total creation, all the parts combined to give effect to one end, to make a
beautiful vesture for God, the one object of their adoration. All the great
epochs of art were of this kind. But in modern times, in the latter part of the
last century, Art' became a matter of business. A painting was done in order to
be sold. You do your paintings, put each one in a frame and place them side by
side or group them, that is, lump them together without much reason. The same
with</span><span
style='mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;mso-pagination:none;
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<span style='font-size:10.0pt;
'>Page – 419<o:p></o:p></span></p>

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<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;
mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>regard to
sculpture. You make a statue and set it up anywhere without any connection
whatsoever with the surroundings. It is always something foreign, extraneous in
its setting, like a mushroom or a parasite. The thing in itself may not be
quite ugly, but it is out of place, it is not part of an organic whole. We
exhibit art today. Indeed, it is exhibitionism, it is the showing off of
cleverness, talent, skill, virtuosity. A piece of architecture does not incarnate
a living force as it used to do once upon a time. It is no longer the
expression of an aspiration, of something that uplifts the spirit nor the
expression of the magnificence of the Divine whose dwelling it is meant to be.
You build houses here and there pell-mell or somehow juxta­posed without any
coordinating idea governing them, without any relation to the environment where
they are situated. When you enter a house, it is the same thing. A bit of
painting here, a bit of sculpture there, some objects of art in one corner, a
few others in another. Yes, it is an exhibition, a museum, a kaleidoscopic
collection. It gives a shock to the truly sensitive artistic taste.</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:12.7pt;mso-line-height-alt:
11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>I
do not say that a museum is not necessary or useful. It is a good means of
education, that is to say, getting information about what other people or other
epochs did. It is an aid to the historic knowledge of things. But it is far
from being artistic. A museum is not the place where art can find its highest
or its true expression. There is an art which seeks to coordinate, integrate
distinct, discrete, contrary objects. It is called decorative art. And in so
far as this art is successful, we are a step forward even in these days towards
true art.</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:12.0pt;mso-line-height-alt:
11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>Here
in <st1:country-region><st1:place>India</st1:place></st1:country-region> things
are and should be a little different. In spite of the modern European invasion
and in spite of certain lapses in some directions – I may refer to what Sri
Aurobindo calls the Ravi Varma interlude – the heart of <st1:country-region><st1:place>India</st1:place></st1:country-region>
is not <span lang=EN-GB style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>anglicised</span> or <span
lang=EN-GB style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>Europeanised</span>. The <st1:place><st1:PlaceName>Calcutta</st1:PlaceName>
 <st1:PlaceType>School</st1:PlaceType></st1:place> is a sign – although their
attempt is rather on a small scale – yet it is a sign that <st1:country-region><st1:place>India</st1:place></st1:country-region>'s
artistic taste, in spite of a modern education, still turns to what is
essential and permanent in her culture and civilisation. You have still before
you, within your reach, the old temples, the old paintings, to teach you that
art creation is meant to express a faith, to give you the sense of totality and
organisation. You will note in this connection<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>

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<span style='font-size:10.0pt;
mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;'>Page – 420<o:p></o:p></span></p>

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<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;
mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>another
fact which is very significant. All these paintings, all these sculptures in
caves and temples bear no signature. They were not done with the idea of making
a name. Today you fix your name to every bit of work you do, announce the event
with a great noise in the papers, so that the thing may not be forgotten. In
those days the artist did what he had to do, without caring whether posterity
would remember his name or not. The work was done in an urge of aspiration
towards expressing a higher beauty, above all with the idea of preparing a
dwelling fit for the deity whom one invokes. In <st1:place>Europe</st1:place>
in the cathedrals of the Middle Ages, things were done in the same spirit.
There too at that time works were anonymous and bore no signature of the
author. If any name came to be preserved, it was more or less by accident.</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:12.0pt;mso-line-height-alt:
11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>However,
even the commercialism of today, hideous as it is, has an advantage of its own.
Commercialism means the mixing together of all parts of the world. It effaces
the distinction between Orient and Occident, brings the Orient near to the
Occident and the Occident near to the Orient. With the exchange of goods, there
happens an exchange of ideas and even of habits and manners. In ancient days <st1:City><st1:place>Rome</st1:place></st1:City>
conquered <st1:country-region><st1:place>Greece</st1:place></st1:country-region>
and through that conquest was herself conquered by the culture and civilisation
of <st1:country-region><st1:place>Greece</st1:place></st1:country-region>. The
thing is happening today on a much greater scale and more intensely perhaps. At
one time <st1:country-region><st1:place>Japan</st1:place></st1:country-region>
was educating herself on the American pattern; now that <st1:country-region><st1:place>America</st1:place></st1:country-region>
has conquered <st1:country-region><st1:place>Japan</st1:place></st1:country-region>
physically, she is being conquered by the spirit of <st1:country-region><st1:place>Japan</st1:place></st1:country-region>;
even in objects manufactured in <st1:country-region><st1:place>America</st1:place></st1:country-region>,
you notice the Japanese influence in some way or other.<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>

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<span style='font-size:10.0pt;
mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;'>Page – 421<o:p></o:p></span></p>

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