Hawking’s standing on universe being nothing more than ‘physical theories and laws’ sounds like Abstract Constructivists’ approach to creation of art, which modern critics categorize as “default painting.” But, what about that almost
all the great artists, from Vinci, Michelangelo and Rembrandt to Van Gogh, Picasso and Warhol, have painted human predicament through their own self-portraits,
expressing introspection on the human nature betiding woes of inevitable old age?

Of these four such works, the first I take is Van Gogh’s “Self Portrait with Banded Ear.’ The volumes are expressed through guilt fully saddened and penetrating gaze becoming aware of artistic and masterful handling of the medium and the canvas to create a masterpiece of art—expressing the human nature to face the catastrophe befallen.

This work was Picasso’s one of the darlings. ‘Musketeer with a Pipe’ is a work in which Picasso has put culmination of artistic oeuvre using styles as his painterly expressions. And, the mask and virile bravura of musketeer became the hide for his diminishing physicality to fulfill sensual desires.

The third masterpiece is Edward Munch’s ‘Between Clock and Bed.’ Munch with his expressionistic brushing and spontaneity speaks of entering from light of youth into the shade of old age ‘naturally’ accepting the predicament. In this shade the harsh strokes of the bed cover and bigger-than-himself size of the clock delineate the
woes of old age.

The fourth and the last one is the ‘Self Portrait’ done in 1986 by Warhole. This portrait powerfully expresses the current human psyche ‘lost’ in the want of a faith in human Endeavour.

In classical Greek architectural orders the harmony was achieved with a thorough decoding of the creeper motif, The Doric harmony is achieved through the sheer proportion of pure shapes and convolute-shape solutions. In Ionic, different geometric shapes are united with volutes and scrolls. And, in Corinthian order, the geometry is harmonized with acanthus leaves and scrolls.

In India, Ajanta’s every element is harmonized with the creeper motif. Be it the projections and recessions of planes or dvipakshiya-tribhung (two aspectual tri-fold, taking care of tri-fold in roundness and frontal plane), whole of Ajanta speak of coding and decoding of creeper motif.

Thus it becomes evident that the seriousness of the quest in artistic intent decodes the universal creeper motif.

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Jain Painting

Talking of honing conventions and artistic intentions, the struggle of Gujarat’s Jain manuscript painters of the early fifteenth century comes to my mind. Their struggle equates to the struggle of Matisse for combining cubistic space with his discovered flat tectonic levels of flat colors.

An example is a page from ‘Kalakacarya Katha’ painted around the second decade of the fifteenth century. The story is about the abduction and avenging of the sister of saint Kalaka by the King of Ujjain. A sahi (scythian) King avenges and is being sermon by the saint in this page. The narrative is depicted in rectangles and horizontals. The rectangle occupied by the saint and the royal personage has a very similar artistic intention with that of Matisse. The background is crimson and the napels-yellow face of saint is in profile with the second eye projecting in the background. The bluish-pink face of the royal personage is presented in a three-forth view with full mouth and in the split representational concept. This face would have been projected much more forward than the face of the saint had it been made lighter. Since the total figure of the saint is projected much more forward, but for the overlapping figure of royal personage which,above all these layers locking, has the design over the garment which pushes back the brightness of the accouterment. The three fourths face with its projecting forth frontality is subdued by the tone and color of the body. In the left, the dominance of projection of the royal seat with the Sahi king is on the left, subdued by the breaking of the surface with the patterns and designs. Thus, the figure of the Kalakacarya becomes monumental and center of interest. Now the verticals and horizontal lines become the cardinals to give relevance to the proper surface in relation with the figure of Kalakacarya. The flat red background grips the sharp projection of the figure of Kalakacarya and secures it to the coordinates. It preserves the narrative grid.

This is how the Gujarati Jain Miniature painters play “Matisse-que” knitting of levels and facets.

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Picasso's Cubism

My musings over:
Cubism as Film Adaption – Anne S. Lewis, Wall Street Journal, May 24, 2010. A slide show is given in the online version.

“Picasso and Braque Go to the Movies”. a film recently opened in New York is directed by Arne Glimcher. It explores the influence of early film on the Cubism of Picasso and Baroque. The film explains the relationships between the simultaneous angles edited in films and the fragmented forms and multifaceted perspectives of cubism. To the plausible evidence, the musings of a former curator at the Museum of Modern Art, Bernice Rose, are quoted finding relationship between the ‘Serpentine Dance’ transformed by a complex manipulation of light and color (a spectacle of billowing clothes, at the Universal Exposition,1900, Paris) and curtains in “D’Avingnon” (1907) of Picasso. Anne S. Lewis, the writer of this article quotes that it was the influence in the sense of “permissions given—old restrictions removed.”

It was Braque who around 1912-1913, systematically explored the principles of inverse perspective, disorientation and fragmentation, and split representation learnt through exposure to primitive art, and the art of Ancients. Cézanne’s experiments were the motivational force. On the
other hand, Picasso’s ‘D Avingnon’, is at once an intrusion upon and revealing of the sensuality of young flash with the use of styles, symbols and stage-drama.

Picasso’s classical cubism speaks the artistic intent and struggle to keep the flatness of the surface with coordinates. It was more clearly the Italian Futurists (around 1910) efforts to use the filmstrips imagery of stroboscopic images of motion, and strive to keep the flat surface. But, still the use of time factor in film to unveil the various facets seems to be beyond these flat canvases—although the gradual emphasis could create a rhythm of time. Secondly, in film the transitions used to relate the fragments is unthinkable without involving time factor—a limitation of the canvas. For that reason, in Indian Art treatises ‘painting’ is considered ‘ardha chitra’—partial painting in contrast to sculpture, ‘chitra’. Striving to create a ‘full-faceted imagery,’ Picasso tried cubistic sculptures, but without capturing the time factor.

An open minded study of Ancient and Primitive art could open the way. South Indian bronze sculptures (i.e. Shiva Cosmic Dance) are the examples of a further dimension where the ‘fertile moment’ denotes past and future movement in time through the ‘projections and recessions’ of the limbs.