Category Archives: The Arts

Indian Painting of combined Hindu gods Shiva and Vishnu.

The Arts, Uncategorized

 

Vishnu_and_Shiva_in_a_combined_form,_as_'Hari-hara,'

 

‘Indian wisdom has always extolled art as the key in the salvation of ultimate release sought by all good Hindus’. In particular I find Indian miniature paintings very beautiful and colourful, designed with great ingenuity to fit a small space.

In Hinduism the central idea, the philosophy, is that there is a continuing cycle of birth and rebirth as humans search for emotional and psychological pleasure which perpetuates until the soul is freed from karma and reaches Moksha. This complex religion had its roots in India some say as far back as 10,000 years BC. It recognises a single deity Brahman but other gods or goddesses are recognised as an appearance of the supreme god Brahman who is the creator and one in a trinity comprised of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva.

In this painting we see the combination of the two gods, Vishnu and Shiva, creator/destroyer, formed as one figure, the painter explores metaphorically the ground between these extremes, to find a balance, is there middle ground between such opposed roles, that of Vishnu the preserver and Shiva the destroyer,  a divided self? It is in our power to be both creative and destructive.

Indian art in the Hindu tradition contains a wealth of symbols in a way similar to those used in Renaissance art centuries later. I do not know who painted this or where in India it orignated or its date but it is probably painted in oils. Indian art is found on cave walls, as reliefs, frescoes and scultpture and in many styles.

Vishnu in Hinduism is a popular deity, a Supreme god of the Vaishnavism denomination, one of the three most influential denominations in contemporary Hinduism. He is believed to be eternal and supreme, beyond the material universe, he is the maintainer or preserver who can be worshipped in the form of ten avatars, Rama and Krishna being the most famous, not seen or measured by material science or logic, each Hindu aims to dwell in a place of bliss for eternity. Here the question once again is posed of whether we are finite beings or infinite.

Vishnu is depicted as having a dark complexion like water – filled clouds, usually he is seen with four arms, he stands on a lotus flower, an ancient Indian symbol of purity and special power and is also shown as an example of ‘glorious existence and liberation’, he holds a discus, a mace, a conch and a trident, the lotus flower in this painting is set on a cosmic ocean with a red sky, a sunset or sunrise I’m not sure. Vishnu is married to Lakshmi, they have children who are also worshipped such as Ganesh, the elephant god.

Shiva is worshipped by the Chauvism denomination, the oldest of the major sects of Hinduism, it  probably has its roots in Shiva worship in the Indus Valley. He is the other god portrayed whose role is that of the destroyer, he will destroy the ego and the universe at the end of a age, he is also seen as the God of the Dance, he dances the dance of death, he destroys illusions and imperfections making way for beneficial change, he is the source of good and evil and can swing to and fro from hedonist to ascetic. Parvati is his eternal wife, she is able to keep him in balance within the bonds of marriage. We see him portrayed with a blue face and throat and usually he has a white body, although that can also be blue, he has a third eye which depicts his wisdom and untamed energy, he is often seen wearing a cobra necklace to show his fearless domination of dangerous animals, three white lines lie across his forehead drawn with white ash which may hide his third eye, these lines show that he possesses superhuman power and wealth. He holds a three pronged trident to symbolise the triumvirate of the three in one god, Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, lastly he is dressed in simple animal skins and is often set in austere surroundings looking tranquil and smiling.

In this portrayal known as Hari-hara, the gods holds a conch shell, a symbol of the five elements, water, fire, earth, air and space or sky, it produces the sound ‘Om’ the primeval sound of creation, a discus which refers to the mind, a trident which I mentioned earlier and lastly the mace which represents mental and physical strength. All aspects of life are covered.

Image from wikimedia commons.

 

Poetry 41: This living hand, now warm and capable by John Keats

Poetry, Practice, The Arts,

hand-357340_640

This living hand, now warm and capable
Of earnest grasping, would, if it were cold
And in the icy silence of the tomb,
So haunt thy days and chill thy dreaming nights
That thou would wish thine own heart dry of blood
So in my veins red life might stream again,
And thou be conscience-calm’d–see here it is–
I hold it towards you.

Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

The quarrel between philosophy and poetry

Middle Way Philosophy, Philosophy, Poetry, The Arts, ,

‘”The part which relies on measurement and calculation must be the best part of us…. So is not the part which contradicts them an inferior one?”

“Inevitably”‘ (Plato’s Republic, 603a)

Thus does Plato provide the basic rationale for his condemnation of poetry, along with the other arts. He says that the works of the poet, like those of the artist, have “a low degree of truth” and “he deals with a low element of the mind”. “We are therefore quite right to refuse to admit him to a properly run state” continues Socrates, in pronouncements that are only echoed and accepted by others in the dialogue. Thus begins the long quarrel between philosophy and poetry.

It is easy to see this quarrel as reflecting that between those who judge solely on the basis of the representations of the left brain hemisphere at a particular time, and those who, using the right hemisphere, want to look beyond such certainties and integrate the contents of the left hemisphere at different times. Plato, through the mouthpiece of his dramatised Socrates, appears to reflect that left brain certainty: that rightness dwells only in the apparent clarity of our current representation, and in its tools of positive measurement, critical analysis, and planning. Humour, ambiguity, and grief should not be publicly shared in art, he says, but rather repressed and made objects of shame, made subject to the control of ‘reason’.raphael_athens_plato

Fortunately, Plato’s ideal Republic of the left brain was never created in the fashion he envisaged it. However, he has had many imitators, particularly in the shape of political revolutionaries of a kind who wished to purge the world of all untidy ambiguity that did not fit their utopian vision. Rather than keeping them out of the Republic entirely, the Fascist and Communist regimes of the twentieth century subjected poets and other artists to censorship and control, so that they could only publicly express what fitted the party line.

Plato attacked poetry because he believed it was a form of rhetoric, which would stir up and manipulate uncontrolled emotions, but ironically it is philosophy that has too often become allied to rhetoric by offering naïve political schemes or supporting conventional views of the world, at odds with the immediacy of poetry. It is the poets who have generally understood rather better that meaning resides, not in representations, but in embodied experience. Language that does not speak to that experience appeals only to the shared lowest common denominator of human experience. Without poetry we are too often left to the clichés of the crowd and its groupthink, unable to summon creative responses to new conditions because the very tools of our thinking have been blunted by the platitudes of conventional certainty.

I have recently come across a quotation from the great Irish poet W.B. Yeats that gives wonderful expression to this poetic counter-attack:

“Ideas and images which have to be understood and loved by large numbers of people, must appeal to no rich personal experience, no patience of study, no delicacy of sense…. Manner and matter will be rhetorical, conventional, sentimental; and language, because it is carried beyond life perpetually, will be as wasted as the thought, with unmeaning pedantries and silences, and a dread of all that has salt and savour.” (from J.M.Synge and the Ireland of his time, 1910, quoted recently in a TLS article by Roy Foster)

Of course, philosophy is a varied thing, but if modern philosophy has a consistent theme (with only a few exceptions) it is the overwhelming dominance of limited, ‘flat’ left hemisphere thought in which the wider use of thinking in experience is completely ignored. In the case of Anglo-Saxon philosophy, it may be precise, analytic and highly technical, but nevertheless have the effect only of reinforcing conventional attitudes, or (in the case of post-modernism) it may be highly critical of all conventions, but again in a decontextualized way that gives no attention to the depth or breadth of experience or the practical context in which it is read. Whilst this kind of philosophy may seem of marginal interest to most people in modern society, that marginality might be seen as the unintended and ironic outcome of Plato’s approach. By relying entirely on an inadequate conception of ‘reason’, philosophy has made itself marginal. However, the conventionality, parochialism, cynicism and relativism that dominate it are shared with much of the rest of society.

Has either side ‘won’ the debate? On the one hand it seems that philosophy has ‘won’ in the sense that poetry is extremely marginal in our society, and superficial representationalism rules supreme. On the other hand, however, it seems that poetry has ‘won’, because it has not been banished from the state, and every new generation finds new ways of connecting with the imagination, however puritanical the public discourse. It is, of course, an unwinnable war and a delusory conflict, because both philosophy and poetry address central areas of human experience. Every time we machine-gun down the ‘opposition’, it is likely to pop up again, like an army of indestructible revenants.

It’s time for a new attempt at lasting peace negotiations. Part of a lasting solution, in my view, involves the deconstruction of the wrong assumptions on which the whole conflict has been based. No helpful philosophy can be assembled on the basis of a representational view of meaning that denies the body and its shaping effect on even the most abstract of our constructions. But if we begin with this recognition and face up to its revolutionary implications, philosophy can be shaped anew in a way that works in co-operation and peace with poetry. Metaphor is the way in which we appreciate meaning and connect it to bodily experience, not a dispensible ornament on a ‘literal’ base. Beliefs constructed on the assumption that they are even capable of reflecting reality become dogmatic, entrench us in inadequate attitudes, and create conflict. ‘Emotion’ is part of our basic response to the world, and is not ‘subjective’ and ripe for repression, but rather, like ‘reason’, part of our provisional account of the world, to be shaped with increasing adequacy.

Poets have been telling us about the power of metaphor and the need to face up to repressed ’emotion’, for thousands of years. Now it’s time to start listening, and to incorporate that view into a richer and more adequate kind of philosophy. I will close with a quote from Seamus Heaney (who died a year ago), which I also found in the same TLS article as the one from Yeats above:

“Within our individual selves we can reconcile two orders of knowledge which we might call the practical and the poetic…. each form of knowledge addresses the other and… the frontier between them is there for the crossing.”

Paolo Uccello 1397 – 1475. The Battle of San Romano 1432.

Practice, The Arts, ,

san_romano

 

How does an artist represent three dimensional space and an illusion of depth on a flat surface? One early example of how this can be done would be to look at the work of Paolo Uccello who was born in Florence in 1397, his father was a barber-surgeon, his mother a high-born Florentine. Uccello is his nickname, Paul of the birds, so named because he liked to paint birds and other creatures. He was a mathematician and painter and is remembered for his development of perspective, a method of producing a sense of space and depth in a painting, there are other ways such as with the use of colour. The Egyptian and Byzantine artists had totally disregarded perspective, Giotto in Italy had made some strides to obtain this sense in his wonderful murals, now we do not find it difficult to achieve providing we learn a few basic rules. It was not until the early Renaissance era that perspective was used , these years between the 14th and early 17th. centuries were a time that heralded the end of the Middle Ages, it is thought to have began in Florence. New knowledge focused through the developing natural sciences was sought and collected by philosophers, scientists and artists, this new approach was thought to have been brought by Greek scholars who fled from Constantinople when the Ottoman Turks concquered the city, they brought their texts and knowledge with them, Greek and Roman mythology was studied once again and would be again by artists like Picasso.

Uccello was so interested in solving the problem of perspective that he would stay up at night attempting to find vanishing points, he was an idiosynchratic character who had no school of followers although he influenced artists such as Piero della Francesco, Albert Durer and Leonardo da Vinci, his tutor was Ghiberti who designed the magnificent doors of the Florence Baptistry. Uccello married in 1453.

The Battle of San Romano was depicted in three panels painted over several years with egg tempera on wood, the battle was between Florence and Sienna which lasted for eight hours, the forces of Florence were the victors – Italy was not unified then. These paintings were a secular commission, most artists then worked mainly for patrons in the church and so did Uccello, this tryptich was admired later by Lorenzo de Medici who did much to foster the Arts, the Medici family were a powerful dynasty who ruled in Florence. I have chosen the middle panel painted between 1435 and 1455, the three panels were intended to be hung high on three walls, they are now separated, one is in the National Gallery I think, another in the Louvre in Paris and the one I have chosen is held in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, each panel is about three metres long.

In this work we see a colourful pageant, a tournament rather than a real battle scene, Uccello was a mathematician with a purpose! In these paintings he exhibits his theories on perspective, he was not concerned with the feelings of the participants on the battlefield, the result is a rather wooden look to the characters, the horses could be rocking horses and the knights stuffed dummies, forms are foreshortened, we see a forest of lances and some are broken and lying on the ground as are two of the horses one with the knight still in the saddle, foot soldiers are bunched together in the middle distance, all methods used by Uccello to exhibit perspective as our eyes are led to the background, strangely there is a hunt also taking place across the fields. I like the use of the warm and rich colour, for the horse’s bridles he used gold leaf and for the armour silver leaf, which has tarnished over time. Uccello was a man of the Renaissance but as with many artists he also had  knowledge the past, in this case earlier gothic art. The work is more like a fairy tale  in pictures even though it depicts an historic violent event, I think that is why I like it.

Bernard Berenson, an art critic who wrote about Renaissance art in Italy was perhaps a little harsh when discussing Uccello’s work, he pointed out that art is not simply skill or a show of dexterity or to be used for scientific purposes, I would agree but Uccello did achieve what he set out to do, and as early example of perspective he was successful. Berenson worte ‘ Florentine art rushed to its end’ because of these failings, other schools of art in Italy prospered. Sadly Uccello went the same way, spending his latter years forgotten and lonely with a sick wife, he died in 1475.

Image from wikipedia,

Alfred Wallis 1855 – 1942. The Hold House St. Ives circa 1932.

Practice, The Arts, Uncategorized, , ,

Wallis,_Hold_House_Port_Mear_Square_Island

 

Staying with the sea side theme a little longer I have chosen a painting by Alfred Wallis, the painting is called  The Hold House, Port Mear, Island Point, Mear Beach, St. Ives. The work of Wallis can be categorised as Naive. We see the main image is the Hold House, the cottages by the shore seem to be on a hill, the fishing boat is tipped up as though by a high wave, many waves head for the shore and the island of green is the peninsular, as though Wallis sees the scene from a hill top, yet we understand it completely.

Alfred Wallis was born in Devon where his father had found work, his parents were Cornish, following the death of his mother his father moved the family back to Penzance, Cornwall. Wallis began his painting career aged seventy, he said he was lonely after the death of his wife and his paintings kept him company. He had many stored memories of sailing ships which were being replaced by steam powered vessels, the sea was in his blood, I imagine a physically strong man with skin tanned by the sea and wind. He married Susan Ward when he was twenty, his wife was twice his age, he became step-father to her five children. Having spent his life living by and working on the sea he must have remembered many trips on deep-sea schooners fishing between Penzance and Newfoundland when serving in the Merchant Navy, he had a number of jobs, as a boy he made baskets, he joined the merchant navy in the 1870s, he changed to fishing locally and did labouring work until he became an assistant to an antique dealer where he learnt about objets d’art.

Wallis had  no money to buy art materials, he often used cardboard from packing cases on which to paint and paints purchased from ship’s candlers. For this painting he used the reverse of a board printed to advertise an exhibition held by the St. Ives Society of Arts at the Porthmeor Gallery. His palette was restricted to a few colours described as ‘shiny blacks, fierce greys, strange whites, rich dark browns and the pungeant Cornish green.’

Wallis said he was expressing his experiences as he painted, for him they had embodied meaning, he knew the geography of St. Ives and the beach with its surf waves, they would have been high and powerful in the storms that hit that coast. He had never had an art lesson and when some years later famous artists went to live in St. Ives such as Ben Nicholson, who dicovered his work,  Wallis’s style did not change, more the other way round,  his work inspired the artists who had set up an artist’s colony in St. Ives, he carried on painting as before. Barbara Hepworth bought this painting before donating  it  to a gallery, it is now in the Tate. He destroyed much of his work, a great pity but the remainder is now more valuable, he was not concerned with perspective, he lifts his scenes up like a map, scale was not important either, images that were his main focus were painted larger. His work has been called deeply mystical, I am not sure it is for me but there is a sense of an emotional attachment to the area, he has a good sense of design, especially seen in sea views filled with many multi – sailed vessels. (images not licenced to be reproduced, but well worth finding online.)

Wallis wrote his work was ‘something that has grown out of the Cornish seas and earth which will endure.’ His lack of education did nothing to suppress his emotional attachment to his surroundings, sadly he died in poverty in Madron Workhouse, Penzance, believing that his neighbours were jealous of his non – existent wealth and the fact that he knew famous artists. Galleries in America, Australia, New Zealand and Britain own his work and countless private collectors.
Many fakes are also on the market.

Bernard Leach, the famous potter, created a gravestone to commerate his life which portrays Wallis as a tiny mariner at the foot of a huge lighthouse, much in the style  of Wallis himself. His last home where he  lived from 1890 at 3 Back Road West St. Ives has been restored, many paintings by  him have been copied onto its walls, the house is available to rent as a holiday home, I wonder what he would make of that!

Image from wikipedia.