Art is — representing the beautiful. There must be Art in everything.
Art must be in touch with nature — and wherever that touch is gone, Art degenerates — yet it must be above nature.
Drama is the most difficult of all arts. In it two things are to be satisfied — first, the ears, and second, the eyes. To paint a scene, if one thing be painted, it is easy enough; but to paint different things and yet to keep up the central interest is very difficult. Another difficult thing is stage – management, that is, combining different things in such a manner as to keep the central interest intact.
Even luxuries are arranged according to ideas and ideals, to make them reflect as much of thought-life as possible — and this is Art.
Every artist paints his Madonna according to his own pre-conceived ideas.
Everything progresses in waves. The march of civilization, the progression of worlds, is in waves. All human activities likewise progress in waves — art, literature, science, religion.
High achievements in art, music, etc., are the results of concentration.
In art, interest must be centred on the principal theme.
Is there no room for art in the spoken language? What is the use of creating an unnatural language to the exclusion of the natural one? (on 19th century’s Bengali language)
Music is the highest art and, to those who understand is the highest worship.
Science, art, learning and metaphysical research all have their proper functions in life, but if you seek to blend them, you destroy their individual characteristics until, in time, you eliminate the spiritual, for instance, from the religious altogether.
The difference between architecture and building is that the former expresses an idea, while the latter is merely a structure built on economical principles. The value of matter depends solely on its capacities of expressing ideas.
The sculptor, the painter the musician the dancer, or any artist, if he can first obtain celebrate in Paris, acquires very easily the esteem and eulogy of other countries.
The secret of Greek Art is its imitation of nature even to the minutest details; whereas the secret of Indian Art is to represent the ideal. The energy of the Greek painter is spent in perhaps painting a piece of flesh, and he is so successful that a dog is deluded into taking it to be a real bit of meat and so goes to bite it. Now, what glory is there in merely imitating nature? Why not place an actual bit of flesh before the dog?
Drama is the most difficult of all arts.
For instance, make a small scene of spring re-awakening in a forest, showing how the leaves and buds are coming again.
The Socratic dialogues are Plato all over; you are entirely hidden. Moreover, the dramatic part is infinitely beautiful.
Another difficult thing is stage-management, that is, combining different things in such a manner as to keep the central interest intact.
If the painter, losing the consciousness of his ego, becomes completely immersed in his painting, he will be able to produce masterpieces.
The artistic faculty was highly developed in our Lord Shri Ramakrishna, and he used to say that without this faculty none can be truly spiritual.
There is a colossal figure of Death, a huge female skeleton covered with a shrivelled skin — the awful fidelity to anatomical details are frightening and disgusting.
The effort to trace the Indian drama to Greek sources was also preposterous, for nothing in the Sanskrit dramas bore any similarity, either to Greek literary methods or to Greek histrionic forms.
Art has its origin in the expression of some idea in whatever man produces. Where there is no expression of idea, however much there may be a display of colours and so on, it cannot be styled as true art.
If you can with your whole heart produce one real thing, if you can rightly express a single idea in art, it must win appreciation in course of time. A real thing never suffers from want of appreciation in this world.
I enjoyed Rome more than anything in the West, and after seeing Pompeii I have lost all regard for the so-called 'Modern Civilisation'. With the exception of steam and electricity they had everything else and infinitely more art conceptions and executions than the Moderns.
True Art can be compared to a lily which springs from the ground, takes its nourishment from the ground, is in touch with the ground, and yet is quite high above it. So Art must be in touch with nature — and wherever that touch is gone, Art degenerates — yet it must be above nature.
