Ananda K. Coomaraswamy

The Transformation of Nature in Art

Modern western theories of our relationship to art, our studies of art and ancient artists from the east agree that art imitates nature through the manufacture of form but not the visual display of nature. I think nature is divinely indifferent to its creations as humans we cling to ‘modern' artwork as me and mine.

Works of ancient art were made to express forms and ideas of the spirit, the artist was not expressing their personal view of beauty and spirit. Judging our ancient artistic past in my opinion is impossible without understanding our spiritual past. Everything we as human’s did in our past was formed by spiritual views including our art.

The reason I studied Coomaraswamy’s work was because I was introduced to Indian, Asian, and Tibetan art and I needed help understanding the visual meaning on a metaphysical foundation dealing with my Christian upbringing. We all have bias and I didn't know mine. I needed help stepping out of my conditioning and the bias box as I learned a new way of seeing the world and myself.

Ananda Coomaraswamy’s book was one of the first books I read that helped me open the door to new ways of seeing art, religion, and the ancient world view and also our modern world view.

The Four Harmonious Friends, some of my artwork based on my Buddhist studies.

11 x 14 inches, pen and ink

Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy (Tamil: ஆனந்த குமாரசுவாமி, Ānanda Kentiś Kumāraswāmī; 22 August 1877 − 9 September 1947) was a Ceylonese Tamil philosopher and meta-physician, as well as a pioneering historian and philosopher of Indian art, particularly art history and symbolism, and an early interpreter of Indian culture to the West. In particular, he is described as "the groundbreaking theorist who was largely responsible for introducing ancient Indian art to the West. Wiki

"…We ‘preserve' folk songs, at the same time that our way of life destroys the singer…we are proud of our museums, where we display the damning evidence of a way of life that we have made impossible." "Am I my Brother's Keeper?" New York, Asia Press 1947

Art is nothing tangible. We cannot call a painting 'art' as the words 'artifact' and 'artificial' imply. The thing made is a work of art made by art, but not itself art. The art remains in the artist and is the knowledge by which things are made.

However necessary it may be to say “I” and “mine” for the practical purposes of everyday life, our Ego in fact is nothing but a name for what is really only a sequence of observed behaviors.

Industry without art is brutality.

"Looking at the works of art that are considered worthy of preservation in our Museums, and that were once the common objects of the market place, I could not but realise that a society can only be considered truly civilised when it is possible for every man to earn his living by the very work he would rather be doing than anything else in the world, a condition that has only been attained in social orders integrated on the basis of vocation, "svadharma".

At the same time I should like to emphasis that I have never built up a philosophy of my own or wished to establish a new school of thought. Perhaps the greatest thing I have learnt is never to think for myself; I fully agree with Andre Gide that "Toutes choses sont dites deja", and what I have sought is to understand what has been said, while taking no account of the "inferior philosophers". Holding with Heraclitus that the Word is common to all, and that Wisdom is to know the Will whereby all things are steered, I am convinced with Jeremias that the human cultures in all their apparent diversity are but the dialects of one and the same language of the spirit, that there is a "common universe of discourse" transcending the differences of tongues". After-dinner speech on the occasion of his 70th birthday 1947

The artist is not a special kind of man, but every man is a special kind of artist.

The most awkward means are adequate to the communication of authentic experience, and the finest words no compensation for lack of it. It is for this reason that we are moved by the true Primitives and that the most accomplished art craftsmanship leaves us cold.

"The contentment of innumerable people can be destroyed in a generation by the withering touch of our civilisation; the local market is flooded by a production in quantity with which the responsible maker of art cannot complete; the vocational structure of society, with all its guild organization and standards of workmanship, is undermined; the artist is robbed of his art and forced to find himself a "job"; until finally the ancient society is industrialized and reduced to the level of such societies as ours in which business takes precedence of life. Can one wonder that Western nations are feared and hated by other people, not alone for obvious political or economic reasons, but even more profoundly and instinctively for spiritual reasons?" Christian and Oriental Philosophy of Art 1943

A link to My Blog