Sri Aurobindo on The True Artist

The true artist, says Sri Aurobindo, must rise above the tyranny of the eye and the tyranny of aesthetic imagination. He must emancipate himself from the obligation of a mere recorder or a copyist. Imagination is also an unsafe and capricious guide to an artist.



“The claim of the eye to separate satisfaction can only be answered by the response of decorative beauty; the claim of the imagination to separate satisfaction can only receive the response of fancy playing with scene and legend, form and colour, idea and dream for pure aesthetic delight; but in the interpretation of things the eye and the imagination can assert no right to command, they are only subordinate instruments and must keep their place.“ – Sri Aurobindo. Art, it must be understood, exists not to copy, not for the fanciful play of imagination but for the sake of a deeper truth and vision.





('Art As Manifestation, Not Creation', R. Gopalan Shastri, from 'Brahmavadin', April 1983 (A quarterly journal of the Vivekananda Kendra)

”The mind is profoundly influenced by what it sees and, if the eye is trained from the days of childhood to the contemplation and understanding of beauty, harmony and just arrangement in line and colour, the tastes, habits and character will be insensibly trained to follow a similar law of beauty, harmony and just arrangement in the life of adult man. This was the great importance of the universal proficiency in the arts and crafts or the appreciation of them which was prevalent in ancient Greece, in certain European ages, in Japan and in the better days of our own history.”