Wheatfield with Crows, c.1890 by Vincent Van Gogh
Picasso once said that every child is an artist, problem is how to remain one when you grow up. So what is creativity? Is it creating something new or is it looking at an old thing with new eyes ? How important is the role of technique , or is expression more important? Do artists have an expanded understanding or as Saul Stein burg said,"The life of the creative man is lead, directed and controlled by boredom. Avoiding boredom is one of our most important purposes".
Naipaul says," I have trusted to my intuition to find the subjects, and I have written intuitively. I have an idea when I start, I have a shape; but I will fully understand what I have written only after some years." If Naipaul does not fully understand what he has written who will? If you read his books you'll know how instinctively he writes without bothering about whether you agree with him or not. Although in these political times his work has been branded pro-west, it is pretty good stuff.
A great piece of art or writing or craft has a long shelf life and if you examine creative endeavours that have stood the test of time you'll find a lot of common things. Firstly you'll find it is about people. It connects with people on a human level and much as we like to think that modern man is more .... well more of everything. Fact is that human instincts have not changed for ages if at all. Things that moved people in 5000 BC are the same that moved them in 2000 AD. Second thing that is evident in a great creative piece is that it is honest. In the sense that author has dropped all pretensions and has not made compromises. In fact at times this has incensed contemporary society to the point of complete rejection of the work.
Art has always needed patrons. Which come in two flavours; people with more money than sense and people with money and a nose that can smell talent. Michael Angelo achieved greatness in large measure because he ignored Pope's wishes and did stuff his own way. It is to the credit of Pope that despite his reservations ,he thought it better to eschew pride. And the result is that we have some immortal pieces.
On the other end of the spectrum ,Vincent Van Gogh could never find a serious backer. His life was financed mostly by his own brother . I do not think his brother fully understood the great service he was doing to creativity but thanks to him Van Gogh was able to create what he has. Although he sold just a single piece in his entire life , today a pencil sketch by him will fetch millions and rightly so. Point is that Van Gogh just broke with all conventions not because he wanted to rebel or it was the in thing or it was commercially expedient; but because he was honest with his work and his subject. And because that was how he was. Did he not care that he was always broke? Maybe he did but he did not compromise his art. He did not and that's an important step to being creative.
SriRam's story was known before Tulsidas wrote it . Balmiki had already created the great epic . Tulsi however wrote it again from his heart without bothering if he will receive any cash or credit for it. Remember Gita Press, Gorakhpur did not exist then. He could not have marketed it to the masses. And today "Ramcharitmanas" unquestionably resides in peoples hearts. Art for art's sake is a western concept that is a good description of great creativity but Sanskrit is closest - "Sawntah Sukhay"( स्वान्त: सुखाय). Create to please yourself. Take a trip to Khajuraho. Chandel kings financed that great compound of temples. However you can feel the artist's honesty, skill , and faith in the subject oozing out of every stone. Not even for a second will you doubt their integrity and their belief in their work. See it once and it will change you forever.Truly immortal art. It does not matter that we do not know all of their names. Those artists live in their work. Those buildings are sacred even after they have stopped being a place of worship. Temples get made even now. How many will pass into eternity?
Times have changed . Market rules and today every human endeavour is geared to either please the existing market or help create a market. I am expected to monetize this blog if I can get enough people to read it. I can not let on that I write for the joy of it .If I am lucky ,I will be considered just stupid if not entirely fake. Creativity is meant to please the Lowest common denominator , since that 'll determine the deepest market penetration. Success is measured in TRP's and click thru's. You do not have to be honest ; just popular. So creative people are more intent on creating a Brand image than creating the brand. Writing from the heart is passe'. Strictly for losers. Writing for a daily soap is more important. It does not matter that by Friday nobody remembers what the story was on Monday. No one is interested in writing about human suffering and disadvantaged people but headlines will scream from front pages what a minister says about poverty alleviation. It does not matter that he has been saying the same thing for past 20 years. Stories will appear and disappear based on who is in power. Truth be dammed. It can not get you a "Padam Shri".
Breakfast, c. 2010 by Arundhati Kaul
No matter what tools we wield. Pen; brush; mike,camera or even a hammer for that matter. Can we say that we are honest with ourselves first? Can we say we have told it the way it is and not the way some money bags has dictated ? Even as recently as nineteenth century when a court poet wrote about his king ; He was honest enough to call it "Kasida" ( unbridled praise) and not "Shairi"( Poetry). Today we want to pass off pure propaganda as Gospel from the newsrooms . Is it any wonder that despite an explosion of media choices lesser and lesser number of people will believe anything to be true. Skepticism is sky high. Obama gets a nobel peace prize for doing exactly the thing in Afghanistan that Bush did except Bush was considered a war monger. Go figure! Naipaul's is branded a Muslim basher and a lackey of the west even before the nobel prize ceremony gets over. How many of the Nobel prize winning books do you think will be read 500 years from now? We are killing creativity under the weight of the market forces. That's if it is not already dead and buried forever.
Sure we can not all become Van Gogh's. Certainly, we can not all muster enough faith to rival those Khajuraho sculptors ( and skill too!). But we can remember our childhood again! We owe it to ourselves to be honest with our work. We must learn pure truthfulness from a child again .One we know best- our own self.Think about what Marie Antoinette said," There is nothing new except what has been forgotten."
A great piece of art or writing or craft has a long shelf life and if you examine creative endeavours that have stood the test of time you'll find a lot of common things. Firstly you'll find it is about people. It connects with people on a human level and much as we like to think that modern man is more .... well more of everything. Fact is that human instincts have not changed for ages if at all. Things that moved people in 5000 BC are the same that moved them in 2000 AD. Second thing that is evident in a great creative piece is that it is honest. In the sense that author has dropped all pretensions and has not made compromises. In fact at times this has incensed contemporary society to the point of complete rejection of the work.
Art has always needed patrons. Which come in two flavours; people with more money than sense and people with money and a nose that can smell talent. Michael Angelo achieved greatness in large measure because he ignored Pope's wishes and did stuff his own way. It is to the credit of Pope that despite his reservations ,he thought it better to eschew pride. And the result is that we have some immortal pieces.
On the other end of the spectrum ,Vincent Van Gogh could never find a serious backer. His life was financed mostly by his own brother . I do not think his brother fully understood the great service he was doing to creativity but thanks to him Van Gogh was able to create what he has. Although he sold just a single piece in his entire life , today a pencil sketch by him will fetch millions and rightly so. Point is that Van Gogh just broke with all conventions not because he wanted to rebel or it was the in thing or it was commercially expedient; but because he was honest with his work and his subject. And because that was how he was. Did he not care that he was always broke? Maybe he did but he did not compromise his art. He did not and that's an important step to being creative.
SriRam's story was known before Tulsidas wrote it . Balmiki had already created the great epic . Tulsi however wrote it again from his heart without bothering if he will receive any cash or credit for it. Remember Gita Press, Gorakhpur did not exist then. He could not have marketed it to the masses. And today "Ramcharitmanas" unquestionably resides in peoples hearts. Art for art's sake is a western concept that is a good description of great creativity but Sanskrit is closest - "Sawntah Sukhay"( स्वान्त: सुखाय). Create to please yourself. Take a trip to Khajuraho. Chandel kings financed that great compound of temples. However you can feel the artist's honesty, skill , and faith in the subject oozing out of every stone. Not even for a second will you doubt their integrity and their belief in their work. See it once and it will change you forever.Truly immortal art. It does not matter that we do not know all of their names. Those artists live in their work. Those buildings are sacred even after they have stopped being a place of worship. Temples get made even now. How many will pass into eternity?
Times have changed . Market rules and today every human endeavour is geared to either please the existing market or help create a market. I am expected to monetize this blog if I can get enough people to read it. I can not let on that I write for the joy of it .If I am lucky ,I will be considered just stupid if not entirely fake. Creativity is meant to please the Lowest common denominator , since that 'll determine the deepest market penetration. Success is measured in TRP's and click thru's. You do not have to be honest ; just popular. So creative people are more intent on creating a Brand image than creating the brand. Writing from the heart is passe'. Strictly for losers. Writing for a daily soap is more important. It does not matter that by Friday nobody remembers what the story was on Monday. No one is interested in writing about human suffering and disadvantaged people but headlines will scream from front pages what a minister says about poverty alleviation. It does not matter that he has been saying the same thing for past 20 years. Stories will appear and disappear based on who is in power. Truth be dammed. It can not get you a "Padam Shri".
Breakfast, c. 2010 by Arundhati Kaul
Sure we can not all become Van Gogh's. Certainly, we can not all muster enough faith to rival those Khajuraho sculptors ( and skill too!). But we can remember our childhood again! We owe it to ourselves to be honest with our work. We must learn pure truthfulness from a child again .One we know best- our own self.Think about what Marie Antoinette said," There is nothing new except what has been forgotten."
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