After last month’s special offering which included the release of the first issue of Renaissance Redux, and the launch of Children’s Corner, along with rich content related to appreciation of Indian art and a book review, we are happy to bring another special issue this month.
The focus this time is on the Mother as an artist. This beautiful side of her Divine personality can be seen as an expression of one facet of her Mahalakshmi aspect, an embodiment of Divine Beauty and Harmony. We know that in the midst of her intensive spiritual sadhana and innumerable responsibilities at Sri Aurobindo Ashram, she never allow her consciousness of beauty and her aesthetic vision to become diminished. In her early years she had also cultivated a keen power of observation as well as the sureness of her hand.
In this issue, we have taken selections from an e-book version of ‘Paintings and Drawings by the Mother’. We get a good glimpse of the relation between art and consciousness as we reflect on how the Mother regarded her art study as a discipline for developing the consciousness, not as a preparation for a brilliant career or a life dedicated to art for art’s sake.
We also feature two conversations where she explains the future of art from an evolutionary perspective. She helps us understand that behind the incoherence and chaos of much of the modern and post-modern art today, we should try to perceive the march of a secret creative spirit. Though it may take time for this spirit to manifest and express itself, we must become conscious of how sincerity of the artist strongly impacts the sincerity in expressions, making the art beautiful and whole in itself.
We also conclude the ongoing series on Aims of Indian Art by Ananda Coomaraswamy. We hope our readers will enjoy going through the various offerings in this issue. As always, we offer this work at the lotus feet of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.
In gratitude,
Beloo Mehra (for Renaissance Editorial Team)
