La visage de la paix – The face of peace

Traveling during the early seventies through the Indian subcontinent brought me to Agra. One afternoon, I found myself sitting on the borders of the Yamuna River while watching a sand barge being loaded right behind the Taj Mahal. The boat was connected to the sand loading place by a gangway. Laborers went up it with a head load of sand and down it with their empty cane woven baskets. The ongoing work was like a choreographed play, there was no talking, no sound, just a lone mother and her young child playing near the waterfront. The peaceful and graceful movements of the up and down rhythm of the workers, amplified by a surrounding silence with only the river water playing against the border, was like experiencing a visual mantra, slowly penetrating and transporting me to another reality. For a time, it felt like stepping into a timeless painting. It was an extraordinary soothing experience. I had no camera and could only retain the image within, keeping it embedded as a very special moment during a period when my journey was not yet clearly defined.

That event contributed to an ongoing quest of discovering beauty in its multiple forms. Somewhere, I became an art lover, a collector of art books, a keen museum visitor and, later on, a seeker of delight. It all began with the gift of an art book about abstract art in Flanders. Granted, not the easiest introduction at a young age, but it became a first stepping stone for exploring the art scene in a metropolitan city. Visiting different museums during school hours was great fun, especially when accompanied by classroom girls.

Books introduced me to art objects from around the world dating back to the early beginning of human civilization: the Venus of Willendorf created 25.000 years ago, the cave art from Lascaux and Altamira, the hand stencils in the caves, the painted walls in Egyptian tombs, the frescos and hieroglyphic scripts, the dancing girl of Mohenjodaro, the Chinese kneeling archers. One can only profoundly admire and appreciate the story of human creativity across time and space.

This evolving passion for art resulted inevitably in assembling reproductions of my preferred gallery of artists. Van Eyck and his self-portrait with the red turban; Titian for his compositions and masterly use of colour; Da Vinci’s drawing of the Vitruvian man within the circle and the square; Brueghel and his winter landscapes; Rubens with his voluptuous Flemish ladies; Rembrandt with his intimate self-portraits; Jakuchu for his Japanese forms and colours of the natural world; Hokusai for his landscapes and his Manga booklets; Monet for his water lilies; Gauguin for the striking colours and powerful forms of his unique Tahitian paintings; Van Gogh with his exuberant use of colours; Modigliani with his captivating portraits; Matisse for his forms and joyful colours; Picasso for his creative output spread over nearly seven decades; Hockney and his Grand Canyon paintings.

Viewing art from a spiritual angle we are reminded that inspiration does not originate from within ourselves. Ideas actually come to us from a surrounding vast ether space. Sri Aurobindo left us with a marvellous description in Forecomers:

Out of some far expanse they seemed to come

As if carried on vast wings like large white sails,

And with easy access reached the inner ear

As though they used a natural privileged right

To the high royal entries of the soul.

Art, wrote Sri Aurobindo, is ‘a discovery of the subject in one’s deeper self, the giving of soul form to that vision and a remolding of the material and natural shape to express the psychic truth of it .

Art reflects the inner domain of the one who produces it. The higher the aspiration or the plane from which it is perceived and captured, the truer it mirrors the psychic qualities within the art work. The artist connects with an incoming vibration, translates this vibration into creative energy and produces an art piece in his chosen medium.

Among the celebrated artists of the 20th century there is one who stands out and who is impossible to bypass. He received the birth name of Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno Maria de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso. Later on he adopted a simpler version – Pablo Picasso (25 October 1881 - 8 April 1973).

During the period that Mother frequented the Parisian art scene, she noted the huge egos of the artists with whom she was in contact. Picasso is the perfect example of that observation.

When I don’t have red paint, I use blue’

His unconventional lifestyle revealed that indeed the highest qualities also attract the biggest flaws. Countless mistresses, two official wives, four children by three different women. One mistress and one wife who committed suicide. His meanness was legendary but so was his generosity towards charitable causes. Despite his enormous wealth, he stayed a nomad during his entire life, moving countless times with his collected artworks around France. He was a member of the Communist Party but became a keen supporter of the peace organisation. He was passionate about bull fights, but also a devoted lover of dogs and pigeons. Without doubt, Picasso represents, like no other, the creative art spirit of the modern world.

Picasso’s drawing of a dove was chosen as the poster to represent the theme of the Paris World Peace congress in 1949. The congress opening coincided with the birth of his daughter whom he named Paloma, the Spanish word for dove. The artist had a lifelong attraction for pigeons, which were kept at his homes in Paris and the south of France. He mentioned that he had an emotional connection with the birds and that they reminded him of his father’s paintings of the doves at their family home. The dove is a universal symbol for peace.

It was in Auroville that I came across a stylistic drawing from the artist representing the face of a woman with a flying dove at the top of her head. Rather astonishingly, the date of execution is 5.12.50, the precise day when Sri Aurobindo decided to leave his body. The drawing was named ‘Le visage de la paix, The face of peace’.

This drawing is another testimony that Picasso was indeed a creative genius, able to capture the incoming vibrations from the plane where all thoughts, ideas, concepts originate. On an intuitive level, he was able to feel that something momentous had happened that day, and transmitted that feeling into several drawings while choosing a title that reflected a lifelong effort of Mother and Sri Aurobindo to achieve lasting peace upon earth.

Creative building solutions

Our present house was built at the height of the sustainable building fashion period. As we found out much later, enthusiasm does not cover up building technology limitations. Areas with no overhang or protection against rain became black and required regular maintenance. To avoid frequent maintenance jobs, we decided on a more permanent solution.

Aiming to blend together several threads – a reference to the monumental date of 5th December 1950, paying tribute to an art giant, while also honouring the quest for achieving durable world peace – I reproduced two Picasso drawings in mosaic on the front of the house.

Besides all those symbolic meanings, I thoroughly enjoyed standing on a scaffolding during early mornings and late evenings, testing out my budding creativity.

Mind you, passing by visitors tend to give all the credit to the one who only copied the famous drawings.