Comments on the art of Sri Chinmoy
A painter of the spirit
Sri Chinmoy stands out among today's artists as a painter of the inner spirit of man. He affirms human potential in its transcendent greatness — the experience of joy, beauty and truth — concepts that have become outmoded in a post-modern world, that find their genesis in meditation. His paintings evince both an enduring power and a delicate sensibility conveyed in loose but deftly handled abstractions that are fresh, open and simple visualisations of heightened experience.Not just an artist, Sri Chinmoy is primarily a spiritual teacher, whose life is consecrated to the ideal of continual self-transcendence. For over 40 years he has explored the variety of meditative experience, always striving to reach higher and climb deeper into the vastness of human potential.
Born in India in 1931, Sri Chinmoy spent most of his youth in a spiritual community, combining an active schedule with quiet contemplation. Since coming to the US in 1964, he has offered this transcendent perception in more tangible forms through both the arts (painting, poetry, music) and athletics. In meditation, he feels, in the heart of silence, is formed the nexus of all other activity. He has given numerous concerts, lectures and meditations in the US and several other countries, and since 1970 has conducted twice-weekly peace meditation sessions at the UN and, recently, a weekly session at the US Congress.
In art, Sri Chinmoy's understanding of contemplative experience takes form in primarily non-figurative, abstract works that best convey the freedom of spiritual perception. His paintings are named by him in Bengali "Jharna-Kala," or "Fountain-Art," indicating that they sweep forth spontaneously from intuitive insight like a fountain. Although working independently from the mainstream of modern art, he has nonetheless achieved a similar stylistic abstract vocabulary. Moreover, these Jharna-Kala paintings have no preconceived form; instead they "occur" at the moment the brush or sponge hits the canvas. They are never retouched or added to. By mixing the paints directly on the canvas through a scumbling effect, he preserves the spontaneous immediacy of transcendent experience as it takes form through paint.
It is important to understand Jharna-Kala as Fountain-Art. The paintings do not occur as individual works of art, but as an integral part of the fountain-flow. Sri Chinmoy prefers to exhibit many paintings simultaneously so that the viewer can be inundated with this flood of paintings. As they are created by a sweeping forth, the viewer is likewise swept away by an "assault" of painting after painting.
Although Sri Chinmoy started painting in the late 1940's, he stopped for a period of nearly 30 years, resuming again in 1974. The development of Sri Chinmoy’s style was then rapid and intense, forming over a period of just a few years.
His initial drawings were simple marker studies, bright and vivid. They have an endearing, childlike quality that touches the heart of the viewer, bringing forward the viewer's own childlike qualities.
Sri Chinmoy's first experiments with paint were soft suffusions merging water colours that lend atmospheric fulness to the paintings, creating a sense of presence and hovering forms. They recall his paintings from the late 40's, which were representational, but gave the impression of hovering shapes and unearthly luminescence. Even then he was able to capture a palpable, nonphysical but transcendent light that became a major characteristic of his later works. The subjects are animals, figures, birds and landscapes. The drawings are never of any particular place, and are minimally drawn on white backgrounds. Only a few carefully turned strokes are necessary to create an a work full of character and life. The landscapes and flowers are painted with colours that are not descriptive per se, but evince the feeling of a fresh new world.
After completing over a thousand works, Sri Chinmoy started painting full abstractions. He arrived quickly at his mature style — fluid movement that effects simple joy. The paintings are uncluttered, unlaboured. Jharna-Kala offers a freshness and newness; it is uplifting and elevating. Joy, generated from within, is painted without any representational reference. In the world of pure abstraction, of pure form and pure colour, Sri Chinmoy's inner freedom speaks out strikingly.
With progressive experimentation using first pens and markers, then pastels, crayons and finger paints, Sri Chinmoy arrived at his preferred medium, acrylics, chosen for their translucent brilliance and plastic ease. He tends to use related colour combinations, although he will choose unusual opposites with stunning effect, and employs all the colours of the spectrum. Although his paintings can be subtle, they are never muted. Rather, they vibrate with glowing colour. In Jharna-Kala colour breathes, emitting a tangible light
In search of a diversity of forms, Sri Chinmoy developed an array of painting instruments. These include sponges cut in a variety of unusual shapes and wands wrapped with cotton and other materials. He uses all sizes of commercial brushes, ranging from fan brushes to house-painting brushes. The sizes of his canvases range from tiny frames of just a few inches to huge mural-size paintings. The bulk, however, range from 9" by 12" to 30" by 40". A further addition are the "calendar paintings," using paper with a printed blank calendar format with either 35 sections for days, 12 sections for months or 4 sections for the seasons.
What characterises these 140,000 works of art? The many thousands of paintings actually occur in series. Sri Chinmoy will follow a particular theme — a certain shape, brush stroke or colour combination — and may do dozens of variations on this theme which then form a series. Then within each series there are many delicate and subtle changes.
One style is to use rich dabs of colour, creating paintings where the paint is so thick it retains its natural sheen, like a lush jewel. Brush strokes become orbs of colour, full and ripe. The effect is paintings that resonate a sense of completeness and satisfaction.
In contrast, over time Sri Chinmoy's handling of the paint becomes more deft and subtle, creating works of exquisite delicacy. Brush strokes become less like jewels and more like flights of colour — loose and ethereal. Their weightlessness resonates with elated upliftment, as of wings of light.
When Sri Chinmoy began to experiment with sponges, he would combine several colours on a single sponge, varying their thicknesses and streaking the canvas with multicoloured movement. As the colours blend, they merge into new and thrilling gradations that generate light from within.
Regardless of the kind of brush stroke employed, the paintings all tend to spring outwards, as if impelled from within. There is frequently an upward movement in each of the strokes, conveying a sense of spontaneous delight in the very act of creation. Some shapes are billowy and comical, others are serene and subdued. Uniquely cut sponges will create a specific form or, when applied in successive strokes, will follow the form of the sponge, thinning out as the paint is used up. Sri Chinmoy will also trail the sponge in long, meandering lines, particularly in the larger paintings as he curves the sponge leisurely across the canvas.
Hence, composition becomes the intuitive interplay of light and colour rippling across the canvas. Unstructured skeins of colour flow outward as Sri Chinmoy follows an innate guide, resulting in springboards of colour bursting into form. Some compositions are contained, dense and compact; others are sweeping, expansive and loose. Some are two-sided compositions; some are concentrated in a corner, spreading outward. Some fan all over; still others are wandering lines.
Above all, Sri Chinmoy's love of simplicity predominates. The drawings are open and clear; there is no complexity or fragmentation. Clarity is their main strength. They stand out with an extraordinary immediacy — they seem to "happen" without any struggle, they exist without any belabouring, they grow and breathe as naturally and spontaneously as life itself. There is no conscious artifice, no calculated design. And they work.
(by Upasana Y)
