Asian Wall ArtAsia is the continent that embodies the quest of the human mind to look inward. While Europe was busy conquering new worlds and inventing new gadgets, Asia was busy answering questions which lie deep within the human existence. Hinduism gave the world Yoga. Buddhism gave the world the martial arts. From the art of meditation to Zen philosophy, from non violence to vegetarianism, the world looked in awe at a continent which assumed leadership in spiritual growth and enlightened the rest of the world.
Asian art embodies this very spirit. Art is nothing if not the articulation of the human spirit that cannot find words adequate enough for expression. Whenever words failed humanity, it turned to artwork. Every culture, every civilization, every people have their unique genius, their unique gift. It is the collaboration of these apparently discordant elements that makes global harmony possible. But, how do these different cultures collaborate? How to they make others conscious of their own uniqueness? It is through the medium of the unlettered medium, the medium of pure art, in its various forms of the canvas, the wall art and paintings. Artwork becomes a classic when it overcomes the artificial boundaries of space and time, and a culture survives when it embraces the new, and uses it to add a dimension to the old. Asian art does just that. Not today, not in the last century, it has survived the ravages of time by reinventing itself across a span of multiple millennia and legions of empires. It mixes the spiritual with the exotic, the self-delving with the self-effacing, and stands alone in the world in its chosen domain – the quest of the human soul for eternity.
A canvas of Asian art is almost musical in its underlying message. It says all without saying much. It is the most understated of all art. The superiority of the Asian school lies in its simplicity and starkness. To the first glance it might look uncomplicated and Spartan. But then you attempt it yourself. Only after many failed attempts would one realize that simplicity is the most difficult peak to climb in creation and invention. The effect of effortlessness is the hardest to achieve in art. It only comes out of practicing the basics, by chipping away at the fundamental and the real. Only when one reaches perfection, does the gaudiness of reality peel away and what you have is unadulterated brilliance. The West woke up to Asian artwork only in the last century. Timeless philosophy like Zen and techniques such as Calligraphy influenced a sizeable portion of the artwork. Each wall art is replete with high ideals, each canvas speaks of the order and the harmony that crafted it and the paintings does justice to the symmetry and inimitable form.
Acquiring a piece of Asian art is not bringing something home. It is rather being yanked out of your home to a land where Krishna and the Buddha spoke out their pacifying sermons for the first time. It is not merely an artwork. It is a doorway to embracing a higher ideal which found the key to the human angst – love for all and hatred for none. Inclusiveness and not exclusiveness is the crux of the Asian art form and Asian culture – that is why it is imperative to bring one home today and awake to a higher reality.
|
|
