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Friday, February 18, 2011

Mona Lisa does not smile anymore


Contemporary Indian art-- Viktor Vijay

Excerpts from the book on Indian art by contemporary Indian artist Viktor Vijay

Mona Lisa does not smile anymore


"One should realize that ancient religions like Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Judaism were never in a hurry to change others to their way of thinking. They evolved through inner spiritual dynamics over long centuries. They incorporated contrarian points of view and fresh spiritual experiences and thus came to have a wider acceptance based on free choice rather than fear, temptation, violence, and subjugation by swords, guns and canons. The search for God is a very private journey and guns, swords and conversions are not the kind of vocabulary He/She (God) appreciates. Does Mona Lisa smiles any more?

The art of Renaissance was the art of body and of faithfulness to appearances. What happened inside in the human soul was just ignored as unimportant. Monumentality and opulence were revisited from the Grecian classical inspiration after 1000 years of vanishing of the grandeur of Roman Empire The socio-political context of art of Renaissance can not be ignored. The aim of our lives is to find answers and not destroy possibility of finding them."

Mona Lisa does not smile anymore

African Mona Lisa oil on canvas viktor vijay (1997)


Mona Lisa does not smile anymore

Excerpts from the book by Viktor Vijay Kumar

“If I had to choose between an erudite Aristotle and an unknown ‘soulless’ black slave I would choose the latter. The ascendancy of the West was on a heap of bodies of slaves and trampled humanity through colonization.”

“Slavery, Colonization, European Imperialism, corruption of Church, was the hall mark of Renaissance. Intolerance was another feature of so-called-Renaissance. Jew and Muslim communities were expelled from Spain by Ferdinand and Isabella—the Spanish royal ruler couple. European occupation of Americas and rationalisation of over-lording of other cultures and communities was regarded as the right of ‘Christians’ over ‘non-believers’. They regarded themselves as the superior masters over the destiny of other communities. Christian Church played a predominant Euro-centric role in the creation of tools of Colonialism.”

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Why Mona Lisa does not smile anymore?



"To paint appearences is to miss out on inner kernel of the world. Increasingly the commercial industrial thought and technologies have spilled over into art domain ; replication of apparent with digital manipulation and, camera use has taken over from the inner creative well of humanity. The technologies are not the blood and marrow of humanity, instead the direction, freedom, the vision from within are the structure of human enterprise. To abnegate the world of stock appearences we need to have inner spiritual cues. Not the knowledge of the external but the saturating unitary experience of the inner. In my art I work with chance and attempted negation of conscious, well planned, control of the artistic expression. I surrender so the Light will shine on creativity. The joining of Chance as a higher order of things with a consciousness that comes from within and transforms our ‘seeing’ is what my art is about. I call it Chance-Consciousness Art or Chancon

The second part of the book is called Mona Lisa does not smile anymore. The painting is a symbol of the so called Renaissance society. In the very time Vaso da Gama journeyed to India began the story of pain, sufferings and subjugation of Indians—the first experience of Colonialism. The rest of the world would suffer no less—slave trade, forced conversions, atrocities and Inquistion in the name of religion. It was a false Reniassance which caused untold suffering to people all over the world and the Mona Lisa’s smile was not shared by subjugated races. Here I deal with Indian art that was called inferior by Western colonists. This was the ruse of the colonizers to dub everything from the subjugated people to be inferior. The ancient Hinduism has a far deeper humanitarian philosophy at its back and the art created therefrom had a much bigger aestetics root in Humanism. I have argued that the Greco-Roman art that the West inherited was founded on arrogance, war and slavery and was therefore inferior as humanizing instrument. Indian art is poetic, spiritual, secular and with a great wisdom and philosophy behind it. I have toched upon the narrtives of travellers from Europe and China. While the former are very dismissive of Indian, art, religion, culture and people the Chinese on the other were highly respectful and record the flourishing India more truthfully. Chinese travelled as piligrim and seekers of Eternal truth in the religion of Gautam Buddha.

It is important to place all art in the context of humanity and Indian art aquits itself very well where as the same can not be said of West. Hinduism never demonized another faith and Indians had a placid curosity and respect for other faiths"
excerpts freom Mona Lisa does not smile anymore

Mona Lisa does not smile anymore--a book on false European Reniassance and the humane arts of India

Viktor Vijay's book Mona Lisa does not smile anymore published by Studio Vasant Delhi (Mobile 9818301496)

Monday, February 14, 2011

Mona Lisa does not smile anymore


I publish my new book on art of India and Europe. the book published by Studio Vasant New Delhi is soon to be available in leading bookshops in India. the book is about the spirituality of art India and the art of the West specially the 'Renaissance' period. Art of India has a sterling holism and inclusiveness of humanity while Western art lingers. the secular elements are predominant feature of the temple art of India.