Nature of Art

Below snippet is taken from Prof. Sukhvir Sanghal's book - "Bhartiya Chitrakala Paddhati", 

         The relationship between Artist and Art is that of a father and a son. An artist’s personality is versatile and hence the art he creates also comes out to be versatile by nature. In reality, human life is neither based only of spirituality (represented as formless soul) nor is based of karma  (represented as body form). Very beautifully definition of human and human’s life given by Prof. Sanghal -  A soul riding on a chariot, the body as the chariot itself, the restless mind as the horses of the chariot, the intellect as the charioteer which is a beautiful representation of  a human, the tenure of which is the human life itself and the place where he works is the whole world.

            Likewise, the soul which is captured in the human body gets effected by the daily affairs of life, the struggles and the kind of experiences it faces. As a result, it creates ripples in mind and takes the form of feelings and emotions which can be expressed as art. Hence art by nature is technical, mental, intellectual, emotional or spiritual as it is created and evaluated. Based on the above factors and human nature, art’s philosophy, aesthetics and techniques are influenced from time to time. Although it is well known that handicraft, commercial art, printing with the help of certain tools is the outcome of the senses; science or other theoretical subjects is the outcome of sharp intellect; philosophy provides solution and focusses on the conflicts, struggles and fears of mind and soul; but very differently art is the fruit of expression of feeling and emotions of your soul. So, the senses and intellect are a part of human body and are just a medium, work in a certain limited way and help in the creation of art. In India there always had been a problem that painting was considered as a part of architecture. Hence it was not considered independent art initially but after a lot of hard work its problem was taken away. Painting took the form of independent art.