We Are Fighting Over Truth And Lies
For ages, we are fighting over truth and lies. An upright society can never acknowledge lying at an honorable pedestal. Yet the irony is art has a bag of lies on its back, which it unfolds and through them shows to the world what truth is. And art is at the highest pedestal in any cultured society. Like other exponents of art and literature, Picasso realized it and said, “We all know that Art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize truth at least the truth that is given us to understand. The artist must know the manner whereby to convince others of the truthfulness of his lies.”
We Observe Life In A Flat Way
We observe life in a flat way. We are always in the mood of calling a spade a spade. But life tells a lot between the lines. Every event, every character has so many shades. A simple and plain observation of people and events cannot help to understand the world at large. We need to probe deeper. And here comes art with a bagful of lies yet so real. So lifelike that we are able to see the real world better than what was in our prior vision. We cannot rely on the veracity of art’s presentation but it reflects the real character of our next-door neighbor. Our colleague at the office, and why to go so far even the members of our family, our very own.
Travel Back On A Time Machine
The artists, the writers, the poets, the sculptors, the actors, and all of the tribe delve deeper into life, travel back on the crisscross roads of history as if on a time machine, and put before us fabricated from their observation something very real. Macbeth drawn by Shakespeare appears very real, throbbing with ambition and hanging between conspiracy and conscience.
Yet he is not the original creation of Shakespeare. As we know, his source was Raphael Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Ireland, and Scotland. And this was also not the real Macbeth, king of Scotland in the 11th century. Shakespeare changed and changed and changed, improvised, blended so many characters in one. But that which was not the truth, that which was a fabrication, helps us to understand the real character of establishment anywhere in the world even after almost 4 hundred years.
Believing In Material Reflection
Those practical fellows believing in material reflection of life pooh-pooh art making it a pack of lies, the dream of a loony. Those who believe religiously in two plus two four theory or those who like Thomas Gradgrind, the character of Charles Dickens, are ready with a scale to measure anything can never certify the truth of the lies of art. Yet when you saunter through an art gallery, you browse a book, you see a film, you come out with a better vision, a man with a better grip over understanding events and people around you.
So why not reflect over the observation of Pablo Picasso and begin realizing the truth around us with the lies of art?
(by sanjay kumar kundan )
