Showing 63 articles
Bill Viola / Michelangelo: Life, Death, Rebirth
Author: Miha KosirMay 26, 2019
What is life, what is death, is there a rebirth? These are the big questions arising with the first spark of self-awareness. But what are the answers? A recent exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts entitled Bill Viola / Michelangelo: Life, Death, Rebirth displayed some of the finest drawings by versatile renaissance artist Michelangelo [...]
Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms – Art & Sacred Work in the English Middle Ages
Author: Siobhan Cait FarrarMarch 27, 2019
Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Art, Word, War is an exhibition currently running at the British Library and represents a comprehensive exhibit of significant Anglo-Saxon books and precious artefacts. It opens with an extraordinary funerary artefact from the 5th century, the Loveden Hill Urn. Upon the lid of the urn sits an ancient figure, known as the Spong [...]
Thought
Author: Julian ScottMarch 19, 2019
Thought: a female head emerging from a block of unhewn matter, her hair blown by the wind, her eyes fixed on the above, concentrated but free, grasping the essence of things. Not the thought of the anguished intellectual, the complicated reasonings of an empty being who wants to impress; but the grand imaginings of [...]
Edward Burne-Jones
Author: Nataliya PetlevychMarch 19, 2019
Recently, the Tate Britain celebrated Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones with a grand exhibition, the first on such a scale in 40 years. It amazed visitors not only by the rich variety of works, including painting, tapestry and stained glass, but also by a special enigmatic beauty created by the artist. Born in industrial Birmingham, Burne-Jones [...]
A New Model of Civilization
Author: Gilad SommerMarch 10, 2019
One of the most astounding things about ancient civilizations is the unity of their way of life. In the Art Institute of Chicago, for example, there is a beautiful stele from the Mayan ruins of Calakmul in Mexico. This stele presents a ruler in his task as a high priest, dressed in ceremonial garbs, holding [...]
Rodin and the Art of Ancient Greece: the transcendent reality of sculpture
Author: Siobhan Cait FarrarSeptember 14, 2018
This Spring, the British Museum opened the exhibition ‘Rodin and the Art of Ancient Greece’, which formed a poetic tripartite tribute to the artist, his love of ancient Greek sculpture and of the British Museum itself − Rodin famously spent hours studying the museum collections. Side by side were maquettes, marbles and famous bronzes of [...]
The Art of Devotion
Author: Kanika MehraJuly 29, 2018
In the wee hours of the morning, Emperor Akbar awoke to the sweet melodious singing of Haridas, guru of the celebrated singer of his court, Tansen. Haridas had been singing a dawn raga. Overwhelmed, Akbar inquired why Tansen was not able to sing like his guru Haridas. Tansen replied that there was one big difference [...]
Haiku: Abundance in Brevity
Author: Trishya ScrewvalaJuly 29, 2018
The Japanese poetic form of haiku, is a very succinct poem that exemplifies simplicity. It is one of the most recognizable and popular forms of poetry today and has travelled far beyond Japan’s shores, with writers composing haiku in Spanish, English and even Bengali as seen in the works of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore. It [...]
The Power of the Photograph
Author: Tom MoranJune 3, 2018
Photography is a process of image-making that is less than 200 years old, yet at the time of its invention, no one could have imagined the impact it would have on the global population, becoming a form of communication that could rival the English Language for its universality. What is it that obsesses us about [...]
Improvisation in Art and Life
Author: Natalia LemaMarch 8, 2018
According to Stephen Nachmanovitch, an American improvisational violinist, improvisation can be used as a tool to aid creativity, which will lead us into a joyful journey. Bach and Mozart were great examples of this approach and were highly imaginative improvisers. The word ‘improvisation’ implies, on the one hand, an absence of preparation. But it also [...]
Empowering Real Change: Philosophy & Art Panel Discussion on World Philosophy Day 2017
Author: Compiled by Harianto H MehtaJanuary 21, 2018
For New Acropolis members across the globe, every day in a way, is World Philosophy Day. Through history, classical traditions have employed philosophy as the central axis of education, recognizing the pivotal role of wisdom and ethics, in the formation of human civilization. Therefore, we mark the special opportunity of UNESCO’s annual endorsement of World [...]
Reflections on the Metaphysics of Music with Shubha Mudgal
Author: Manjula NanavatiOctober 19, 2017
“When the soul hears music, it drops its best guard.” – Socrates Music is perhaps the most philosophically puzzling of all the arts. Unlike painting or sculpture it does not culminate in a physical object. Unlike literature and drama, instrumental music has no semantic value. Yet every tune, melody, theme, raga or symphony is steeped [...]