Art Before Theory (short summary)

Christoph Kluetsch

This lecture is the final one in my winter series. I have given six lectures so far, and I have been challenging myself throughout. Today, I am taking on my biggest challenge yet. I have been exploring topics that interest me-topics that represent a collision between Western art history, Indian spirituality, and postmodern thinking. I find this intersection to be a fascinating space to operate in. In my previous lectures, I have examined temple architecture, problems of representation, and stylistic comparisons between seemingly unrelated artistic traditions. Today, I will delve into the most challenging topic for me: the idea of art before theory.

This lecture will be somewhat experimental. I will attempt to go before theory while still using theoretical concepts to explore this idea. My perspective on art shifted dramatically after leaving the Western Hemisphere. When I first traveled to India and later to China, I realized that the timeline I had been operating on-along with the concepts I had been learning and teaching-did not align with reality.

To start, I want to discuss a controversial artifact: the Makapansgat Pebble, found in South Africa. This small pebble, only five centimeters in size, was likely transported approximately 50-60 kilometers from its original location around three million years ago. This suggests that it was intentionally moved. At that time, the beings responsible for this action were not what we would call humans. They were conscious beings of some kind, existing long before any conventional human timeline.

What is intriguing about this stone is that it resembles a human face. Archaeologists have studied it and found that some of its markings were intentionally made. The question is: is this an artifact or simply a found object with human-like qualities? This raises a deeper question-what comes first: art or the capacity to perceive something as art? Do we suddenly decide to create art out of an empty space, or must we first be in a certain disposition to recognize something as art? If, three million years ago, there were beings who perceived and valued aesthetics, then the artistic impulse might be inherent in consciousness itself.

A common narrative suggests that prehistoric art was purely utilitarian-used for ritual, worship, or survival rather than for aesthetic appreciation. I would like to challenge this idea. The Western historical perspective often assumes a linear progression of human intellectual and artistic development, from primitive beginnings to increasing complexity. I disagree. The discovery of artifacts from 30,000-40,000 years ago, such as the Chauvet Cave paintings in France, reveals an astonishing level of artistic sophistication. Pablo Picasso, upon seeing the Lascaux cave paintings (dated to 17,000 years ago), famously remarked, "We have learned nothing." He saw no evidence of artistic progress-only continuity.

Filmmaker Werner Herzog explored this idea in his documentary The Cave of Forgotten Dreamswhich examines the Chauvet Cave paintings. These paintings are nearly twice as old as those in Lascaux and exhibit an equally high level of skill and artistic expression. Herzog proposes that the human mind, with its ability for aesthetic perception, appeared all at once, rather than developing gradually. This challenges the assumption that consciousness and creativity emerged through a slow evolutionary process.

Traditional historical narratives depict human development in neat, linear timelines-first one stage, then another, leading to progressive improvement. However, these models are based on ideological assumptions about progress. They align with capitalist notions of advancement, which frame history as a constant process of moving forward. This perspective influences how we view art history as well. Alfred Barr's famous diagram of 20th-century avant-garde movements suggests a structured progression: realism leads to impressionism, which leads to cubism, and so on. This model assumes that new artistic movements render previous ones obsolete, but is this truly how art evolves?

Philosopher René Descartes contributed to this way of thinking by developing the Cartesian system-a structured, rational framework for understanding the world. This system relies on representation, where external objects are mapped onto an internal mental model. Magritte's famous painting The Treachery of Images (featuring the words "This is not a pipe" beneath a painted pipe) plays with this idea, exposing the gap between representation and reality. Language, images, and perception form a complex web of relationships that we may never fully understand.

This brings me to the concept of writing and its impact on human consciousness. Plato's Phaedrus contains a story about the Egyptian god Thoth, who presented the invention of writing to King Thamus. The king rejected it, fearing that writing would weaken memory and disrupt the direct transmission of knowledge. This prediction was remarkably prophetic. Writing enables record-keeping and challenges authority, but it also shifts us from a world of direct experience to a world of textual knowledge. In oral traditions, knowledge is preserved through memory, sound, and direct teaching rather than through written records. Even today, Vedic traditions in India rely on extensive memorization, preserving knowledge in a way that differs fundamentally from text-based learning.

In contrast to textual knowledge, prehistoric art represents a more direct and unmediated form of expression. The handprints found in ancient caves around the world, created by blowing ochre pigment over hands pressed against rock walls, are an early form of artistic expression. These images appear in various cultures across millennia, suggesting a universal human impulse. Their purpose remains speculative-perhaps they served as a mark of presence, a spiritual act, or an attempt to connect with the environment in a personal way.

Similarly, early figurines such as the Venus of Willendorf and the Lion Man of Hohlenstein-Stadel suggest complex symbolic thought. The Venus figurine, with exaggerated reproductive features, likely represents fertility and life-giving power. The Lion Man, a humanoid figure with an animal head, implies an early exploration of hybrid identities, myth, and imagination. These artifacts demonstrate that early humans were not merely copying reality but engaging with deep existential questions.

Music also played a significant role in prehistoric culture. A 40,000-year-old pentatonic flute found in Germany suggests that early humans understood musical harmony. The pentatonic scale appears in various cultures and is present in the mathematical ratios of planetary orbits, indicating a deep, perhaps even intuitive, connection between music and the cosmos.

Art, music, and spiritual experience in prehistoric times were not separate disciplines but integrated aspects of human existence. Early cave paintings, sculptures, and musical instruments were not simply tools for survival or representation but ways of engaging with the world on a profound level. They allowed humans to connect with nature, with each other, and with something beyond the material world.

In the modern era, art has become increasingly intellectualized, often reduced to conceptual games and textual discourse. Yet, at its core, art originates from an urge to connect-to align our inner experience with the outer world. This is what I mean by "art before theory." Prehistoric art embodies a direct, unmediated encounter with existence. It speaks to something fundamental in us, something we may have lost in the distractions of contemporary life.

Perhaps the real challenge is to rediscover this connection-to step outside the text, outside the structures of theoretical discourse, and into a more immediate engagement with being. The question remains: how do we move beyond the text while still embracing the knowledge it provides? This is something I continue to explore in my own practice and in my engagement with art history.

The spider brings forth its own web. This image from the Upanishad invites deep meditation on how nature brings out a thread that it forms into a complex symmetry. Looking at the spider, the thread, and the web-its function and the source of the complex pattern-we have an image that invites deep speculation about mantra, tantra, and yantra, about art and knowledge, about creation and information.

The 5th lecture explores art and scientific visualizations of sacred symmetry in a field of tension between ancient yantras and computer architecture, between temples and artificial intelligence. At the center of this exploration, I want to delve into Deleuze's concepts of the 'actual' and the 'virtual': how can manifestation be thought of in a plane of immanence.

Yantra

Centre D'art "The Divine Seed" by artist Saravana Deivasegamani 6-20 January 2023

In Saravana Deivasegamani exhibition 'Devine Seeds' at the beginning there are 9 bronze objects on the floor. They are in the center and represent 9 grains that are just beginning to sprout. Navadhanyam is the title of this work. Hindu temples have vessels on the roof-usually made of copper-filled with seeds. Every 12 years, the seeds in these kalasams are replaced. It is there in case there is ever a severe natural disaster, and the seeds are needed for reconstruction. The 9 different seeds are called Navadhanyam. They are a widely used as offerings. Saravana Deivasegamani has symbolically brought them down from the temple roof, the grains of Kalasam sprout now. We live in a time where this seems to have become necessary. At least symbolically - because our planet is not in good shape.

We see this in Tamil Nadu with the Palmyra palm. This palm tree, which is part of the identity of Tamil Nadu, is an endangered species in Tamil Nadu now. It grows very, very slowly and gives way to the so-called civilization. The 2.35-meter-high sculpture 'Beginning of all Things' is mainly made of palmyras seeds attached to an iron and copper construction. On the palm trees leaves the Tirukkural was written. This classic work of Tamil culture from the 5th or 6th century consists of 1330 double verses and contains the wisdom for the right way of life.

It is this vitality of tradition, wisdom and spirituality that is felt in Saravana Deivasegamani works. The imagery comes from a place of meditation, from the heart, a connection with nature. The sculpture 'Beginning of Things' is juxtaposed with 'Outburst of Joy'. The 65 cm high sculpture stands for itself with its title, from the root grows an organic structure, symbol of life. Trees are sacred for Saravana Deivasegamani.

A few months ago, Saravana Deivasegamani bought online a pair of digital glasses for welding. These glasses go dark only for the fraction of a second it takes to set the welding point. Saravana Deivasegamani worked as a metal craftsman before coming to gallery art. The filigree works like 'Small Joys' or 'Private Signs' consist of thousands of welding points.

Many of his works were created without these glasses. The approach then is different. The 'pointillistic' welding work is created with closed eyes. You must imagine this for a moment. Every time a mark is made, the artist must close his eyes. It is the opposite of Impressionism, which was entirely devoted to vision and the theory of how light on the retina becomes a mental image, and how that mental image is then in turn put on the canvas. Saravana Deivasegamanis however does not stretch a canvas, but welds a sheet of metal onto a three-dimensional structure that serves as his base.

I do not want to stretch this parallel here, but it appears to be helpful in understanding the process better, because there are other interesting references here. Saravana Deivasegamani's art comes from meditation and is opposed to empirical science. The sculptures, however, are additive, as is the pointillism. Saravana Deivasegamani took a long time to get the color of the metallic surface right. He tried different metals, acids, and techniques until the result was right. The objects are not painted over or alloyed. He is a purist, proud of his technique. This is also something you often see on the streets here in India. People mastering their simple tools at leaves that leave one amazed. Saravana Deivasegamani pushes this to perfection. His practice is devotion, meditation. His art sprouts and grows, leaving one to wonder and open spaces of association.

The small series of 'Small Joys', 'Private Signs', 'Depth of Silence' reminds me of parts of the human body. The curves and openings, the organic shape of the iron, the surface that resembles a porous skin associate discourses of the abject, something that is neither subject nor object and therefore somewhat uncanny, irritating. When I asked Saravana Deivasegamani about this body association, he laughed heartily. Yes, he would have thought of a belly button too. 'See whatever you want' and his eyes sparkled.

Artist's bio

Saravana (b. Puducherry, 1984) is essentially a self-taught artist. He began his career as a metal craftsman and decorative grill designer. Over time, he honed his skills in fine art sculpting through self-study, experimentation, and vigorous practice.

His first major exhibition was held in 2016 at Gallery Square Circle, Kala Kendra (as part of a two-person show with eminent painter and fellow-Aurovilian Juergen Puetz). The same year, his sculptural installation titled 'Creators' made entirely of natural Palmyra seeds won the National Award of the Lalit Kala Akademi. His award-winning work was displayed at the 58th National Exhibition in the National Gallery of Modern Art, Bangalore. He was also invited to the national artists' conclave in February - March 2017.

Since then, Saravana has participated in a number of group exhibitions, artists' camps and workshops in Puducherry, Chennai, Bangalore, New Delhi, and Hampi. He has also conducted lecture demonstrations on how to convert scrap/found material into evocative art objects

This article is also availble at https://artservice.auroville.org/category/articles/

The New Indian Express. "Once part of Tamil Nadu's identity, Palmyra in need of saving". accessed January 12, 2023. https://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/chennai/2018/apr/22/once-part-of-tamil-nadus-identity-palmyra-in-need-of-saving-1804734.html.

A major show of the woks from Amitabh Sengupta is on display at Kalakendra Art Gallery, Bharat Nivas, Auroville. In cooperation with Sarala's Art Center 70 paintings predominantly from the last decade can be seen. For the opening of the exhibition on Dec 16^th 2022 the secretary of Auroville and the director of the Alliance Français lit the candle.

Amitabh Sengupta was born in Calcutta in 1941 and graduated from Govt. College of Arts & Crafts, Calcutta in 1963. From 1966 to 1969 he received a scholarship for the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he was witnessing the 68 student revolts. From 1977 until 1981 he joined the University of Port Harcourt in Nigeria, where he became Head of Creative Arts. He exhibited in India, Nigeria, Europe, and USA and currently lives in Calcutta.

The works by Amitabh Sengupta show a vast spectrum of styles. It is impressive to see how much he engaged with western modernist tradition and yet maintained his roots in Indian traditions. We can see this in the colors, the traces of written words, the iconography. Going through the exhibition there are echoes of Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Cy Twombly, Anselm Kiefer, Pierre Soulage, Jasper Jones, Paul Klee and many more.

I was wondering about that rich reference and the echoes of western modernity, and found the answer in Amitabh Sengupta's writings. In his 'Memoir of an Artist' from 2014 he makes several times a reference to Rabindranath Tagore, most people will be familiar with his name as the first Nobel Prize winner in India. At the end of the chapter 'Indian Contemporary Art - an alternative modernity' Amitabh Sengupta writes: "In the absence of social dialogue, art is facing another challenge. The priorities of art commerce and global marketing are imposing pressure to remain 'modern' as constant reference to global trends. This was predicted by many, for example, Tagore, expressed admiration about western cultures, at the same time warned against the risk of coercion, which they saw a built-in process in the system." Amitabh Sengupta being part of the Bengal Art school takes Tagore to heart.

Art historical narratives

We can recall Rabindranath's poem Namaskar to Sri Aurobindo published in 1907 as it is well known. Rabindranath admired Sri Aurobindo's fight against colonialism and oppression and supported him during his time in prison. Aurobindo's book Renaissance in India with articles from 1918-21 comes to mind. But while the western eye can learn from Aurobindo how to see Indian Art through the Indian perspective, Rabindranath warns of the power of modernism in the visual arts for Indian Artist.

Here lay the roots of the negotiation between western modernist and Indian culture in the 20th century^th century. We see why the big show of Amitabh Sengupta fits into the Kalakendra Art Gallery, Bharat Nivas, Auroville. His work is informed by these discussions and addresses the struggles which western academic art historian theories have with not western art. Sengupta's oeuvre speaks to the difficulties Indian artists faced during the middle of the 20th century^th century to be seen internationally.

In 2021 Sengupta's "The History of Modernism in India" was published, a 200 pages thick book that celebrates diversity in India and warns of the misconception by the west of a "uniform and monolithic Hindu structure". Chapter 6 deals with Rabindranath Tagore's Dialectics of Art. How should the art of a young nation like India, that also has one of the oldest cultural histories in the world, respond to the dominating western modern concepts? We know that western modernism drew inspiration from its colonial exploitation of the other parts of the world (the prominent examples are Van Gogh, Picasso and Gaugin). That mistake may not be repeated by artists in countries that gained independence through painful paths.

Fluid mixtures

On Dec 20 2022 there was an artist talk planned. Art historian Dr. Ashrafi Bhagat gave an introduction lecture on the relevance of Amitabh Sengupta for the defining decades of the 1960ies in India. Artists had to find their voice, while connecting to the dominant western discourse, maintaining, and developing their own style. It was difficult, as there was criticism from all sides, either it was too western or not western enough, too traditional or not traditional enough, too subjective or not expressive enough... Amitabh Sengupta was an extraordinary productive artist, who masters many techniques like painting, drawing, printing, writing on the highest level. He is rooted in Indian history and its visual language and creates pictorial spaces that contain cultural memories, realistic spacial representation on an abstract plane, juxtaposed with remanences of signs and geometrical forms.

Walking through the exhibition, one sees that the pictorial spaces in his series called 'Pyramids' or 'Inscription' are abstract composition with semiotic echoes, that activates an inner space that is associated with the path of mediation since the Vedic texts. Amitabh Sengupta's art is not explicitly spiritual, but it becomes sensible that the inner experience, the conscious mind, the creative expression, and the pictorial representation are interlinked within his body of work. Amitabh Sengupta however does not shy away from commentary on global issues with his drawing relating to the Covid-19 crises or his paintings relating to topics of urbanization and globalization.

Amitabh Sengupta voice is strong and manifests an intermiscence, i.e. a mixture of sensations, styles, thoughts, signs, space and memory that reminds me of movement of thoughts in Gilles Deleuze's philosophy and Sri Aurobindo's commentary on the Kena Upanishad. There that strange word of 'intermiscence' appears at a place that explains the creations of rhythms and forms.

For Deleuze art is thought in matter, it is also a territory in which we build our home - literally and metaphorically. The different material elements in Amitabh Sengupta's work, the planes of composition, the connection of signs, the yantras of geometrical shapes, the pictorial space and memory invite the viewer to explore his/her inner space, where one defines home. It doesn't matter from where you come, Amitabh Sengupta's work invites everyone on that journey. Whether this is some sort of 'post-post -ism' is not relevant. That is the power of art that dares to address existential questions.

Further readings:

Gilles Grimaître visits Auroville for a few days during his Pro Helvetia artist residency in Bengaluru, Chennai and Pondicherry to engage with Carnatic music. The program he chose for the evening from Dec. 17^th, 2022, was a passionate, loving introduction to usually not so accessible Western avant-garde music.

Grimaître started off with Johannes Brahms - Drei Intermezzi op 117, some romantic crowd pleaser, followed by a more challenging piece by Olli Mustonen (*1967) called 'Jehkin Iivana'. Nobody would know the composers he selected after Brahms for the evening unless you are a very dedicated avant-garde music enthusiast, he said. But he wanted to show that avant-garde music can be fun and playful. We all smiled and laughed, when he played Daniel Moreira (*1984) - Rhythmic Study no 4 ("Ludvan ven Beethowig"). Moreira plays with Beethoven's 'Für Elise', which almost everyone who likes piano music knows. He cuts and samples, loops and collages pieces in such a light and playful way, that we lose all fear of contemporary music.

I recognized Moreira's teacher, Marco Stroppa, as a friend of mine also was a student of him. His students are funny, serious, eloquent. Gilles Grimaître played with astonishing lightness, joy and precision.

The next piece was by Beat Furrer (*1954) - 'Voicelessness. The snow has no voice'. Grimaître laughed when he said that he chose that piece as a Christmas tune for Auroville. Snow around Christmas may be a rare event here and should trouble us deeply if it ever happens. The piece is sincere, concentrated, I saw the snowflakes dancing, losing any sense of time, there was no beginning nor end, no dramatic structure or storytelling, just meditative, minimalistic concentration.

After the piece, it took Grimaître an eternity of stage seconds to come back into the room. The intensity of concentration was palpable. The last piece was special, it was written by a composer from Ukraine, and we might guess why that fits into the year 2022. It was written many years ago by Valentin Silvestrov (*1937) called 'Davos Lake', for the Davos festival. There was a concept to play piano concerts one on one. The piano player would play for 5 minutes for one person in a small room. I thought that this is pure capitalism. But when I heard the music - so tender and heartfelt, intimate, and loving - I saw it as a guerilla tactic, to melt the hearts of the listener and create an intimate connection between performer and audience. This concept came up during Corona again, i.e. at the Kammerorchester in Stuttgart.

The encore was Frank Zappa's 'The Black page' the avant-garde rock star, with classical training and the enfant terrible of the hybrid music world that blurs genre boundaries and doesn't care about high and low brow culture.

Thank you for a beautiful, joyful, memorable evening at the end of the year, that was globally so troubling.

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Organic:

Gilles Grimaître was born in Geneva in 1988 studied improvisation and took an avid interest in composition and contemporary music. He entered the Hochschule der Künste Bern where he continued his musical training with Prof. Pierre Sublet. He also studied the organ with Pascale Van Coppenolle and composition with Xavier Dayer. As a soloist and chamber musician, Gilles Grimaître performs regularly in Europe. He often plays with Ensemble Contrechamps, Collegium Novum Zürich, Ensemble Proton and Ensemble Modern. He specializes in the accompaniment with vocalists, working often as an opera accompanist. He is also an active improviser and plays in the experimental band [bleu]. Gilles Grimaître won the first prize at the 2013 Nicati competition for contemporary music and received scholarships from the Marescotti Foundation, the Irène Dénéréaz Foundation and the Gabriele De Agostini Foundation. He was scholarship holder at the International Ensemble Modern Academy in Frankfurt/Main for the academic year 2013-2014.

https://www.ensemblelemniscate.com/gilles-grimaitre