Art Truly Transcends Time!

The other day, I visited the National Gallery of Modern Art. It was my second time, first time solo. Why do I mention that? Simply because the experience of a place completely changes when you travel just with you and your thoughts. The experience is not clouded by other sorts of experiences, maybe with friends and family. Don’t get me wrong. Those are also super fun. But when you are on your own, you get to think through your thoughts, organise them and maybe carve out something beautiful out of them. That is where the magic happens.

Today, while strolling through the museum, when I came across the paintings of Raja Ravi Varma, something different struck. Firstly, the paintings were incredibly amazing. They were life sized portrait paintings. While looking at the colours, brush strokes and some chipped away paints in the magnificent pieces, it hit me that the eyes that stared at me through the paintings would also have stared at the legendary artist, Raja Ravi Varma. In that moment, I was teleported back to the time when he must have been creating that masterpiece. The air around it, the vibrant colours and the energy of the painting, all sung the tunes of the bygone era, more than a century old. But, still as magnificent and awe-inspiring as ever. It was then, I realised that art truly transcends time.

Shakespeare through his stories, Beethoven through his melodies, da Vinci through his masterpieces, all speak to us from the times gone by. But, their societies, ideas and emotions are preserved in time through their creations, for the futures. It is something that has and always will guide the cradles of human civilisations, in every spectrum of life.

It is said that everyone of us has a sight, but not all have the same vision. The way artists see the world is way different than that an engineer or a doctor or anyone else ever would see. The artist, through their art, sees where the world has hidden its pain and tries to heal it with all that they have.

And one of the best examples of this is Starry Nights by Van Gogh. The man was tormented by life and his conditions, so much so that he ended up cutting off one of his ears, during one of the tense situations. The pain that he must have experienced is something most of us, even with our brief stints with anxiety and stress, cannot ever imagine. It was, in those days of unbearable pain and suffering, he created a painting with the beautiful starry nights. A depiction of the calibre of his imagination, which envisioned joy and happiness in the most mundane aspects of a night sky. It was a testament to the kind of vision he had, his ability to quieten all the noise in his mind and explore the depths of his soul to carve out creations that imprinted themselves in the fabric of time, forever. It is a testament to how an artist, even though suffering through hell in their lives, try to heal others with their art. And, maybe, in the process, heal a part of themselves as well.

There, truly, is an undeniable magic in art, a secret whispered from times long past and heard only by those who care to listen. And no matter how much time passes, they will always find new ears and eyes to resonate with. And today, in a world driven by science and technology, it is art, in its boundless form, that truly transcends time. And hopefully, that stays, even beyond the artificial intelligence era.