Objective Art: A
Code Language
Gurdjieff used to call Eastern
art "objective art" and Western art "subjective art." He
means by objective art, art which has some intrinsic quality which can be
imparted for thousands of years. The work of art is a code word. After
experiencing meditation for thousands of years, meditators have come to
recognize that a certain posture, a certain way of sitting, a certain way of
the eyes, can create in anybody a synchronicity, a sympathy; some sympathetic
note can be stirred by the statue.
In the East a statue is not
made for its own sake. It is made as a code language for centuries to follow.
Scriptures may disappear, languages may change, words may be interpreted.
Doctrines can be wrongly interpreted, commented upon. There may be dispute
about theories – and there has been – so they thought there must be a different
way than language.
Now what dispute can there be
about the statue of a Buddha or Mahavira? There is no question of dispute,
there is no need of any commentary. Anybody who is capable of sitting silently
by the side of this statue will have a certain thing stirred in his heart. This
is objective art.
From Darkness to
Light, Chapter #27