There is the universe without and the universe within when it comes to choices for the creative mind. Choices are open and varied. Some creative people walk on the wild side, others remain purists, abiding by rules and many turn subversive. Among those with creative sensibilities are people who opt for the ‘ivory tower’, who turn their backs to reality and prefer to create from the life within or with an indifference to life’s events. There are reality seekers who create an idealised reality, rather akin to the ivory tower. Others who seek the real prefer the ordinary as source material, and quite a few look reality in the eye and create upon its ugly dimensions. Picasso is an example that comes to mind. When the Spanish town of Guernica was bombed in April 1937, he turned his anger at the senseless act into a magnificent painting called ‘Guernica’. The basic intention was to highlight the horrors and futility of war and the cruelty that man is capable of forcing on humanity. But art is not reportage where the event remains on the level of a newsworthy occurrence. ‘Guernica’ therefore is a work of art that rises above a particular event of death and destruction and enters the realm of the aesthetic. Today, Guernica the town is an ordinary consideration but the painting that it inspired is famous, existing independently and judged aesthetically. Protest against an outrage or flagrant injustice is utilised by people according to their ability and their energy. Poets will write passionate verse, people from ordinary life will motivate those they can and the artist who is stricken by reality’s horrors will express it through art. It is impossible to say when an assertion against tyranny will grip the collective imagination and make a difference. But it becomes important to try with whatever weapons one is equipped with and hence to the painter his brush, paints, thoughts and outrage.
