Rare masterpieces of world art
Rare masterpieces of world art
It is a brave man who attempts to "define" art though countless thinkers and artists have spoken and written about its nature and its mystery. Mankind's craving for art is so fundamental that it has existed continuously since pre-historic days. All that we know of early man, except what may be gleaned from his bones, is learned from his crafts and arts. These reveal man's constant urge to add something beyond pure utility to his tools to give them aesthetic form, and to adorn and decorate them.
Art may mean different things to different people. To Aristotle it suggested the formulation of an aesthetic theory; to Spengler the reflection of a civilization. Tolstoy called it "an outcry for communion between men." The French thinker, Elie Faure, once went so far as to say that "art is not simply useful; after bread, it is the only really useful thing there is."
Whether art is "useful" or simply a source of great enjoyment is unimportant here. The enjoyment or appreciation of art, however, is something like fashion: it can change with lime and place. But the avenues are open to all. Some require no training whatever, others demand previous experience or knowledge, or both. But the richest satisfaction will come to those who have the closest contact with art.
UNESCO has set itself the mission of increasing the number of these contacts on the postulate that the arts are' meant for everyone and that no obstacle, either economic, social or political, should prevent their diffusion. Its goal is to help make the art of each nation belter known and appreciated by ils own people and by the peoples of other lands, and through this greater appreciation and knowledge to encourage international understanding and respect for other notions and their cultures. Unesco co-operates with governments in the protection of works of art: it supports artists, critics and scholars in their endeavours to achieve international co-operation and mutual" aid, and helps in the defense of their professional interests.
An International Society for Education through Art was created in 1953 under UNESCO's auspices to improve methods of leaching the arts in schools and to promote the appreciation of art by the general public. In the past five years Unesco has been arranging travelling exhibitions of reproductions of great works of art to make these masterpieces available to a wide public not only in capital cities but in small towns, village halls, schools and local museums in countries throughout the world,
UNESCO has encouraged private publishers to raise the standard of colour reproductions, and every two years issues two catalogues of the best reproductions now available. In 1954, the "UNESCO World Art Series" was launched to bring within the reach of artists, teachers, students and the wide art-loving public the finest quality colour reproductions of masterpieces of art which hitherto have been known only to a limited few. Each volume in this collection is devoted to a particular art monument or period of art in a UNESCO member state.
This issue of the UNESCO Courier presents examples in colour and in black and white of the art of Norway, India, Egypt, Australia and Yugoslavia, taken chiefly from the UNESCO art series. An unbridgeable gulf may appear at first to separate the tombs of ancient Egypt from the stave churches of Norway, or the aboriginal art of Australia from the medieval frescoes of Yugoslavia, and all of these from the Doddhisatvas in the depths of India's Ajanta caves. Yet all of these masterpieces have an underlying unity: they are part of man's highest expression of religious art and bear witness to his highest aesthetic aspirations. They bring out not only the artistic traditions of the past but make vivid the life of those far-off times. In all these works, history becomes human and living and is not merely a record of some distant age which we can hardly understand. As the Italian poel Giuseppe Ungaretti said in explaining the remarkable spirit of brotherhood linking the artists of all times, "the purpose of art is to gain access to the inviolable secret of creative divinity."