A Persian Reformer's View of Art Author(s): Juliet Thompson Source: The Art World, Vol. 1, No. 6 (Mar.

, 1917), pp. 412-414, 409 Published by: Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25587814 . Accessed: 24/09/2011 19:06
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March 1917

fill the larg they would unite in a meeting, were'to est banquet hall. Over and over again we have tried to pay him this tribute, only to be put aside with a Only word. smile and an apologetic deprecating to be made himself once or twice has he permitted the guest of honor in this way.

tribute through THE ART this brief In paying WORLD I speak, I am sure, for all my fellow bene Dean Here then is my toast: To William ficiaries. and the sunshine of us all! May Dean Howells, send him back to us in the flowers of the South honor! renewed health and increasing Garland Hamlin

PERSIAN

REFORMER'S
By
See page 409

VIEW

OF

ART

JULIET THOMPSON

in his prison at Acca, a Turkish IT was penal col that famous old city ony on the coast of Syria-in and later St. Jean d'Acre which once was Ptolemais -that Abdul Baha first talked with me of art. "Art is diviner than we have ever dreamed" Abdul To me he said "Art Baha said to a friend of mine. is an act of worship." up a new vision of the opening This statement, is all the more power of art and of its real function, is al in that it was made by one who remarkable as the prophet of a new ready regarded by millions the Bahai age-the leader of a new world-religion, in Persia about the which, originating Movement, of in the teaching of the last century middle the father, has during Abdul Baha's Baha'o'llah, of reform its message spread past seventy years object "The Most the whole world-its throughout Great Peace." in the note of reform of the dominant Becaus3 reaching out from the fundamental Bahai teaching, of renewal into all expressions basis of spiritual

life-international,

national, governmental, scientific

ele -cruel efforts were made by the conservative many ment of Persia to stamp out the movement; Bahais were put to death and the leader Baha'o'llah, of followers and a number his wife and children into exile. Abdul Baha be were sent as prisoners at the age of eight and re came a life-prisoner in captivity fifty-odd years until set free in mained 1908 by the Young Turk Party. scholar, an English Years ago a distinguished and his son in Acca, wrote man, visiting Baha'o'llah

these impressions:
tell you that the Bahais will "Persian Muslims so that these, impelled bewitch or drug their guests, they cannot resist, become which by a fascination the aforesaid Muslims affected with what similarly madness. Idle and regard as an incomprehensible is, it yet rests on a basis of absurd as this belief supports the greater than that which fact stronger this people. they allege concerning part of what is such that it The spirit which pervades the Bahais all subjected cannot fail to affect most powerfully cannot to its influence. It may appal or attract-it Let those who have not be ignored or disregarded. seen disbelieve me if they will, but should that spirit an once reveal itself to them, they will experience emotion which they are not likely to forget." I should hardly dare to say how true I found this the province of this article to be! Nor is it within the effect on my heart of the spiritually to describe great free lives of that little band of exiles-the fol and the few devoted Abdul Baha, his family of the the sufferings survived lowers who have

of things life. But I should like to write prison the and to start with making to beauty, relating reader feel the utter charm of the place itself, the around that group that blooms everywhere beauty lives. of beautiful In the great open inner court and on two sides of for some years old palace which the picturesque since better days dawned for the once closely con he prison, been Abdul Baha's fined Bahais-has flowers grow in such gardens, where has planted as to seem tangled, where peacocks walk profusion lift high their plumed heads. and slim date-palms fur The old house, too, though devoid of comfort, had something divans, little besides nished with from that rare atmos about it-apart enchanting peace-some phere of an unbroken, an impregnable . . . I remember look of it thing in the mere the family often gathered one huge old hall, where the high little birds flying through for tea while up hopped about, picking arches of the windows A stone floor, sunken in places, and dark crumbs. two parrots on stands in a corner with stone walls; their gaudy notes of color, red and green, orange All the residents of the and blue, in the grayness. the men, dress, the flowing Oriental house wore turbans, sashes and the aba, with a long white under veils covering loose gowns, the women garment; their braided hair. the spell of the place upon me, One night, with house with I sat on the roof of this wonderful daughter, Monever Khanum, Abdul Baha's youngest (for Abdul Baha is of high princess, a little Persian head held like a queen's, a beautiful rank) with eyes like stars and a spirit poised above the with and possessed yet simple and girlish world-and in girl, with whom, of a strong sense of humor!-a of her birth and situation spite of the strangeness detachment, of her spiritual and the unusualness at home! one could feel wonderfully the bay of Haifa Across It was a clear night. Carmel was a long dim shadow on the old Mount below on our right lay the strong Immediately sky. of grim double seawall, part of the fortifications Looking old Acca, and beyond, the Mediterranean. down to our left, we saw the heads of the date-palms away, the minaret in the court and a little distance pale blue in the starlight. and dome of the Mosque, I seemed to be very far away from earth-dan close, in fact, to that "incomprehensible gerously referred to by the scholar I have quoted madness" herself brought me back! Khanum when Monever the title given to "Juliet" she said "the Master" Abdul Baha in the East "wants to talk to you about your art. He told me so today. He said, 'Juliet is

March 1917

THE ART WORLD

413

her work. I want to talk to her about neglecting it.' " So the next day he called me with Monever to his room-that beautiful simple, comfortless, little room, hardly larger than a cell, with its divan, its little black bed, the four slender posts decorated, Oriental fashion, with a painted vine, and the stone in the window! water-jug Abdul Baha has a majesty that of transcending a king-the majesty of the prophet. Nowhere in the world can one find a more nobly sculptured head. In his dress, too, there is a feeling for beauty aside from the grace of line of the Eastern gar inevitable sense of color-his ments-an abas are of bronze, or a warm gray-green, or cream-white; he dresses in black and white. sometimes and I were When Monever to seated, he began his daughter *speak in Persian, translating. "As to your art" he said, after a little preliminary, 4'you must go on with it and improve in it. Give great to it and work always, that you may reach attention You must remember the high summit of perfection. It is that art is identical with an act of worship. is an act of worship. an act of worship. Work In your work you will be helped from above." He then went into detail, urging me to paint in ,oil (at th'at time I confined myself to pastel) that I might not be "limited to one medium." I began to say that I was now more interested in the great sociological work going on today, when he interrupt ed with a laugh; "You do your own work!" He

sonality! Great art belongs to the transcendent realm of spiritual vision and spiritual emotion, and is an expression of the apprehension of divine beau ty and inner significance. We have lingered too long on the threshold of mere physical Beauty, making mere heavy reproductions of its outer aspect. Let me give you a definition by Baha'o'llah of the crea tive power in man: "Upon the Sun of Truth depends the training of the people of the country of thought. It is the Spirit of Reality and the Water of Life. All things owe their existence to it. Its manifestation is ever according to the capacity and coloring of the mind through which it may reflect. For example: its light when cagt upon the mirrors of the wise gives ex pression to wisdom; when reflected from the minds of artists it produces manifestations of new and wonderful arts; when it shines through the minds of students it reveals knowledge and unfolds mys

teries."
He says also: "The Reflective Faculty (or the Mind) is the depository of crafts, arts and sciences. Exert yourselves, so that the gems of knowledge may appear from this ideal mine and conduce to the tranquillity and union of the different nations of the world." Again this "working for God" for the expression and bringing about of the Divine Order in the world is made the aim of creative work. The artist ap pears, in this conception, not as a more or less arro gant unit, but as a servant of humanity, the sensitive recipient and transmitter, in forms of beauty, of a power from the world of spirits to the world of men. How interesting that Baha'o'llah has defined the mind as the reflective rather than the active faculty! When the inner mind learns the secret of cleaving an opening its objective through cover and lying in the sun of the realm of divine knowledge, then we will have an art, a science undreamed of now! And this has to do with spiritual freedom, with the of fear and doubt and mental overcoming limita tions in absolute reliance on that Reality, the inspi ration of Spirit! Baha'o'llah, indeed, tells us that in this era, on the threshold of which we are now standing, the day of Universal "new and wonderful Peace, sci ences and powerful arts" will appear. And he fur ther says: "The savants and artists have great rights among the people of the world." This seems to foreshadow a time when again the seers will be recognized world's as the servants of the people and will be set free by some form of from the financial stress which so fatally pension that sensitive handicaps the creative instrument,

concluded:
"You have two arts-one the other spir physical, itual. With your physical art you paint the images of men; with your spiritual art you paint the images of the angels and at last I hope you will be enabled to paint the perfections of God. Your physical art will at last end, but your spiritual art is everlasting. Your physical art can be done by many, but your spiritual art is not the work of every one! Your physical art makes you dear to men, but your spir itual art makes you dear to God. Therefore, work to perfect both of them!" At another time, when I was engaged on work of great importance, I said to Abdul Baha: "Pray for me that I may be inspired." He replied: "As you are working only for the -sake of God, you will be inspired." Here again, as in his talk in Acca, in his statement to me that art was an "act of worship" Abdul Baha -sounded the key-note of his teaching:-that the spiritual power is the active principle of life-that if we recognize and realize this, opening ourselves to its inflow, making ourselves channels of the crea tive force of the universe "working only for God"

or, in other words, for serviceableness, then inspira

-tion, which Abdul Baha defines as a "connection be tween our souls and the True One" will be set free into our world, and "art"-and all things!-"will be diviner than we have ever dreamed." Kipling has said part of this in another way
And each for the joy of the working, And each in his separate star Shall paint the thing as he sees it For the God of things as they are.

faculty.
Beside his direct allusions to art, the utterances of Baha'o'llah are full of light for the creative work er. For example take this: If thou dost soar in the lover! "O questioning thou wilt see the True of Spirit, holy atmosphere above all things, that thou wilt find One so manifest naught else save Him!" the eye of the artist perceives When the souls of things he will paint with a new emotional power. I think it will interest the reader to hear of a

lesson in color which I received from Abdul Baha. Great art is not merely an intellectual product. It was in a hotel, where a room was hung with It is not slavist imitation or the mere "copying poor little canvases, painted in a low key. Sud ~of sections of nature"' or sections of external per denly, starting up, he waLked round the room point.

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THE ART WORLD

these things are me certain details "They say" I catastrophe there

March 1917
better." He then pointed out to which showed Persian influence. remarked "that before a great was connection between Asia and

ing to each picture in succession repeating in Eng lish the word mud, mud, mud! I had always painted in a low key myself, but from that moment I saw with clear eyes that in the days to come, in the "divine art" that is to be, we will use, not earth

America."
he replied "previous "Assuredly" to a great cata clysm there was such a connection." Is not this rather a new conception of the Prophet? Have we ever thought of the prophets of old as many-sided beings, interested in all the aspects and activities of life and denying the spirit to none of

colors, but rainbow colors!

I was painting While the portrait of Abdul Baha, which, by the way, under some extraordinary influ ence, I did in three hours, I asked for a criticism. that Abdul Baha had been shut away from Consider the world all his life. He had gone into prison a little boy of eight and come out at sixty-four. Surely the talk of studios had never reached him! But these were the actual words of his criticism: "Clean I could have imagined up the color!" it was my

them?
In driving around Boston one day with a dis tinguished Syrian artist Abdul Baha remarked on the flatness of the roofs of our houses. "Why do they not build their houses with domes?" he said. I myself think that it is because we of the West are as yet spiritually domeless! the structure When of our being is completed by the spiritual develop ment, then will we build in beauty!

friend Albert Sterner speaking!

incident which may be of interest: While Another Abdul Baha was in New York, I went with him one When we en day to the Natural History Museum. tered the room of Aztec art Abdul Baha immediate "This is like the Egyptian ly exclaimed: art, only

Juliet Thompson

MUSIC

CANNED

AND

FRESH

By WINTHROP PARKHURST is to AUTOMATICALLY reproduced music-that say, music which is performed either on the passion piano-player or the talking machine-was ately courted by the public long before the chaperons of art ever got wind of the scandal and declared the Indeed, until quite recently (say, intrigue immoral. six or seven years ago) such music as was not considered performed by hand was not properly music at all. It was an outcast of true art, a com in the City of Sound; and no mon street-walker anathema was too terrible for it, no curse too blas It was kicked and buffeted and spat on phemous. and made fun of generally-and particularly-by in the Union. Professional opinion every musician the movement of automaticism with real bombarded At the very outset it professional frightfulness. into a million blew up the entire question pieces; it had done that, it commenced and then, when counting the pieces as added proof of the inherent of the notion it had just attacked. It instability into the enemy's not only carried war camp: it carried war beyond it. the appalling for of men fighting With ferocity a just and peaceful went cause, musicians ahead their swords on the most and bloodied innocent for in in their path. content, obstructions Not mechanical contrivances stance, with condemning because they condemned they were mechanical, them as well because they were contrivances. They scorn upon abuse and upon both, murder. piled because they did it splendidly, magnificently, And saw, or they were by a Vision. They inspired the as yet unfulfilled thought they saw, beyond of the talking machine of the inventors dreams and the piano-player. saw, or thought they They saw, that not only the product but the purpose back First of the product was wrong. they damned because instruments mechanical they were not able to do. Then, later, to do what they were supposed and the piano-player the talking machine when capable of truly improved and showed themselves they were able they damned because artistic work, to do it. to recent musical foot-note This rather violent anybody who should not shock or grieve history has read on to the end of the chapter and turned For, if any for an explanation. to the appendix in this perfect vindication ever achieved wrong of the final instatement injustices, world of crying will world in the professional music automatic a specimen as one can demand. serve for as beautiful tirade a violent half a dozen years after Within produced music, all forms of mechanically against had the talking machine and the piano-player entertainment of mere from the nursery marched that and a movement into the grand salon of Art; today is hardly much older than the average man's suit of clothes found itself only yester third-best day set up on a pinnacle of publicity and flatteringly

dubbed Great.
The reasons behind this sudden change of front, attitude, as well as the reasons behind the original They lie quite conveniently are not hard to discover. Ideas, any more than men, in human nature itself. do not get slapped on the back by the world before they have got slapped several times on the face first. ele of the mechanical the intrusion Revolt against as is revolt as inevitable was into music ment the against by the technical mind) (especially idea original intrusion of any novel and thoroughly and the cluttered with platitudes into a universe For a time, at least, the bodies of dead creeds. the world (for which of a musicianless conception seemed more than merely advent of automatic music was as repellent to the true musician preparatory) as the advent of the first automobile was to any self that initial horror Yet, when horse. respecting saw, as the horses must musicians passed off-when that the also have seen in regard to automobiles, to rob them of new invention was actually going

ABDUL
PAINTED

BAHAX

BY JULIET THOMI0PSON

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