 Modern or traditional, abstract or figurative,
true art is immensely valuable.
"Kamla Yantra" by Pieter Weltevrede (Click the picture for a larger image)
The central objective of classical Indian art and drama is to create Rasa in the spectators, in order to communicate or suggest a kind of knowledge that cannot be clearly expressed in words. Thus art becomes a means for educating and healing emotion.
Only pure beings create pure art with pure emotion. Through the application of Rasa Sadhana to his or her own life, an artist may master all of the Rasas, and thus purify his or her aesthetic sense to such a degree that the art produced also becomes pure in emotion.
Classical Indian art will try to cover all Rasas found in life, but will focus on the most desirable Rasas. Less agreeable Rasas may also enter Indian art, but mostly to create the contrast that makes the agreeable Rasas even more powerful.
Using new ways to create art, new media, and new techniques is fantastic. In order to remain interested, both spectators and artists need variation. Abstract art can be just as effective in evoking Rasas as other art, as is also demonstrated by the ancient use of yantras (geometrical patterns).
In modern times, the artist gives an expression of how society has gone away from wholeness. Naturally, less agreeable Rasas such as Fear, Sadness, Anger, and Disgust have become more dominant in modern art. Unfortunately many artists are so absorbed by the less desirable Rasas that they create art purely out of these negative emotions. The expression gives them some kind of satisfaction and such art may also naturally attract attention because it is seen as innovative (Adbhuta) and courageous (Veera). In order to satisfy their public, they always need to find new ways to be remarkable by delving deeper into their darkest emotions, which makes them suffer personally.
The above texts were extracted from the book "The Yoga of the Nine Emotions", which fully explains these subjects.
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