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Nicholas Roerich - Painter Traveler

The gods could not have chosen a better valley to settle down in and with time Kullu has come to be identified as the valley of the gods. Shrouded with exotic legends, each devta of the valley has a tale to tell.
This diaspora of the devtas, dotting most villages of the valley and worshipped by all races and classes has fascinated generations of travelers.
Down the ages, of all the travellers that came to the valley the story of professor Nichloas Roerich, who chose to take up permanent residence at Naggar, is as exotic as the legends. Roerich, the philosopher artist and a world traveller could not blamed for being seduced by the valley for such is the charm and beauty it holds.
Born at St Petersburg in 1874, Nikollai Konstantinovich Roerich belonged to a cultured Russian family. Fascination for the past, legends and history enriched Roerich imagination and even, as a child would dream of travelling. This interest in ancient legends led Roerich to take up archeological excavations and it was at then that his talent for drawing became apparent.
Roerich’s teacher Kuinji at the Academy of arts played an important role in shaping the young artists talents. In Kunji’s studio Roerich began to paint landscapes and historical works. His interest in the mysteries of the past culminated in a series of paintings based on the life of the ancient Slavs titled ‘The Beginning of Rus; the Slavs’. Roerich’s paintings are his rich fantasy and display emotional perception of ancient times.
In an 1897 painting, The Herald; Clan Rises Against Clan, the artist expresses a mood of impending danger under a shimmering moon in the twilight hours. Idols a 1901 work brings the ancient Slavonic superstitions to life. Behind a fence, a pagan temple with elaborate stone idols is decorated with skulls of sacrificed animals and an old sorcerer is wandering deep in thought.
A tour of ancient Russian towns in 1903-1904 led to series of ninety picturesque canvases portraying monuments of old Russian architecture.
In 1906 Roerich began a series of paintings on human prehistory. The Stone Age and The Forefathers Of Man depict the artists perception of the past. Roerich also worked in the genre of monumental art, making sketches for the decoration of secular buildings and churches.
Before the October 1917 Russian revolution Roerich embarked on a tour of the continent. He first went to Karelian Isthmus and then travelled in Finland, Norway, Denmark and England. In 1920 he went to America where a group of admirers set up the Roerich museum in 1923. In that year the artist left America and travelling through Italy and Switzerland went to France.
The creative urge of the artist seeking new imagery excited the travel bug in Roerich to sail east from France in order to realise his long cherished dream of exploring the mystic east. This led to an unusual tour of India and central Asia that lasted for five years.
Starting from Darjeeling the group crossed the Himalayas travelling through some of the most inaccessible and inhospitable areas of central Asia in 1926. Making his way to Moscow and then going over the Atlai mountains into Siberia. From here Roerich went to Mongolia. then travelling through the Gobi desert, Tsaidam, Tibet and back across the himalayas reached Darjeeling, the starting point after five years. The tour encountered many dangers and obstacles along the route and during a forced winter stop in the Tibetan mountains Roerich almost died of hunger. But even in those extreme conditions the artist continued to work which piled upto some five hundred paintings and sketches.
to sort out the vast collected material Roerich in 1928 set up the Institute for scientific research at Naggar in Kullu valley. And after short visit to America in 1930, Roerich with is family, finally settled down at Naggar. He even painted portraits of Mohammed, Buddha, Christ, Confucius and Lao Tzu, whom the artist considered were preachers of the eternal norms of morality.
Landscapes from the later part of Roerich life are suffused with deep philosophical content. In them he glorified the majesty of the eternal, ennobling beauty of nature. The over six hundred paintings of eastern Himalayas are like an epic on canvas. They include The Himalayas; Glaciers , The Himalayas; Nanada Devi and Remember. These works are executed in tempers, a technique that allowed greatest expression for Roerichs creativity.
In the series of paintings The Strongholds of Tibet, Roerich combined the harmony of landscapes with the ancient architectural monuments. Lahsa, Stupa Ladak, Tibetan Monastery and Royal Monastery; Tibet are some such paintings from the series. Often the monuments depicted in the paintings are connected to ancient superstitions that have a symbolic meaning. The deity hewn out of a rock in the painting Maitreya the Conqueror also has a symbolic image of a silhouette horseman in the clouds.
Popular rites and ceremonies were of great interest to the artist. Lights on the Ganges depicts an ancient method of fortune telling. In the dark blue light of dusk, a woman sets fires floating on the river to tell her fate by their movements.
Roerich activities extended into public life. He was a member of forty international cultural organisations. In a period ravaged by two world Wars, Roerich voraciously campaigned for safeguarding valuable monuments from the destruction inflicted by war. The artists efforts are firmly cast in a international convention named ‘Roerich Pact’ for protection of cultural values in case of armed conflicts. Signed at The Hague in 1954 the international convention was ratified by thirty-nine countries.
Roerich died in India and a rock memorial at his Naggar estate in Kullu bears the inscription “Here, on 13 December 1947, was cremated the body of Nikolai Roerich, the great Russian friend of India”.

By
Ravinder Makhaik

Roerich Art Gallery, Naggar to seek UNESCO association.

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee at Delhi recently handed a check of Rs 50 lakh to the chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal as the first installment for the creation and improvement of infrastructure at the Roerich Art Gallery Naggar in Kullu district. During a visit to the gallery the prime minister had announced a central grant of Rs 1 crore for the prestigious gallery.
Presiding over the 12th meeting of the International Roerich Memorial Trust, chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal had said that art gallery would be seeking an UNESCO associate membership and to preserve the glorious legacy of the great Russian painter efforts would be made to include the gallery on the world heritage list. Indian and Russian representatives in UNESCO are to jointly apply for the membership. Roerich museum Naggar will also be exchanging artifacts and paintings with New York and Moscow Roerich Museums to establish institutional linkage.
national exhibition displaying the life and works of Nicholas Roerich are to be put up at National Museum, Delhi and similar exhibitions would be organized at Chandigarh, Bangalore and other major cities.
Rupees twenty lakhs are to be spent on renovating the Botanical Roerich Institute, Naggar and creating facilities for visiting fellows and tourists. A renowned Russian fellow is to be appointed curator of the gallery. The artists samadhi at Naggar has become a pilgrimage center for art lovers from all over the world and last year alone about 50,000 tourists visited the gallery.

By
Ravinder Makhaik

Your painting is serene,like a prayer in colors, not words. I love the soft green of the water and how the figure seems to float… as if it could move across its surface and into the peaks.