“I had a painting called Building the Town. In it, I wanted to express the aspiration to
create, when in the midst of building up new strongholds pile up towers and
walls. Since then it has been joyfull to go back to the same concept of creativeness,
which is a natural opposition of destruction.[...] In our days, when we have
gone through so much destruction, each building is particularly valuable. Recently
various wordly-wise men have been assuring us that the world is in the throes of material
depression, an unprecedented material crisis, and because of this any building
is inappropriate. [...] The crisis of the world is not material, but it is
spiritual. It can only be healed by spiritual renewal. [...] Now the whole
world is sharply divided into light and darkness, creation and destruction. [...]
It is now more precious to see building. After all, we all know how a builder is
surrounded by difficulties, what a devotee he should be to overcome the
onslaught of destruction, chaos and darkness. Indeed, the darkness is
dissipated by the light, but then the light should be more intense than the
darkness to dispel it. [...]
Every creation brings collaboration with it.
This sonorous concept, whether you pronounce it in Russian or in a foreign
form, as ‘cooperation’, contains living framework that confronts the forces of
destruction.” (from Nicholas Roerich’s article, Building)
Roerich outlines the plot and not showing the
details of which neither he nor anyone else knows. There is no need for details
as these would confound the truthful impression, raising a distrust.
“Caves have been abandoned, culture has evolved
to the primary forms of the community - the people are building a town. The theme
is “anthropological." "Person" has not yet appeared. People live
like ants. And build their ant-hill with the same vain, the same ant energy,
quickness and impersonality, under the same sun, amongst the same nature, in
which, a millennium later, our civilisation was born. What is the
interest for the artist and the viewer to consider each individual ant? All
the same, all in white shirts! Filling with rubble the base of the building in
which we now live with comfort. One believes the picture and there is nothing
to break the illusion with unnecessary questionable details.” (E.Polyakova.
Roerich, 1973)
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| Building the Town, study, 1902 |