SVETOSLAV NIKOLAIEVICH ROERICH (1904-1993)
“We become what we think, our thoughts are a potent energy which can and will change our bodies in to need and powerful accumulators of energy.”
The younger son of his illustrious parents, Helena Roerich (renowned thinker and philosopher, creator of the spiritual teaching “Agni Yoga”) and Nicholas Roerich (world famous artist, archeologist, explorer, philosopher and humanist), was born on 23 October, 1904 in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
From 1910 till 1916, during his studies at the Gymnasium of K.I.Maya, Svetoslav is interested in botany, ornithology and mineralogy; he makes herbariums and takes part in private theatre activities.
In 1919 together with his parents and elder brother, Svetoslav goes to London. He starts to study architecture and painting, besides helping his father with work on costumes and set designs for the Russian performances at Covent Garden. In 1920 the family moves to New York, USA, where Svetoslav takes admission in Columbia University.
From his young age Svetoslav has shown a great talent of a brilliant portraitist with a unique ability of a subtle and deep penetration into the inner world of a person, ability to discover Eternal in the temporary, outer image.
The first exhibition of Svetoslav Roerich's works took place in 1923, in the New York Arden Gallery. Later in the same year he travels to Paris and then the Roerichs started their long cherished journey to India . Here, Svetoslav created his first series of paintings devoted to India.
In 1924 Svetoslav Roerich returned to America to continue his studies at Harvard University.
In 1926, at an exhibition in Philadelphia, he won the ‘Grand Prix'.
As a Vice-President of the New York Roerich Museum and Urusvati Research Institute, as organizer of the Roerich Pact, he has represented his father in many international gatherings and did splendid pioneering work in the cause of art and beauty, peace and freedom.
He is a painter after the grand manner of his father, but his individual uniqueness is no less great than his father's. He, too, is a mystic-dreamer – in the most practical sense of the word.
His art is called by many as a kind of Yoga, the Yoga of Beauty, another pathway to Moksha or Liberation, and that is according to Indian sacred scriptures, the real purpose of all art: not only to please senses, emotions and mind, but also to lead one to a realm of a high spiritual experience.
Main part of his life Svetoslav Roerich spent in India, his ‘second homeland', as he used to say. After completing his studies in 1931, Svetoslav Roerich left USA and moved to India to stay with his parents and elder brother George (famous scholar, orientalist and translator) in their Hall Estate in Kullu.
Svetoslav Roerich's first exhibition in India took place in 1936-37. His four paintings were displayed at the State Exhibition of the United Provinces in Lucknow. In 1938 he took part in the exhibition in Allahabad and met Jawaharlal Nehru there.
In 1939 Svetoslav Roerich's exhibitions were staged in many cities of India. In 1941 his paintings were displayed in Chicago, USA, and Indore, India.
In 1942 Svetoslav Roerich comes to Kullu together with Jawaharlal Nehru and his daughter Indira, who was then a student. At that time Svetoslav Roerich painted the first portraits of J.Nehru, one of which became the best work of the painter in this genre.
In 1945 Svetoslav Roerich married a grandniece of Rabindranath Tagore, Devika Rani — ‘The First Lady of the Indian screen', as she was called after her most talented appearance in film art.
In 1947, after Nicholas Roerich's death, they left Kullu and settled in the South India, in Bangalore. Their house became a center of Art, Beauty and Culture for many people, arriving from all over the world. Roerichs were said to be one of the most beautiful couples in Bangalore.
In summer they used to visit Naggar, and both of them reiterated importance of creating an active Center of Art and Culture here, in the Roerich's Estate, in Kullu Valley.
Svetoslav Roerich became the co-founder of the School of Art, Chitrakala Parishath in Bangalore, which prides itself with a splendid collection of around 200 paintings of a great father and son.
Svetoslav and Devika Roerich were taking most active part in the artistic, cultural and educational life of India. For his lofty contribution, Svetoslav Roerich has been honored with a prestigious Padma Bhushan Award.
“I always shared an ancient concept that the Beauty has to be searched for in everywhere. And with all means and resources available, I have searched for it in the art and in my life, because, after all, both life and our creative expression is one whole.”
“Every one of us longs for the beautiful flowers of friendship, understanding and affection. If only we would permit them to blossom freely within our hearts, our lives would be transformed and enriched through the wondrous healing balm of understanding and sympathy — sympathy and compassion which expand to all the spheres and areas of our life and are the foundations of universal love and universal order, all-embracing, all-containing, attracting to itself like a powerful magnet the best manifestations and expressions of the human genius — the true flowers of our heart and mind.”
(S.N.Roerich)
