Biography
Svetoslav Roerich was born on October 23, 1904, in St.Petersburg. In 1914-1916 he studied at the school of K.May. At that school Svetoslav received his first lessons of drawing. His father often took him to the archeological trips around ancient Russian cities. There Svetoslav studied history and culture of Russia. He continued his painting lessons and also participated in creation of decorations for operas "Snow-Maiden", "Sadko", "Prince Igor" together with his father.
He studied architecture in England in 1919 and entered Columbia University's school of architecture in 1920.
Since 1920 he lived in the United States. Svetoslav entered the Columbia University, the department of architecture which he graduated with a bachelor's degree. At that time Svetoslav Roerich painted many pictures, book illustrations and drawings.
In 1925, he received the Grand Prix during an exhibition in Philadelphia, where nearly a hundred of his paintings were exhibited. The young painter’s subsequent achievements became his confident steps on the way to mastery and perfection.
Since 1923 Svetoslav Roerich was a director of the International Centre of Art "Korona Mundi" in New York which was founded by his father Nicholas Roerich.
In 1928 Svetoslav moved from USA to India (Darjiling) to his family. Having perceived creatively many art ideas and convictions of his father Svetoslav Roerich became a distinctive and original artist.
He lived for many years in India where Nehru awarded him the International Award and the Padma Bhushan. His paintings of Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi, adorn the historic Central Parliament Hall in New Delhi. He was married in 1945 to an Indian movie star Devika Rani , widow of producer Himanshu Rai and known as "The First Lady of the Indian Screen".
Studying the culture, art and philosophy of India he created many wonderful paintings. Together with landscapes he painted many portraits. The portraits of N.Roerich, Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru and Devika Rani - Svetoslav Roerich's wife, must be specially marked. One of the most beautiful ones is a portrait of his mother Helena Roerich, the woman of exceptional spiritual and physical beauty.
Svetoslav Roerich headed the department of folk art and pharmacopoeia at the Institute "Urusvati".
While he was in charge of work of the Natural Department, he carried out unique researches in various fields of the natural sciences. The gift of spiritual synthesis that he possessed contributed to this end. At the basis of S. Roerich’s natural scientific interests lay his deep philosophic understanding of nature as a whole, inalienably connected with the most important cosmic laws. The circle of his scientific interests is striking: ornithology, botany, mineralogy, Tibetan pharmacopoeia, chemistry and its alchemical sources, astrology, comparative religious studies and philosophy, art studies, cultural studies. Such versatile activities of S. Roerich, the scientist, testify to his undoubted belonging to the galaxy of major natural scientists.
He had a large plantation on the outskirts of Bangalore, called Tataguni, on Kanakpura road. He and Devika Rani lived here. He did a lot of enlightening work, directed the Art School in Bangalore, held his personal exhibitions.
He was named an Honorary Academician of the Art Academy of the USSR, and was an honorary member of the Bulgarian Academy of Art.
In 1989 up to the initiative of Svetoslav Roerich in the USSR was established the Soviet Foundation of the Roerichs at the base of which there were studies and spreading of the ideas of the Roerichs family. In 1991 Svetoslav Roerich granted the Soviet Foundation of the Roerichs with the archives of his parents and his brother which were kept in India before. On Jaunary 30, 1993, Svetoslav Roerich passed away in Bangalore.
Roerich family's residence in Manali, India, is now home for the exquisite gallery of paintings. It is managed by the International Roerich Trust and has been named Roerich Heritage Museum. The gallery was founded by Svetoslav Roerich in 1962.
All S. Roerich’s artistic and literary creative work, as well as his scientific, pedagogical, and public activities are inseparably connected with the ideas of the Living Ethics. To say that Svetoslav Roerich was just its follower would be to oversimplify his role. He was not only the follower of this philosophic system, but a profound thinker, who could develop its most important provisions and ideas.
Many of Svetoslav Roerich’s philosophical reflections are dedicated to the great role of art in the creation of a more perfected, high-spirited and virtuous man. These thoughts not only were reflected within the pages of his essays and diaries, but also within the entirety of the painter’s creative and artistic work.
"<...> the truth is in Beauty, one of the Living Ethics books says. Cosmos bases evolution on this formula. Cosmos directs the world to mastering Beauty”. Beauty together with its essence and its role in the evolutionary development of mankind, as well as the energetic processes related to it comprised the bases for S. Roerich’s philosophic views. He himself, as an artist and thinker, was attracted first of all to the Beauty created by man. “Great creations are storages of enormous energies, which can activate and change millions of spectators, influence numberless generations through the message of beauty emanating from them. <…> Inexpressible aura of glory is irradiated by a great piece of art, Svetoslav Roerich said. – This is emanation of concealed vibrations fixed in the structure of a great creation. Magic of feelings, thoughts, and strong desires of great masters is captured in a piece of art, is irradiated on the spectator, and awakens in us similar emotional response, beside purely energetic and spiritual understanding of what is spoken about. We respond to more perfect combinations and call them beautiful. <…> Such is the extraordinary power of art, hidden strength, always present and active in a great creation”.
Svetoslav Roerich was convinced that Beauty could not be created without a higher ideal. Destruction of this ideal – spiritual or aesthetic – would result in the disfigurement of life and in the loss of its evolutionary pivot.
