Roger Lipsey

Lushly illustrated reflections on the truth and meaning in great objects of art.An innovative approach to the spiritual in world art. Roger Lipsey invites the reader to a contemplative look, to a look of the intelligence of the heart. In the silence of words, each art work speaks to the viewer and teaches a gesture, a posture, a meditation.With "Eyes to See" a gaze is opened and discernment is refined as much as it allows itself to be touched, by truths eternally present at the heart of each work. "Eyes to See" then becomes a practical manual intended for the contemporary sensitized by the need to illuminate, within themselves, the chaotic world of art.Through its remarkable eclecticism, this collection of "icons"--to use the author's term here--takes the reader/viewer through eras and territories inspired by world history. The objective is not naively about knowledge but about seeing; because the eyes to see are those of the body and the soul as much as of the spirit which is not reduced to the intellect alone.

A biography of Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, the pioneering interpreter of Indian art, philosophy, and mythology “A rounded, gently critical, always interesting portrait of this unique personality.”—Joseph Campbell, author of The Hero with a Thousand Faces Ananda K. Coomaraswamy (1877–1947) was a pioneer in Indian art history and in the cultural meeting of East and West in the twentieth century. A scholar in the tradition of the great Indian grammarians and philosophers, an art historian convinced that the ultimate value of art transcends history, and a social thinker influenced by William Morris, Coomaraswamy was a unique figure. Finding a universal tradition in past cultures ranging from the Hellenic and Christian to the Indian, Islamic, and Chinese, he wrote many influential books and essays in which he explored his ideas about ancient symbols and wisdom. In this biography, Roger Lipsey chronicles the development of Coomaraswamy’s ideas and the career that led him from geology to art history and metaphysics, and from Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) to England and the United States.

A biography of Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, the pioneering interpreter of Indian art, philosophy, and mythology “A rounded, gently critical, always interesting portrait of this unique personality.”—Joseph Campbell, author of The Hero with a Thousand Faces Ananda K. Coomaraswamy (1877–1947) was a pioneer in Indian art history and in the cultural meeting of East and West in the twentieth century. A scholar in the tradition of the great Indian grammarians and philosophers, an art historian convinced that the ultimate value of art transcends history, and a social thinker influenced by William Morris, Coomaraswamy was a unique figure. Finding a universal tradition in past cultures ranging from the Hellenic and Christian to the Indian, Islamic, and Chinese, he wrote many influential books and essays in which he explored his ideas about ancient symbols and wisdom. In this biography, Roger Lipsey chronicles the development of Coomaraswamy’s ideas and the career that led him from geology to art history and metaphysics, and from Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) to England and the United States.

Dag Hammarskjöld served as Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1953 until his tragic death in a suspicious plane crash in 1961. During those years he saw the fledgling international organization through numerous crises with a skillfulness that drew much acclaim. As readers of his now-classic diary, Markings, are aware, Hammarskjöld saw political leadership as an honor calling for humility, moral examination, and spiritual reflection. In this comprehensive handbook, acclaimed biographer Roger Lipsey details the moral code by which Hammarskjöld lived and made critical decisions. What emerges is a portrait of a man who struck a remarkable balance between patience and action, empathy and reserve, policy and people. Structured through short sections on themes such as values-based leadership, perseverance, and negotiation, Politics and Conscience offers a vision of ethical leadership as relevant today as it was in Hammarskjöld's time. In our era of zero-sum politics, Lipsey shows politicians and voters alike how Hammarskjöld's political principles and practical wisdom support the betterment of the common good. "It is difficult to hear the low voice of reason," Hammarskjöld wrote, "or see the clear little light of decency, but, of course, both endure and both remain perfectly safe guides."

In the 1960s, author and Catholic monk Thomas Merton produced a body of abstract artwork that reflected his personal exploration of spirituality and served as a visual companion to his intellectual writings. This revealing book presents an attractive portfolio of 34 of Merton's pieces, each accompanied by selections of his own writing.

From a master biographer and longtime Gurdjieff practitioner, a brilliant new exploration of the quintessential Western esoteric teacher of the twentieth-century. The Greek-Armenian teacher G.I. Gurdjieff was one of the most original and provocative spiritual teachers in the twentieth-century West. Whereas much work on Gurdjieff has been either fawning or blindly critical, acclaimed scholar and writer Roger Lipsey balances sympathic interest in Gurdjieff and his "Fourth Way" teachings with a historian's sense of context and a biographer's feel for personality and relationships. Using a wide-range of published and unpublished sources, Lipsey explores Gurdjieff's formative travels in Central Asia, his famed teaching institution in France, the development of the Gurdjieff Movements and music, and, above all, Gurdjieff's fascinating continuous evolution as a teacher. Published on the 70th anniversary of Gurdjieff's death, Gurdjieff Reconsidered delves deeply into Gurdjieff's writings and those of his most important students, including P. D. Ouspensky and Jeanne de Salzmann. Lipsey's comprehensive approach and unerring sense of the subject make this a must-read for anyone with a serious intention to explore Gurdjieff's life, teachings, and reputation.

Hermit-monk, spiritual seeker, social activist, mystic, writer, and artist--Thomas Merton was all of these during his life. As the author of numerous mature works of spiritual writing, such as The Seven Storey Mountain and New Seeds of Contemplation, Merton became best known for his intellectual writings and constant quest to understand his relationship to the divine. During the 1960s, the last decade of his life, Merton created a body of visual art that served as a correlative to his writings. The intimate pieces reflected his personal path, revealing the inner workings of his heart and mind as he continued his search for meaning. For nearly forty years after his death, his artwork remained largely unknown and little studied. With this book, Merton's art moves out of the shadows to be appreciated for what it is. Noted author and art historian Dr. Roger Lipsey offers an insightful examination of the varied influences on Merton's artistic work. Asian calligraphy and American abstract expressionism both played key roles, as did Merton's wide circle of friends, including such diverse figures as the Catholic philosopher Jacques Maritain, the poet Czeslaw Milosz, the Zen scholar D. T. Suzuki, and the artist Ad Reinhardt--among many others.The centerpiece of the book is of course the art itself, presented in an attractive portfolio of thirty-four representative pieces, each accompanied by selections from Merton's own writings. Lipsey provides an insightful analysis of the simple yet striking images and their significance on Merton's lifelong spiritual journey.

'You had to decide to let yourself be turned upside down, you had to accept to see the idea you had forged about yourself progressively shatter.' In the summer of 1969, at 19 years old, Didier Mouturat gave up on college, shattering his parents' hopes that he follow a safe and conventional course. Fresh from the wild Parisian student revolt of 1968, with its street battles and slogans, he set out to find a life that would be truly alive, deciding to be a classical actor. When he met Cyrille Dives, however, the universe of masks quietly turned his world upside down. This book describes Mouturat's apprenticeship to a unique theater artist. In the 1970s and early 80s, Dives created a theater of masks, a Western parallel to Japanese Noh. Dives was a true bohemian artist, a sculptor of masks, a painter and theatrical director. Cyrille Dives was also a spiritual master. Mouturat's apprenticeship encompassed everything from walking in a way that brings a mask to life to cultivating a beginner's mind. Slowly and subtly, the theater apprenticeship became an encounter with the deeper truth of his own being. 'I am speaking of an intimate, progressive discovery that we are not masters of our own being -- that it is only the result of a system of reactions that tyrannize us.' Mouturat becomes Dives's right-hand man, helping establish a theater and a school of masks. That work is evident here in enchanting illustrations, as well as words. Yet as translated by the scholar and author Roger Lipsey, Mouturat also offers a pithy chronicle of a search for meaning and inner being.

After his mysterious death, Dag Hammarskjöld was described by John F. Kennedy as the "greatest statesman of our century." Second secretary-general of the United Nations (1953 - 61), he is the only person to have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize posthumously. Through extensive research in little explored archives and personal correspondence, Roger Lipsey has produced the definitive biography of Dag Hammarskjöld. Hammarskjöld: A Life provides vivid new insights into the life and mind of a truly great individual. Hammarskjöld the statesman and Hammarskjöld the author of the classic spiritual journal Markings meet in this new biography - and the reader will meet them both in these pages. A towering mid-twentieth-century figure, Hammarskjöld speaks directly to our time.

A fascinating account of Thomas Merton's conflicted relationship with his abbot, Dom James Fox--by an esteemed modern Merton scholar. In the 1950s and '60s, Thomas Merton, a monk of the Trappist monastery of Gethsemani in Kentucky, published a string of books that are among the most influential spiritual books of the twentieth century--including the mega-best seller "The Seven-Storey Mountain." He was something of a rock star for a cloistered monk, and from his monastic cell he enjoyed a wide and lively correspondence with people from the worlds of religion, literature, and politics. During that period he also explored and wrote extensively on Buddhism, Sufism, art, and social action. The man to whom he owed obedience in the cloistered life was a much more traditional Catholic, his abbot, Dom James Fox. To say that these two men had a conflicted relationship would be an understatement, but the tension their differences in orientation brought actually led to creative results on both sides and to a kind of hard-won respect and love. Roger Lipsey's portrait of this unusual relationship is compelling and moving; it shows Merton in the years his imagination was taking him far beyond the walls of the monastery, and eventually, literally to Asia.

The definitive biography of Dag Hammarskjold

In 1911, modernist painter Wassily Kandinsky published "Concerning the Spiritual in Art, a treatise on the meaning of modern art and a challenge to his contemporaries to free their work from traditional bonds. Eight decades later, the distinguished scholar Roger Lipsey examined the response to Kandinsky's call with this exploration of the spiritual content of 20th-century art. A compelling, well-illustrated history of art and ideas, this book focuses on the works of such renowned painters as Mondrian, Klee, Picasso, Braque, Duchamp, Matisse, and Brancusi. Lipsey interprets each creation within the context of its conception, examining the movements that inspired each work, from Theosophy and Buddhism to Jungian thought and humanistic psychology. Letters, diaries, and interviews provide insights into the artists' views of spirituality and the ways in which they approached their work as a form of meditation. 121 black-and-white illustrations.