In her article “Francesco Clemente’s India” the author, Gini Alhadeff goes in search of what inspires Clemente. She got advice from the artist himself on the area’s she should visit in India. In the beginning of her article she speaks of a Yoga master from Madras “…when asked why he thought foreigners come to India on spiritual quest, he replied that he didn’t know; when pressed further, he suggested, ‘Because they are mad.’ He found it odd, perhaps, that people who have every access to every comfort, and possess a healthy body and mind, should believe salvation to have taken up permanent residence in India.”(Alhadeff,1). Perhaps the Yoga master finds it difficult to believe that a society that is capable of creating a material culture finds it necessary to look to other countries (let alone other people) to come up with a satisfactory non-material culture. Or perhaps these foreigners are searching for something new and different that is not readily available in their own area, perhaps they are trying to search out the answers they seek in order to refute the ideas of cultural relativism. Towards the end of her article Gini Alhadeff speaks of an experience she has while shopping in Madras. “I went to the Gandhi cooperative and bought cotton sarongs in every color of the rainbow, the legendary green and blue Madras checks, and fine braided leather chappals. Then I asked to see a white shirt. A pile of lavender ones was brought to me. I said I liked the style, and did it come in white. ‘But madam,’ the salesman replied patiently, ‘this is white.’ Indian bleach turns whites a pale lilac. From the moment you become used to this possibility, that white can be lilac, the world and its seemingly rigid realities start to float pleasantly. Did I get zapped? Yes, and the mind stopped chattering."(Sischy,5). This is a prime example of the...
