Pourquoi s’intéresser à Nicolas Roerich ? (Ouverture)

Why such an interest in Nicholas Roerich ? (Opening). To introduce Nicholas Roerich to whoever knows hardly anything about him is a real challenge. Any researcher interested in this painter, decorator, teacher, poet, writer, archaeologist, traveler, mystic, theosophist who founded with his wife Elena a New Religious Movement, the Agni Yoga, needs a huge amount of skills to deal with such different fields as arts, archeology, history, esotericism, religious studies, and even psychopathology… The fact that Roerich’s personality and work have been the subject of divergent assessments adds to the difficulty. Hence our choice to open this collection of papers with a long introductory text which dwells anew on the different aspects of his bigger-than-life personality, his unique life and his spiritual heritage. In doing so, we hope to have demonstrated how the so-called «Roerich’s case» is an excellent red thread to map out the relationship between art, politics and esotericism as well as the image Russia has of the East.