Substance and Form in Art

Q: Kalelkar says that substance is more important than form in art. He gives the analogy of the vessel and the food in it, and emphasises that the food is the real thing. I don’t understand how in art the two can be separated.

This is something like Tagore’s ambrosia and the earthen vessel. But there can’t be art without form. If substance alone counts, we don’t have art. An artist has to give a body to his vision, which is the soul of his art; but in art you can’t take soul and body as separate things. Those images —food and vessel—can be applied to physical processes, not to any inner process like art creation.

– Sri Aurobindo