Airbrushed from Art History? (3)

Traces du Sacré was a significant exhibition both sociologically and artistically. Sociologically, because it recognised the re-emergence of religion in the 21st century and artistically, because it was a broad re-telling of the story of Modern Art through its spiritual influences.

The story that the Centre Georges Pompidou sought to tell began in the eighteenth century with what has been called the “disenchantment of the world,” caused by factors as diverse as the Reformation, the rise of capitalism, the ideals of the Enlightenment, the worship of Reason and the growth of the town. In Traces du Sacré this starting point was symbolized by Francisco Goya’s etching Nada. Ello dirá (Nothing. We Shall See) which depicts a dead body as simply that, decaying flesh with no hint or hope of anything beyond death.

The usual telling of the history of Modern Art, which rises from this context at the end of the nineteenth century with the development of Impressionism, is a secular story which sees Modern Art’s development progressing through a focus on the forms rather than the content of art and thereby excludes religion or spirituality as an element within the story. Traces du Sacré accepted that the secularization of society occurred and was reflected in the development of Modern Art but the radical shift made in this exhibition was the claim that this process of secularization did not mean the disappearance of metaphysical questioning from Modern Art. Instead, Traces du Sacré argued that art’s fundamental concern with the questions of who we are, where we come from, and where we are going was reasserted and re-energized in and through Modern Art.

In making this claim, the exhibition recognized three broad time periods within which the traces of spirituality it uncovered fell. The first considered ideas which dominated from the late nineteenth century to the 1930s including Romanticism, the death of God, and the Superman. The second focused on the intellectual environment following World War II with its sense of the end of history, the decline of Europe, and the development of spiritualities without God. The third was the contemporary world in which we are either seeing the return of religion or, at least, the decline of irreligion.

One of the main strengths and fascinations of Traces du Sacré was the sheer scale and breadth with which its thesis was taken up and explored. From Caspar David Friedrich and Odilon Redon to Damien Hirst and Bill Viola by way of Vassily Kandinsky, Kasimir Malevich, Pablo Picasso et al, 350 major works were displayed in 24 thematic sections, with contemporary works shown alongside the Romantic and Modern. The Centre Pompidou saw Traces du Sacré as a return to the tradition of major multidisciplinary exhibitions on which its reputation was originally based and argued that this was the first exhibition of its kind to be held in France as earlier surveys of the spiritual in Modern Art either did not travel to France or were restricted to one medium (e.g. the abstract), one source of inspiration (e.g. the occult) or one context (e.g. the Church).

The exhibition uncovered the exploration of spiritual themes within most of the major movements in Modern Art. The themes selected spanned the movements with, for example, pagan spirituality expressed in the theme of the mask being revealed in the Cubism of Picasso, the Expressionism of Emil Nolde and the Dadaism of Marcel Janco, among others. The exhibition was at its strongest when uncovering evidence of the contribution that spirituality made to the development of Modern Art movements. Sections exhibiting works from the De Stijl movement, for example, showed how theosophical ideas combined with scientific experimentation to create new artistic forms.

One of the issues, however, with an exhibition of this type is the extent to which the art becomes subordinate to the argument. The argument was essentially sociological; a documenting of secular spiritualities. The art was then viewed as emerging from these spiritual movements and specific works were selected to feature in the exhibition as evidence supporting the argument. Nevertheless, there remained much of interest when synergies did develop between art styles and emerging spiritualities allowing for their depiction and exploration through art. The room devoted to differing depictions of 'Homo Novus' provided one example, as did the critique of established religion found in the 'Offensives' section, where works by Francis Picabia and Max Ernst put religious belief and fervour into question.

In an exhibition of this type and title, one would anticipate encountering a strong strand of Christian spirituality but this was not actually the case. The argument made here was that the secularization of society delivered artists from their subordination to the Church and that, as a result, the traces of spirituality found in both Modern and Contemporary Art are ones that stand outside of organised religion (and Christianity, in particular). References in this exhibition to art within an ecclesiastical context were generally negative; the assumption being that the dogmatic purposes of religion sought to make art subservient.

To feature in this exhibition then, art that has some link to an ecclesiastical context had to demonstrate, in the eyes of the curators, an intrinsic spiritual function exceeding the dogmatic purposes that religion seeks to impose. Interestingly, the one room within the exhibition explicitly devoted to 'Sacred Art' also sought to articulate this argument. This section of the exhibition highlighted the work of Father Couturier, a Dominican friar, who was actively involved in the reconstruction of churches in France during the 1950s and who commissioned work from significant contemporary artists such as Le Corbusier, Fernand Léger, Henri Matisse and Germaine Richier. Couturier was convinced that it was from “the vitality of profane art” that a new Christian art would be born. Therefore he commissioned work from the best contemporary artists regardless of whether they professed faith or not. The curators argued that, via Couturier, the entry of contemporary art into the fold of the Church was as a distinctly secular endeavour.

The rigour with which this argument was applied to Modern Art throughout Traces du Sacré meant that the Christian faith of artists such as Maurice Denis and Georges Rouault, for example, was masked and hidden through the categories chosen for the exhibition. As a result, the essence and wellsprings of their inspiration were not fully apparent. Both featured rightly in the 'Sacred Art' section as both were commissioned by Couturier but, as ardent Catholic artists whose art was vitally informed by their faith, neither fitted the sacred from profane art argument that characterized that room.

Rouault also featured in the 'Homo Homini Lupus (Man is a wolf to Man)' section of the exhibition, where his oil on paper version of a Miserere etching gave this room its title. This section of the exhibition argued that the horrors of World War II negated pre-war expectations of the birth of the New Man. Yet Rouault’s Miserere et Guerre, from which this image derives, while conceived during and as a response to the war years, was also conceived as a prayer for the rebirth of humanity in and through Christ, and not as a secular Superman.

Not only were the Judeo-Christian influences of certain artists (including Mark Chagall, Alfred Manessier, Barnett Newman, Nolde and Paul Sérusier) masked by the exhibition’s categorization and argument but much that was significant in Modern Art which derived from Judeo-Christian influences was entirely absent.

The Roman Catholic influence on Modern Art, for example, can be briefly summarized as a case in point. Post-Impressionism and Symbolism was initiated and developed by artists who were often ardent Catholics. Through Denis, in particular, the effects of their influence were widely felt especially in Belgium, Canada, Italy, Russia and Switzerland. The French Catholic philosopher, Jacques Maritain, was an influential figure linked to artists such as Alexandre Cingria, Jean Cocteau, Otto Van Rees, Rouault, Albert Servaes and Gino Severini. Severini’s conversion and Catholic contacts then played a part in the development of a Futurist Sacred Art. Similarly, Albert Gleizes’ development of Cubism led to his return to Catholicism and, through his tutoring of Mainie Jellett and Evie Hone, to a strong strand of Christian spirituality featuring in the development of Irish Modern Art.

Just as the secular story of Modern Art excluded Judeo-Christian influences, the argument of Traces du Sacré had the same effect to the detriment of a full understanding of the impact that spirituality has had on the practice of Contemporary Art. Traces du Sacré provided ample evidence of the enduring and revived significance of spirituality in our secular culture but a broader, more inclusive, story of the traces of spirituality in the development of Modern Art remains to be told. It is to be hoped that the significance of this major exhibition was as a staging point on the journey towards the full telling of that tale.

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