Here's a summary of the responses I've been able to track to my Art & Christianity meme plus some responses to the range of choices:
The instructions were to list an artwork, drama, piece of music, novel, and poem that you think each express something of the essence of Christianity and for each one explain why. Then tag five other people.
Artwork:
Field for the British Isles by Antony Gormley
Christ carrying the Cross by Stanley Spencer
White Crucifixion by Marc Chagall
Bethlehem Murals by Banksy
Icon of the Holy Trinity by Rublev x 2
Resurrection, Cookham by Stanley Spencer
The Fighting Tremaire by Turner
The Baptism of the Christ by Daniel Bonnell
Drama:
Chariots of Fire
Babette's Feast by Gabriel Axel
The Singing Detective by Dennis Potter
The Shawshank Redemption
Volpone by Ben Jonson
Magnolia
The Dark Knight
Dr Who
The Lee Abbey Easter drama
Music:
St Matthew Passion by J S Bach
Grace by U2
Credo by Arvo Pärt
Restore My Soul by The Choir
Down in the Hole by Tom Waits
Anthem by Leonard Cohen
Under Pressure by Queen
Jesus Blood Never Failed Me Yet by Gavin Bryars
Messiah by Handel
Novel:
The Island by Victoria Hislop
Quarantine by Jim Crace
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Christ Recrucified by Nikos Kazantzakis
Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen Donaldson
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C S Lewis
Poem:
The Parable of the Old Man and the Young by Wilfred Owen
Love III by George Herbert x 2
The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot
God's Grandeur by Gerard Manley Hopkins
Pearl
Teach Me My God and King by George Herbert
The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe
The Dream of the Rood
There are no obvious patterns that emerge from the choices people have made. The choices do give an indication of the range of Christianity's engagement with the Arts, all the way from Middle English poetry to the Street Art of Banksy. George Herbert emerges from this small sample as the most popular of the artists listed, although he ties with Stanley Spencer in having created two works that are viewed as expressing something of the essence of Christianity.
There is a mix of Christian classics together with a number of choices which are not generally perceived as 'Christian'. The latter is perhaps the most interesting aspect of the responses in terms of why they have been linked to Christianity's essence. On some occasions there was a personal story to provide the connection but outside of the personal these choices could indicate the extent to Christian themes/language/imagery/forms have percolated culture or the facility of Christians to read Christian themes/language/imagery/forms into cultural artefacts which were not originally created with those elements in mind.
In comments made on my 'Airbrushed from Art History' series, Richard Davey argued that artworks are simply what they are; so, Andres Serrano's Piss Christ is simply "an image of a crucifix suspended in a golden liquid, which we later discover is urine" and that it "says nothing more than that." Paint, he argues, cannot speak of resurrection, paintings of the crucifixion are "nothing more than paint pushed around a surface to make marks that depict a man on a cross"; "any theological interpretation occurs in the viewer's mind not in the work." If we are doing theology through art, he suggests, (as would be the case with this meme, if he is right) "lets say that, rather than trying to imply that our reading is necessarily implicit within the work."
However, there are issues with the understanding that Davey proposes. Serrano was not interested, as an artist, in simply combining an image of a crucifix with urine for its own sake. Instead, he wished to comment on the commercialisation of Christian imagery and submerging an image of a mass produced crucifix in urine would seem a fairly explicit realisation of that desire.
Davey could argue that the artist's intentions and ideas are separate from the finished artwork which exists as an object in its own right and is seen by the viewer without reference to the ideas which led to its creation. However, the essence of conceptual art is that such artworks visualise a concept. The concept then both triggers and is expressed by the artwork. In other words, there is a symbiotic relationship between the concept and the artwork; both are separate entities but neither can be divorced one from the other because of the closeness of the relationship between them. This applies, it seems to me, whether the art derives primarily from ideas or emotions.
As a result, there is, I think, a basis for the kind of discussion which has occurred through this meme including the discussion of Christian themes/language/imagery/forms as used in works that were not created with such elements in mind. What Davey's argument points up, however, is the need for clarity in what we are responding to within such works i.e. are we suggesting that the Christian themes/language/imagery/forms we are responding to are consciously or unconsciously inherent within the artwork or its creation and, whichever we suggest, whether they are being subverted or affirmed through their use.
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George Herbert - The Collar.
2 comments:
Jon thanks for this helpful summary, it was a very enjoyable exercise.
With regard to Davey's way of thinking, I feel it is important to remember God's role in how human intention is interpreted. When comparing something like Piss Christ with "The Sacred made Real" there are very different intentions, but we can grow spiritually (albeit perhaps in different ways)through encounter with both of these (if they are to our taste).
Or, one human intention might be diverted by the Holy Spirit, as in the case of "Seeing Salvation" which was intended to mark the millennium, but provoked at least one conversion in the galleries. Commemoration became evangelism, which strikes me as quite sacramental.
Wish I'd said Field for the British isles, as it was in the cloister of Salisbury Cathedral on the day of my ordination!
cheers
Tim
Thanks for taking the time to respond to the meme, Tim. Most people that did so, said that it took alot of thought but I'm glad that you enjoyed it.
I think you are absolutely right that it is easy to leave the work of the Holy Spirit out of the picture altogether when discussing the impact or presence of art on us. The difficulty, I suppose, is in categorising something (someone) which "blows wherever it pleases."
I definitely agree that that we can grow spiritually through work with very different intentions (like 'Piss Christ' and the 'Sacred made Real' works) but that that doesn't have to depend on our taste as dissonance can sometimes be the trigger for revelation.
I think Davey would just want to say, though, that none of the above is necessarily anything to do with what is integral to the artwork itself. In other words it comes from our engagement with the artwork rather than from the artwork itself.
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