Bath Abbey is presenting the sculpture 'The Crucifixx' (1976) by Michael Kenny, one of the most influential British sculptors of the 20th century, in the Abbey’s sanctuary during Lent, until Thursday 24 April.
Alan Garrow, Vicar Theologian at Bath Abbey explains why the piece is so special especially at this time of year:
“Crucifixx looks hurriedly assembled from off-cuts – the scraps of wood remaindered on a workshop floor. To the soldiers who executed Jesus his death was not something that required thought or care – it was just an ugly ‘everyday’ event. Set in the sanctuary of Bath Abbey this ‘ordinary’ object becomes part of a richer and more expansive story. Here, that which was thrown away has become central; that which was temporary has become permanent; that by which humans are torn apart has become the means by which they are restored to wholeness. But, it is too easy to jump to the end of the story. This sculpture holds us in, and makes us wrestle with, a place of desolation and seeming worthlessness.”
Kenny’s ‘The Crucifixx’ is a precursor to the artist's 'Stations of the Cross, 1998-99', a series of drawings completed just before Kenny's death in 1999, and described as one of the finest examples of genuinely religious art within the Christian tradition, made since the Reformation. While 'The Crucifixx' is on display at the Abbey, Kenny's last major series of drawings 'The Stations of the Cross, 1998-99' can be seen at Quest Gallery, Bath.
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