The latest
ArtWay meditation provides an introduction to the
Sacré-Coeur in Audincourt, in the north east of France, that was built in 1949-1951. In the 1930’s the French Dominican friar and Catholic priest
Marie-Alain Couturier was enabled by his order to devote himself to new art in the Catholic church. His approach was to summon well-known artists and architects to participate in the building of new churches and to also involve the local community. At Audincourt he attracted artists like
Fernand Léger and
Jean Bazaine to ecclesiastical art.
I visited Audincourt as part of my
sabbatical art pilgrimage but have not yet had the opportunity to write up my visit. However, I can post some of the photographs I took on that visit to add to those which illustrate Albert Hengelaar's ArtWay meditation.
The baptistry at Audincourt is an early example of the move from
storytelling in stained glass by means of narrative figuration (e.g.
Marc Chagall's stained glass) to the creation of spiritual space using abstract colour (as pioneered by
Jean Bazaine and
Alfred Manessier) has occurred, primarily in France. The concept of stained glass architecture - of a light-filled architectural unit – that we find here or, for example, at the
Chapelle Sainte-Thérèse-de-l'Enfant-Jésus et de la Sainte-Face in Hem is an attempt to create spiritual space - a sense of prayer and a glimpse of heaven – through the play of light and colour within the building. In the past churches were centres for the drama of the visual - the drama and spectacle of the liturgy combined with the visual narrative of scripture in stained glass. Now people find their visual stimulation elsewhere - through the media primarily – and, as a result, churches have become centres for the opposite of visual stimulation e.g. centres of visual contemplation, where narrative is less essential than ambience and atmosphere.
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