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Sunday 19 April 2020

Airbrushed from Art History: An update

This weekend ArtWay have republished an article exploring Andy Warhol's engagement with Catholicism and the impact on his art and legacy. Similarly, Artlyst have published an article exploring the enigma of Salvador's Dali's engagement with faith, while I have posted a piece on this blog about the Catholic wellsprings and work of Dali's friend, the Viennese Visionary Realism Ernst Fuchs. Each of these adds to the argument I have been making over several years that the level and extent of the engagement between the Christianity and the Arts has been more significant than is generally acknowledged.

In particular my ‘Airbrushed from art history’ series on this blog surveyed the Christian contribution to the Visual Arts which is broad and significant but is far from having been comprehensively documented. See below for the Index, links and other related writings for this series.

To explore the contribution made by Christianity to the Arts is important because the story of modern and contemporary Arts is often told primarily as a secular story. To redress this imbalance has significance in: encouraging support for those who explore aspects of Christianity in and through the Arts; providing role models for emerging artists who are Christians; and enabling appreciation of the nourishment and haunting which can be had by acknowledging the contribution which Christianity has made to the Arts.

My co-authored book The Secret Chord explored aspects of a similar interplay between faith and music (and the Arts, more broadly). Posts related to the themes of The Secret Chord can be found here. I have also posted an outline summary of the Christian contribution to rock and pop music. Pieces on contemporary choral and classical music are here and here.

Tracing the connections between artists that were either part of the Church and were engaged by the Church in the 20th century is an important element in the argument that the level and extent of the engagement between the Church and the Arts has been more significant than is generally acknowledged. Some of my posts tracing these connections include:
My key literature posts are:
The index to my 'Airbrushed from Art History' series of posts is as follows:
Additions to the series and related posts are as follows:
Additional posts are at https://joninbetween.blogspot.com/search/label/airbrushed%20from%20art%20history. 

On my sabbatical in 2014 I enjoyed the opportunity to visit churches in Belgium, England, France and Switzerland to see works of modern and contemporary art. I documented these visits at http://joninbetween.blogspot.com/search/label/sabbatical and they resulted in a series of Church of the Month reports for ArtWay: Aylesford Priory, Canterbury Cathedral, Chapel of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, Hem, Chelmsford Cathedral, Churches in Little Walsingham, Coventry Cathedral, Église de Saint-Paul à Grange-Canal, Eton College Chapel, Lumen, Metz Cathedral, Notre Dame du Léman, Notre-Dame de Toute Grâce, Plateau d’Assy,Romont, Sint Martinuskerk Latem, St Aidan of Lindisfarne, St Alban Romford, St. Andrew Bobola Polish RC Church, St. Margaret’s Church, Ditchling, and Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft, St Mary the Virgin, Downe, and St Paul Goodmayes, as well as earlier reports of visits to sites associated with Marian Bohusz-Szyszko, Marc Chagall, Jean Cocteau, Antoni Gaudi and Henri Matisse.


Interviews:
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Bill Fay - Be Not So Fearful.
Posted by Jonathan Evens at 20:48
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