At the time, I knew about C.S. Lewis and the Inklings and was reading Francis Schaeffer and Hans Rookmaaker. My main sources of information, however, were Buzz Magazine and (in the 80’s) the Greenbelt Festival’s Strait, for which I later started to write. These had a primary focus on music, but I remember discovering, for example, the poetry of John Berryman through an article in Strait.
I’m grateful for all that I was able to encounter and enjoy at that time but, 50 years later, I’m also aware of how much more there was to discover and how few routes to that information seemed available at the time. All creatives need role models, not to slavishly copy, but in order to see how the work that originally inspired other artists was transmuted and changed to create something new. It is that process of transmutation and transformation that inspires and from which learning derives for one’s own creativity.
The internet has greatly increased our ability to search out such examples and role models and this technological development has gone hand in hand with an attitude shift in the Church and the Arts that no longer sees such a separation between the two as was, at an earlier time, commonly perceived to be the case. In the world of the Arts, this has reflected a post-modern focus on over-looked and under-valued stories, while in the Church there has been a breaking down of the distinction between sacred and secular. Inevitably, these shifts have only been partial while still opening up much fruitful ground for research, collaboration and discovery.
I have long felt the need of a listing demonstrating something of the breadth of the engagement that there has been in practice between the Arts and religion within the modern period and into our contemporary experience. This is because academic research tends towards the specific rather than the big picture. At one stage I had discussions with Pieter Kwant of Piquant Editions about an A-Z that would provide a summary overview, but, more recently, have thought that a decade-by-decade listing might provide a fuller sense of the range and variety of initiatives and approaches that have been in play.
In the posts that will follow in this series, that is what I will seek to provide. Inevitably, these lists will be partial as there is much that I don’t know – I’m still regularly discovering new artists from the past for the first time – and the lists reflect my interests and biases. As such, the primary, but not exclusive, focus is on artists that have engaged with the Christian tradition.
My listing begins in the 1880s as that decade is generally taken as the beginning of modern art. However, in terms of my interests the Pre-Raphaelites and the beginning of the Catholic Literary Revival precede my chosen starting point and I have, therefore, sought to reflect that in some of the early entries.
The idea is to provide a brief introduction to the artists and initiatives that were prominent in each decade to enable further research. I am seeking to provide information that will be a help to any who today feel as I did in the 70’s. In that spirit, I would welcome suggestions for additions or amendments to these listings. I will add to the listings that I post initially as I am able, rather than on a regular and consistent basis.
When possible, I’ll also aim to provide a list of books and sites that seek to provide overviews of sorts. Much of my writing for Artlyst, ArtWay, and Church Times seeks to highlight aspects of the hidden heritage to which I am seeking to provide an entry point through these listings. Other series of posts on this blog have also sought to share similar information and ideas. To find links and indexes to these series and posts click here.
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The Killers - Running Towards A Place.
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