Art and faith: Decades of engagement - 1980s

This is Part 10 in a series of posts which aim to demonstrate the breadth of engagement there has been between the Arts and religion within the modern period and into our contemporary experience. The idea is to provide a brief introduction to the artists and initiatives that were prominent in each decade to enable further research. Inevitably, these lists will be partial as there is much that I don’t know 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.

The introduction and the remainder of the series can be found at: Introduction, 1880s, 1890s, 1900s, 1910s, 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s.

• Graham Greene’s Monsignor Quixote (1982), Shūsaku Endō’s The Samurai (1980) and Scandal (1986), David Lodge’s How Far Can You Go? (1980), Walker Percy’s The Second Coming (1980) and The Thanatos Syndrome (1987), Czeslaw Milosz’ The Issa Valley: A Novel (1981), Morris West’s The Clowns of God (1981), Alice Thomas Ellis’ The 27th Kingdom (1982), Tasos Leivaditis’ The Blind Man with the Lamp (1983) Morley Callaghan’s Our Lady of the Snows (1985), Julien Green’s God’s Fool: The Life and Times of Francis of Assisi (1985), Brian Moore’s Black Robe: A Novel (1985), Torgny Lindgren’s Light (1987), J.F. Powers’ Wheat That Springeth Green (1988), Muriel Spark’s A Far Cry from Kensington (1988), and Nicholas Mosley’s Catastrophe Practice (1989) are published.
• U2 sign with Island Records and release their debut album, Boy in 1980. Subsequent work such as their first UK number-one album, War (1983), and the singles "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and "Pride (In the Name of Love)" help establish their reputation as a politically, spiritually and socially conscious group. By the mid-1980s, they become renowned globally for their live act, highlighted by their performance at Live Aid in 1985. Their fifth album, The Joshua Tree (1987), makes them international superstars and is their greatest critical and commercial success, topping music charts around the world.
• The Call forms in Santa Cruz, California in 1980 and release nine studio albums over the next two decades before disbanding in 2000. Their 1986 song, "I Still Believe (Great Design)", is covered by Tim Cappello and included in the 1987 film The Lost Boys. The band also achieves significant success with "Let the Day Begin" in 1989 which reaches No. 1 on the Billboard U.S. Mainstream Rock chart and is later used as a campaign theme song for Al Gore's 2000 Presidential Campaign.
• In 1980, T. Bone Burnett releases his first post–Alpha Band solo album, Truth Decay, a roots rock album described by the Rolling Stone Record Guide as "mystic Christian blues". In 1982, his Trap Door EP yielded the FM radio hit "I Wish You Could Have Seen Her Dance". His 1983 album Proof Through the Night, whose song "When the Night Falls" got some FM airplay, and his 1987 album The Talking Animals were more in the vein of 1980s new wave music, while his self-titled 1986 album was an album of acoustic country music.
• The Nobel Prize for Literature is awarded to Czesław Miłosz in 1980 and to William Golding in 1983.
• Temenos, a ‘Review devoted to the Arts of the Imagination’, is founded in 1981 by Professor Keith Critchlow (architect and geometer; d. 2020), Brian Keeble (publisher and writer), Kathleen Raine (poet and literary scholar; d. 2003) and Philip Sherrard (theologian and Hellenist; d. 1995).
• In 1981, Yoki Aebischer Emile co-founded the Museum of Stained Glass in Romont, which is now the Vitromusée.
• Julie and Buddy Miller marry in 1981. They first meet in 1976 in Austin when Buddy auditions for and plays in a band with Julie. They sing and play on each other's solo projects and record three duet albums. Many other artists record songs composed by Julie. ‘Fuelled by a spiritual quest that's both powerful and inspiring, Buddy and Julie Miller have created a musical style that stems from their unique combination of blue-eyed soul, sweet country charm, and rock & roll energy.’
• American folk punk band Violent Femmes are discovered by James Honeyman-Scott (of the Pretenders) on August 23, 1981, when the band was busking on a street corner in front of the Oriental Theatre, the Milwaukee venue that the Pretenders would be playing later that night. Chrissie Hynde invited them to play a brief acoustic set after the opening act. After their debut album Violent Femmes, the band released Hallowed Ground, which moved the group toward a country music sound and introduced Christian themes. Violent Femmes become one of the most successful rock bands of the 1980s and release ten studio albums over the course of their career.
• In 1983, a font of polished polyphant stone and beaten copper by John Skelton is installed at Chichester Cathedral.
• In 1983, the Sign of the Cross exhibition organised by Janusz Bogucki takes place in the church of God's Mercy in Warsaw.
• In 1983, Archimandrite Zenon begins work on the St Daniel Monastery in Moscow.
• In 1983, Jyoti Sahi sets up the Indian School of Art for Peace, with the idea of relating art to Indian spirituality.
• In 1983, Christian Art in Asia by Masao Takenaka is published by the World Council of Churches.
• Collections of writings by Marie-Alain Couturier are published: Art sacré (Houston: Menil Foundation/Herscher, 1983) and La Verité blessée (Paris: Plon, 1984).
• Geoffrey Hill devotes a long poem to Charles Péguy in 1984. The Mystery of the Charity of Charles Péguy evokes the title of Péguy’s most famous poem Le Mystère de la Charité de Jeanne d’Arc (1909). Hill also writes an enthusiastic appreciation of Péguy, whom he regards as a kindred spirit.
• Arvo Pärt's music comes to public attention in the West largely thanks to Manfred Eicher who records several of Pärt's compositions for ECM Records, starting in 1984.
• In 1984, 'Baptism' by Patrick Procktor is installed at Chichester Cathedral.
• In 1984, Apocalypse – The Light in the Darkness exhibition is organised by Janusz Bogucki.
• In 1985, a tapestry by Ursula Benker-Schirmir is installed in the retro-choir at Chichester Cathedral.
• In 1985, Jerzy Nowosielski revealed his full fascination with icon paintings through the publication of "Wokół ikony" / "Around the Icon".
• In 1986, John Muafangelo creates his print New Archbishop Desmond Tutu Enthroned.
• In 1986, William Hawkins paints Last Supper #6.
• Peter Case begins his solo career with a self-titled album released in 1986 on Geffen Records. Produced by T-Bone Burnett and Mitchell Froom, the record includes three songs co-written by Burnett and one by Victoria Williams (his then wife). In 1989, Case releases a second solo album, The Man With the Blue Post-Modern Fragmented Neo-Traditionalist Guitar. While not a major commercial success, the album is a favourite of critics and other musicians. Later songs include Drunkard's Harmony’, an exhilarating expression of seeing Jesus and ‘The Words in Red’, ‘the words that Jesus told’ which are ‘Worth the wait in the world of gold’.
• In 1987, Peter Fuller founds Modern Painters.
• In 1987, Andy Warhol’s final exhibition during his lifetime, Warhol—Il Cenacolo, features twenty-two of his Last Supper works and is staged in the refectory of Milan’s Palazzo delle Stelline, which then housed the bank Credito Valtellinese.
• On 4 June 1987 Dominique de Menil opens the Menil Collection building in Houston. Inside is one of the largest and most important private collections assembled in the 20th century, comprising more than 10,000 objects: Paleolithic bone carvings, Cycladic idols, Byzantine relics, African totems, and Oceanic effigies, as well as modernist masterpieces from Cézanne, Picasso, Braque, Magritte, Ernst, Calder, Rothko, Rauschenberg, Warhol, and Johns.
• In 1987, John and Jane Dillenberger publish ‘On Art and Architecture’ in which the range of Paul Tillich’s views on art and architecture is more fully covered than in othervolumes.
• Having signed to Megaforce Records in 1987, King's X release twelve studio albums, two official live albums, and several independent releases. They break into the mainstream with their first six albums, including their only top 100 charting albums Faith Hope Love (1990) and Dogman (1994). The band is pivotal in the early development of progressive metal, with lyrics largely based on the members' struggles with religion and self-acceptance.
• Described as being ‘Part front-porch soothsayer, part quirky bayou princess, and part eternal child’, Josh Kun says ‘Victoria Williams writes songs of indescribable originality that embrace the earthly and the divine with wit, charm, and understated vision’. Her albums, beginning with 1987’s Happy Come Home, are like little else in the world of popular music moving, as they do, through folk, country, gospel, and rock. Yet it took an MS diagnosis and 1993’s all-star fundraising album, Sweet Relief, to really make the wider world aware of William’s extraordinary talents.
• In 1988, 'Virgin and Child' by John Skelton is installed at Chichester Cathedral.
• In 1988, Archimandrite Zenon works on the St Seraphim side-chapel of the Trinity Cathedral Church of Pskov.
• In 1988, Images of Religion in Australian Art by Rosemary Crumlin and The Living Tree: Art and the Sacred by John Lane are published.
• In 1988, The Secret Rapture by David Hare is performed.
• In 1989, Labyrinth – The Underground Space exhibition is organised by Janusz Bogucki.
• In 1989, New York City’s Limited Editions Club commissions Jacob Lawrence to illustrate the first chapters of Genesis from the King James Version of the Bible.
• Image Journal is founded by Gregory Wolfe and Harold Fickett in 1989.

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Victoria Williams - Holy Spirit.