Between: beuys

Showing posts with label beuys. Show all posts

Saturday, 3 September 2022

Artlyst - Spiritual Joseph Beuys Plus More: September Diary

My latest diary piece for A rtlyst has mentions of Joseph Beuys, Mathias Goeritz, Wallace Berman, David Miller, Idris Murphy, Colin McCahon, Yvette Coppersmith, Roger Kemp and Vasily Kandinsky:

‘Telushkin concludes by sharing a portion of a letter written by Kandinsky in 1913 where he “mused about the similar avenues of rupture and rebirth that religion and art offer”:

“Art in many respects resembles religion. Its development consists not of new discoveries that obliterate old truths and stamp them as false (as is apparently the case in science). Its development consists in moments of sudden illumination, resembling a flash of lightning, of explosions that burst in the sky like fireworks, scattering a whole ‘bouquet’ of different colored stars around them. This illumination reveals with blinding clarity new perspectives … the continuing growth of earlier wisdom, which is not canceled out by the latter, but remains living and productive as truth and as wisdom. Christ, in his own words, came not to overthrow the old law, [but] he transformed the old material law into his own spiritual law. In this way, I have since come to conceive of nonobjective painting not as a negation of all previous art. I have always been put out by assertions that I intended to overthrow the old tradition of such painting.”

Kandinsky’s argument regarding the synergies between developments in religion and those in art might just be a thread connecting all those artists and movements that have been considered in this piece.'

See here for my review of David Miller's 'Some Other Shadows'.

My other pieces for Artlyst are:

Interviews -

Articles -

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David Miller and SpiritWORK - Voice.

Friday, 22 July 2022

Church Times - Betty Spackman: The art and the conversation

My latest feature article for Church Times is an interview with Betty Spackman surveying her career and work:

'“In some branches of — particularly Protestant — Christianity, there has been a history of discouraging, or even disallowing, involvement in the arts, particularly the visual arts, and for my generation it was a very difficult struggle to find affirmation as an artist of faith. Thankfully, there is now more freedom and acceptance of the arts in the Church — but, of course, now there are new issues to deal with.”

While not a pioneer in the art world, in Christian circles “I was perhaps one of the early artists of faith exploring some of these things — and was pretty alone at the time.” People such as the German artist Joseph Beuys were “among many who brought together all the things I love: material, performance, social engagement, installation, etc.”.

Such artists “were a constant inspiration, and were challenging both intellectually and artistically”, but were already on her radar, “because these were ways I was already beginning to work”.'

Read my Artlyst interview with Betty Spackman here and a diary piece including her latest work 'A Creature Chronicle' here.

My other feature articles for Church Times are here, here, here, and here.

Other of my pieces for Church Times can be found here. My writing for ArtWay can be found here. My pieces for Artlyst are here and those for Art+Christianity are here. See also Modern religious art: airbrushed from art history?

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Carolyn Ahrends - Becoming Human.

Saturday, 18 June 2022

The Artist as Truth-Teller and the Legacy of French Artist Georges Rouault

The Artist as Truth-Teller and the Legacy of French Artist Georges Rouault was an Association of Scholars of Christianity in the History of Art symposium at Institut Catholique de Paris in honour of the recent 150th anniversary of the birth of French modernist Georges Rouault.

Many contemporary artists regard their work as having a moral as well as an aesthetic function. They conceive of the artist as a visual truth-teller who exposes social and spiritual injustice, and through their work these artists envision a more perfect world. This prophetic role for the artist can, in part, be rooted in figures of Jewish and Christian prophets, from Abraham, Moses, and Isaiah to John the Baptist, Stephen, and others. These prophets model a non-cynical intersection of spiritual purpose and material action that continues to inspire artists to work both within and beyond the studio/gallery/museum with a belief that art can call a reimagined reality into being.

The symposium featured presentations exploring the work of post-World War II artists whose work can be understood in relation to a Judeo-Christian model of prophetic social and spiritual action, such as that taken up by French modernist Georges Rouault. The presentations in the symposium focused on artists and theorists who extend and expand this legacy of Rouault.

The keynote presentation on The Artist as Truth Teller: From Georges Rouault to the Present was given by Prof. Jérôme Cottin (Université de Strasbourg).

The other presentations included:

Christine Gouzi (Université Paris-Sorbonne), “Georges Rouault, de la peinture à l’écriture: Soliloques d’un peintre”
Denis Hétier (Institut Catholique de Paris), “L’ordre intérieur de l’artiste: Vers une réflexion théologique sur Georges Rouault et Pie-Raymond Regamey”
William Dyrness (Fuller Theological Seminary), “Maritain and Rouault: Who Influenced Whom? A study of Literary and Visual Relationships”
Julie Hamilton (Foundation for Spirituality and the Arts), “Georges Rouault’s Rebellion: Empathy as Social Critique”
Pierre-Emmanuel Perrier de la Bâthie (Institut Catholique de Paris), “L’artiste comme prophète en son temps: Les références chrétiennes dans l’œuvre de Joseph Beuys”
Jonathan Evens (Wickford and Runwell Team Ministry), “True Humility is Not Mediocrity”
Monica Keska (University of Granada), “Go Down Moses: Biblical Imagery in the Works of Aaron Douglas”
James Romaine (Lander University), “Validating Experiences: Romare Bearden’s Creative Purpose”
Linda Stratford (Asbury University), “George Rouault’s Legacy of Artistic Mediation and Spiritual Purpose”

In my paper entitled ‘True humility is not mediocrity’ I explored the influence of Rouault on the life and work of André Girard. I discovered the work of Girard through Christianity in Art by Frank and Dorothy Getlein, a book which views Rouault as being ‘the twentieth century artist above all others who fused into one monumental testament all the elements of the social revolution and the new Christianity.’ Girard, as student and friend of Rouault, was seen by the Getlein’s as developing “the first move of Christian art toward the universal audience of today.”

Although he enjoyed considerable recognition in his own day and time, the reputation of Girard has diminished with time, unlike that of Rouault. As a result, his work is ripe for rediscovery. In this paper, in addition to highlighting key strands of Rouault’s influence on Girard such as humility and risk taking, I explored some of the reasons why Rouault’s work transcends his age, while that of Girard seems to remain within his. Additionally, I shared the contrasts in their work noted by their friend André Suares - penitence and affirmation.

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Erik Satie - Messe de Pauvres.

Friday, 1 May 2015

Faith is creativity itself

'Religious faith enables multiple expressions of an inner life. It lives in liturgy, prayer, and the experience of community. Who lives in faith finds refuge in God, gives God room in the maze of darkness and light, of doubt, temptation and (ultimately) assent. Faith is creativity itself, nourished by the inspiration and rapture that flows from the very source of life.'

'For over thirty years the Jesuit Friedhelm Mennekes has been involved with exhibitions at the crossroads between art and religion. From an historical standpoint, such juxtaposition seems entirely natural. However, he introduces works of art of our time into old and new churches – a gesture that elicits broad discussion. From one side he is praised and from another blamed, yet he steadfastly goes his way.  

Mennekes has been engaged in many discussions with artists through exhibitions and lectures that address this vital relationship of creative expression and experienced religion, such as Donald Baechler, Joseph Beuys, Christian Boltanski, James Brown, James Lee Byars, Francis Bacon, Eduardo Chillida, Marlene Dumas, Jenny Holzer, Anish Kapoor, Barbara Kruger, Arnulf Rainer, David Salle, Cindy Sherman, Andreas Slominski, Antoni Tàpies, Rosemarie Trockel, and Bill Viola among others.'

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Violent Femmes - Love, Love, Love, Love.

Monday, 14 December 2009

Steve Scott dialogues 1 - Nicholas Bourriaud

As a result of an enquiry about commission4mission I've been dialoguing recently with artist and musician Steve Scott. Steve has agreed to samples of our musings being posted here, hopefully in order to initiate wider conversation on the ideas we are discussing.

Our discussions were kicked off by my providing links to information about commission4mission plus links to my Airbrushed from Art History series and posts on the public art projects involving local churches with which I have been involved.

Steve replied with information about the Christian Artist's Networking Association, two of his books (Crying for a Vision and Like a House on Fire) plus the CD from his collaboration with painter Gaylen Stewart some years back consisting of Stewart's paintings and collages and Steve's poetry over sound loops of synthesizers and digitally manipulated birdsong.

Steve also sent a magazine piece from 2007 which drew upon CANA's 2005 conference in Bali for its discussion of the place(s) of the arts in the church and asked whether I was familiar with Nicolas Bourriaud whose Relational Aesthetics appeared in 2002. Steve noted that while he's published more work since, his main claim to fame these days is that he is the Gubelkian Curator of Contemporary Art at Tate Britain. He said that he regards "the overlap of `relational' / `social aesthetic' theories and the public art projects and move towards community regeneration somewhat auspicious."

I responded that I'm aware of Bourriaud without having read any of his books. I'm also interested in relationality and interconnectivity generally and relational aesthetics is clearly in that ball park. More recently Bourriaud has been asking what is relationality and connectivity for; which would seem a question that Christians might well want to answer. I would agree with you that relational aesthetics has interesting connections to public art as Bourriaud talks about "art that allows its audience to exist in the space opened up by it". The idea that "art is a space of images, objects, and human beings" would also have resonance in a Christian sense in terms of the space of participation that worship can offer. All this talk of the space created by art seems to link with your summary of David Summers' book (Real Spaces) while your emphasis, in your Radix article, on the use of art in community transformation would also seem relevant to the idea that the viewer participates in the space opened up by the art and can, in some fashion, complete the work.

When I was corresponding with Richard Davey he argued that relational aesthetics was part of an art world which sees the world as a hyper-real, space of irony - something which is antipathetic to a perspective intrigued by transcendent possibilities. But when Bourriaud asks the 'What for' question - "The question we might raise today is, Connecting people, creating interactive, communicative experience: What for? What does the new kind of contact produce? If you forget the "what for?" I'm afraid you're left with simple Nokia art--producing interpersonal relations for their own sake and never addressing their political aspects" - he doesn't seem to be speaking ironically.

Steve responded with a reference to Bourriaud's `post production' book, the one in which he, sort of `redeems' or at least acquiesces to the idea that we have no privileged or primary relationship with `nature' (contra the Romantic/Modernist perspective) but argues that its all `mediated' and socially constructed. His optimal artist has learned how to surf (as it were) the somewhat constructed nature of things (his paradigms are the computer programmer and the mix and mash turntablist DJ) to make a somewhat fluid globally relatable art.

His recent `Altermodernities' at Tate Britain pushed the idea and the theory further and he's arguing for an `aesthetics of diversity' in the shadow of Victor Segalen (traveler/exote). Both positions; the relational aesthetic, and the altermodern are utopian (therefore doomed) but redeemable, Steve thinks, as metaphors for what `we' of the culturally diverse living temple (in which, according to Haggai, the glory of our latter days will exceed the former) can begin to accomplished, be it reformation, revival or renaissance.

Steve also sent a copy of a `relational paradise' paper which critiques Bourriaud in ways that resonated slightly with the way one of the sources (Spiked) quoted in my piece on art and regeneration took on the public art projects /funding in Barking.

I replied that I had skim read the 'relational paradise' paper and thought that Bourriaud's ideas as described in the paper held up more strongly than did the critique.

I gave a couple of 'off-the-top-of-the-head' thoughts in response. First, Bourriaud would initially have been responding to work by artists which seemed to him to be primarily about the exploration of relationships. Relational aesthetics would have begun as description and explanation of such works rather than being a theory which may or may not support Western capitalism. Bourriaud, in his writings over time, may well have developed 'relational aesthetics' into such a theory but I think Svetlichnaja has lost sight of its origins as a explanation of common elements in the works of individual artists.

Second, there would seem to be many resonances between what are essentially 'happenings' which involve the viewer as participant (indeed, which move those who are other than the artist from viewer to participant), the art created by 'relational' artists, and what happens in church services. The Eucharist is a happening which is only completed by the congregation becoming participants and which only has meaning as this occurs. The Eucharist can only proceed if the president receives responses from the congregation to the Eucharistic Prayer and the point and culmination of the Eucharist is when the congregation take the body and blood of Christ into their own bodies. A theological analysis of relationships at this point should conclude that the body of Christ has been both dispersed and gathered among and by the receiving church community. There are significant parallels to the description of Rikrit Tiravanija's shared meal installation in Svetlichnaja's paper.

It is my belief that as Christians we should be seeking to create temporary signs of the Kingdom of God which can be experienced by those in our community but which are only tasters for the fullness of the Kingdom which is yet to come. The Eucharist is the central example of such signs which, as David Jones consistently stated, have to participate in the reality which is being signed in order to have validity and meaning. Again, there would be significant parallels to Bourriaud's idea of an endless succession of actions (or 'space-time elements') in which a temporary collective is formed by means of which fairer social relations are permitted together with more compact ways of living and many different combinations of fertile experience. To critique this on the basis that it does not engage with anger and violence is to wilfully ignore its basis as a response to and reaction away from anger and violence. To create a means by which people experience an alternative to anger and violence would seem a wholly positive action, unless one is wedded to the benefits and emotions generated by anger and violence.

Steve replied: "I would agree with all this and like the fact that it is rooted in Christian mystery rather than the materialist framework that Bourriaud evinces. Bourriaud and co including the Thai artist echo something which is either a foretaste of or evidence of a hunger for something of relationality which is grounded in community (or becomes constituted as `sign' by community response) and also points beyond it and so, yes, in the background is David Jones who is offering the tribal diversites of pre Roman Britain as part of a sacramental re membering and also the late Peter Fuller's lament of the loss of a shared symbolic vocabulary in the arts that faith at one point provided (and the resulting vacuum led to a market driven `international style' and postmodern smorgasboard approach).

The people `spiked plus that critique paper' that try and punch holes in what they perceive as vulnerabilities in the model don't take into consideration the other dimensions of community, those provided by faith and/or signs, and therefore can't see or value what's in front of them."

He agreed that relational aesthetics would have begun as description and explanation of art works rather than being a theory which may or may not support Western capitalism: "Very true. He says as much in interviews. The stuff he wrote grew out of his experience as curator in the 90s. While he is popularly identified with framing the theory I think he would acknowledge that it was more ad hoc (`as you go') and also that there are precedents and parallels elsewhere. There's a Danish Curator, Lars Bang Larsen, who framed a `social aesthetic' and talked about community projects in Copenhagen, for example. Then there's the slightly different `Social Sculpture' of Joseph Beuys and, as we're `this side' of the overarching metanarratives it might be misguided of us to measure Bourriaud's developing theory and praxis in the shadow of an obsolescent social or economic theory.

He noted that rather than developing 'relational aesthetics' into a theory, Bourriaud actually moved on to `post production' and then `altermodernity' as takes on his thinking. But he thought that the drawing of a tentantive or context specific theory based on shared commonalities of case studies and then redeeming it, or re rooting it (as I did) in both community and `Coming Kingdom' soil is the way to go.

Also of interest to Steve at this point was Loraine Leeson's allusion in a recent interview to the profound impact that a conflict resolution workshop (offered in Newham, he thought) had on her approach to art. This seemed to resonate with my last point about alternative responses.

In replying I wondered whether the sense of redeeming a materialist theory or reading of art which we have been discussing doesn't help to do to fill the gap that Fuller laments (the loss of a shared symbolic vocabulary in the arts that faith at one point provided) and whether it links to Lesslie Newbigin's argument that conflict between two views “will not be settled on the basis of logical argument”. Instead “[t]he view will prevail that is seen to offer – both in theory and practice – the widest rationality, the greatest capacity to give meaning to the whole of experience”. I have posted a series on Newbigin's argument here under the heading of 'A plausible plausibility structure'.

I have argued that this wider rationality is what is found in the Bible and in the art of David Jones, T.S. Eliot and Marc Chagall where diverse fragments are linked together to form a whole that is more than the sum of its parts (I've explored this in a series of posts called 'Allusive and elusive' which can be found here). When this is the case, I think that the diversity which characterises postmodernism doesn't have to be viewed purely as a smorgasbord but can be understood as something more integrated - a mega-narrative providing a wider rationality - but without creating an overarching meta-narrative (see here).

Steve noted that Fuller was an atheist, a lapsed believer who had kicked free of what he felt was an unreflective childhood faith. He lamented it a bit in one of the essays included in in `Images of God.' He said that he had had an all too brief chat with Fuller at the Institute of Contemporary Art in 1983. Fuller had been giving a talk with Roger Scruton. Fuller was well on his way `center of left' contra the marxism/sociology of art of the late 60s under John Berger. He was beginning (or perhaps was well into) articulating a bio social aesthetic - Italian thinker Timpanaro - while his critique of postmodernism (as it manifests in the arts) reminded Steve of what he'd read about the broad left approach to those ideas and practices (Fredric Jameson, Christopher Norris) and probably also resonates with where Bourriaud is coming from. Although I thought that Fuller would be upset at some of Bourriaud's choices re: `Altermodern' art.

The chat with Fuller was all too brief because Steve asked him if he'd heard of Hans Rookmaaker. Yes he had, no he wasn't (a believer), end of story, and very much the end of the conversation.

Another relevant writer that Steve mentioned at this point is Roger Grainger: "I have `Watching for Wings' and `Place like this' on my shelves from way back when but, on a whim, I just googled him and turned up a cornucopia of more recent stuff on drama, liturgy and the like."
I hadn't come across him before but had just been looking at the blurb for 'The Drama of the Rite' which looks very interesting and might connect with some of what we were discussing about the structure of and participation in the Eucharist.

Steve replied: "Amazing. Grainger came across my mind this morning, mainly in the context of his early work in doing theology in a psychological setting and now, latterly, I see a whole bunch of material on healing drama/liturgy and so on reminding me a little bit of the context and function of the Isenheim Altarpiece as described by Andrée Hayum in her book on Grünewald."

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Steve Scott - No Memory of You.