One of us

I've been asked what appropriate images of Christ there might be for use on a council housing estate parish in the Diocese of Carlisle. This raises issues as to why images that resonate with folk elsewhere shouldn't also resonate with those on council housing estates but is, in this case, I think simply a request for images of Christ with an urban context.

I suggested that the best place to start may be with Peter Howson. Howson has established a formidable reputation as one of his generation's leading figurative painters. Many of his paintings derive inspiration from the streets of Glasgow, where he was brought up. He is renowned for his penetrating and vigorous insight into the human condition, and his heroic portrayals of the mighty and meek.

Steven Berkoff has written that:

"Peter Howson's work tends to arrest you in your tracks; it grabs you by the throat and then leaves you feeling quite different to the way you were before. His bodies flow in a horrendous voluptuous twist of flesh, like think-coded branches of trees. They seem almost torn out of the earth itself; it's as if they were heaved from its bowels. He paints in a style that reminds you of Breughel and William Blake, using terrible mythic figures as he puts the modern world into his fables."

Examples of Howson's work can be found by clicking here and here. In a similar but possibly more ironic vein Kosta Kulundzic.

There is also a strand of contemporary art that sets Biblical stories and imagery in contemporary settings. There have been many Modern artists producing this kind of work from Stanley Spencer through Carel Weight to Betty Swanwick. Mark Cazalet is a good example of an artist working out of this tradition and using much urban imagery as he does so. Examples Can be found here, here, here, here, here and here.

Two books worth looking at in this vein are 'Angels of Soho' by Anna and Norman Adams and 'Allegories of Heaven' by Dinah Roe Kendall.

Albert Herbert was an artist with a powerful and original poetic vision. For five decades he consistently painted surprising and dream-like images—these seemingly naïve yet sophisticated paintings were the result of his life-long journey exploring 'what lies beneath the surface of the mind'. See a wonderful Passion painting here.

The website for the Asian Christian Art Association has a wide range of work grouped according to Biblical themes.

I am involved with a new arts organisation called commission4mission which aims to encourage the commissioning and placing of contemporary Christian Art in churches, as a means of fundraising for charities and as a mission opportunity for the churches involved. Henry Shelton is the founder of the organisation and examples of his work can be found here, here and here.

Temporary or public art can often work well in an urban setting as in projects with which I have been involved - see here, here, here and here. Finally, here is a contemporary resurrection image that I was involved in commissioning from Alan Stewart.

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Joan Osborne & Outta Control - One Of Us.

So sublime

On the 50th anniversary of the death of Georges Rouault (1871-1958), the Musée national d’art moderne at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris is showing twenty of Rouault’s paintings in a special exhibition.

I was fortunate to see these wonderful paintings last Thursday during a visit to the Centre Pompidou to review their Traces du Sacré exhibition. The selection focusses on the early years of his career (1905–1914), when he made his first paintings of women in front of the mirror, of sad-faced clowns, of sparkling landscapes but more of Rouault's works can also be seen in Traces du Sacré and in a room of unfinished, but still beautiful, works presented to the Museum following Rouault's death.

Rouault said: “The art that I seek would be the most profound, most complete and most moving expression of what one feels, faced with oneself and with ones fellow human beings.”

Another highlight was seeing the large number of works by Marc Chagall in the Museum collection and also his Homage to Apollinaire in Traces du Sacré.

Traces du Sacré is a significant exhibition both sociologically and artistically. Sociologically, because it recognises the re-emergence of religion (or decline of irreligion) in the 21st century and artistically, because it re-tells the story of Modern Art through its non-Christian spiritual influences. A fuller re-telling of that story, one which acknowledges and highlights the very real influences of Christianity on Modern and Contemporary Art still awaits a brave and informed contemporary curator. When that story is finally fully told, Rouault and Chagall will be prominent within it.

Outside the Centre Pompidou at the Serbian Cultural Centre, I also saw an exhibition by Kosta Kulundzic which included a number of contemporary settings for the Stations of the Cross. The Magda Gallery says that:

"Kulundzic concentrates his work on belief and mysticism in our society. Modern society produces myths and heroes. It offers a priceless quantity of idols and images related to the worship. Kosta uses these images to paint very actual mystical characters, altered divinities, who seem closer to us. They come from our everyday life. Working on texts from the Bible, the artist underlines that the same old story always goes on, and nothing really changes."

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Beth Rowley - So Sublime.