Getting to know the unknown

My latest exhibition review for Church Times is of Giorgio Griffa: A Continuous Becoming at Camden Arts Centre:

'Minimalist unfinished marks on parts of unframed canvases hung from tacks on white walls; this is the “poor art” of Giorgio Griffa, which is rich in meaning and beauty ...

His are the colours of the Mediterranean; light, airy, precise, pastel. Marks that give the appearance of doodles are, as his sketchbooks demonstrate, meticulously planned and executed. The rhythms and harmonies of his mark-making in space fashion the dynam­ism of his diagonals, curves, and rectangles.

The marks on his unfolded pinned canvases never extend across the whole — a decision that signs the unfinished nature of our under­standing and comprehension.'

I've also written about Griffa's use of the Golden Ratio in a feature article published by Artlyst.

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Mark Heard - Strong Hand Of Love.

commission4mission's latest commission - East window, All Saints Goodmayes

commission4mission recently completed its 13th commission, an East window at All Saints Goodmayes created by Henry Shelton and Richard Paton. The window will be dedicated in 2016 by our patron The Rt Revd Stephen Cottrell, Bishop of Chelmsford.

The window was made and installed by Richard Paton to a design by Henry Shelton. Richard and Henry have previously worked together on commission4mission commissions at All Saints Hutton where they created two sets of etched glass windows.Henry’s colourful abstract design for the three light East window features, in his inimitable minimal style, imagery representing the Holy Trinity. Henry is a member of the congregation and previously created etched glass windows for the Reindorp Chapel at All Saints.

The window commemorates the 100th Anniversary of the church and has been funded, in part, by donations from the congregation in memory of loved ones.

Richard Paton says: “The last few weeks has seen the making and fitting of a new East Window at All Saints Church, Goodmayes celebrating the church’s Centenary. This very colourful design by Henry Shelton symbolises the Holy Trinity (God the Father, Jesus & the Holy Ghost) depicted in just 3 lines. The space inside has been transformed from anonymous small square glass making a large space more intimate and warm.”

Richard Paton has over 20 years experience working with glass. When he is not creating works of art in glass, he teaches glass-making classes in the various techniques, passing on his tips, tricks and considerable knowledge to others. Also in 2015, using Craigie Aitchison’s final design, he made a window for the Prayer Chapel in St Martins in the Bull Ring and a 3 meter high stained glass window set into a light box hung on the wall of a North London Synagogue depicting an 11th Century poem visualised in a design by Michael Hall.

Richard graduated from Liverpool with a BA (Hons) in Fine Art in 1990 and was awarded an MA in Visual Culture at Middlesex University in 1998. He is a self-taught stained glass artist with 20 years in the trade who started Rainbow Glass Studios, based in Stoke Newington, North London, in 2001. In that time Richard has had hundreds of commissions which have required different techniques and designs to fulfil very diverse briefs. These range from corporate work to individual commissions from the rich and famous through to work in churches. The variety of glass techniques at his disposal uniquely puts him at an advantage to explore interesting and original work. He teaches regularly at his studio on weekday evenings and runs Saturday workshops for beginners. His work has been featured on TV and at the National Gallery. He is also on the committee for the Contemporary Glass Society who promote the work of glass artists.

Henry Shelton is a noted painter of religious art in a contemporary style. He trained as an apprentice draughtsman in a London studio developing his drawing skills in lettering and fine art. After 15 years he set up his own studio receiving many commissions from such clients as the Science Museum, borough councils, private and corporate bodies. He then worked designing in studios across the world, including Hong Kong and the USA.

Throughout this time and up to the present he has painted Christian art and his commissions include an Ascension installed as an altarpiece in the Church of the Saviour, Chell Heath; the Millennium clock tower in Goodmayes, and the memorial etched-glass windows in All Saints Church, Goodmayes, depicting events in the life of Jesus. In 2007 he had a one-man exhibition in York Minister of the Stations of the Cross. Most recently, he has completed commissions for St Luke’s Chapel in Queens Hospital Romford, a contemporary set of Stations of the Crown of Thorns for St Paul’s Goodmayes and etched glass windows for All Saints Hutton.

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Moby - Almost Home.

Greg Tricker: Revelation ~ Sacred Art, Sacred Music

Today I had the opportunity to visit Piano Nobile at King's Place which is "presenting a collection of paintings, sculpture and stained glass by contemporary artist Greg Tricker, Revelation ~ Sacred Art, Sacred Music explores moments of divine manifestation and the power of visionary illuminations. A series of inspirational figures upon whom Tricker works in cyclical series, such as Maria, Mother of God, John the Divine, St Francis of Assisi, Joan of Arc and Anne Frank, draw us into intimate contemplation, these iconic images become beacons of light and hope.

Tricker's profound and sincere style of work is deeply entwined with the sacred artistic tradition, for which the artist has gained international recognition. Recent series of work have been exhibited at Westminster Cathedral, Gloucester Cathedral, Peterborough Cathedral, Salisbury Cathedral and, most recently, Rhiems Cathedral in 2013.

Revelation ~ Sacred Art, Sacred Music runs in conjunction with a series of performances of John Tavener’s compositions as part of the Minimalism Unwrapped musical programme. Like Tricker, Tavener turned to sacred iconic imagery, believing that when an iconic image is seen with the ‘eye of the heart’ rather than the intellect the icon can speak to something deep within us. His compositions in music could at times be seen as creating an icon through sound.

Tricker and Tavener have both been repeatedly drawn to the presence of the eternal feminine. For Tavener, the Mother of God, the inspiration for such masterpieces as The Protecting Veil, is the ultimate representation of the eternal feminine: nurturing, gentle, noble, generous and divinely beautiful. In Tricker’s work, the eternal feminine is revealed through a legacy of reverent and spiritual women; Maria, Bernadette of Lourdes, St Bride, Joan of Arc and Anne Frank embody for Tricker the pure essence of the eternal feminine. It is through these devout figures that Tricker sounds a visionary trumpet-call in a world in turmoil, his works are icons of light speaking of the innate dignity within each one of us."

In my review of Tricker's The Christ Journey for Art & Christianity, I wrote:

"Greg Tricker has described his work as an uncovering of latent images with these emergent images being discovered and freed as he carves or paints. Inspiration, for him, is like “being handed down buckets of fire from above,” that must be passed on. Quietly listening, he sees into his materials sensing the arrival of images as he reaches “a threshold, a possibility point, between what becomes broken and discarded, and a discovery that brings a sense of purpose, shapes reality.”

With these origins it is probably no surprise that his images have been understood as developing the mystical tradition in modern British art pursued by Eric Gill, Cecil Collins and others in the last century. For me, the style and spirit of Marc Chagall and Ken Kiff more readily come to mind."

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Victoria Williams - Why Look At the Moon.

Joseph Cornell: Aesthetic experience as a manifestation of spirit

'From a basement in New York, Joseph Cornell channelled his limitless imagination into some of the most original art of the 20th century.' 

'Wanderlust at the RA brings together 80 of Cornell’s most remarkable boxes, assemblages, collages and films, some never before seen outside the USA. Entirely self-taught, the independence of Cornell’s creative voice won the admiration of artists from Marcel Duchamp and the Surrealists, to Robert Motherwell and the Abstract Expressionists, with echoes of his work felt in Pop and Minimalist art.

Wanderlust is a long overdue celebration of an incomparable artist, a man the New York Times called “a poet of light; an architect of memory-fractured rooms and a connoisseur of stars, celestial and otherwise.”'

When he was in his twenties, Joseph Cornell learned about Christian Science and became a devout follower of the religion, as he believed it had cured him of recurring stomach ailments.

Richard Vine notes that 'the teachings of Christian Science and membership of the Christian Science church "provided Cornell ... with a clarity essential to his sanity and his art - the certainty, despite everyday trials and confusions, of ultimate cosmic harmony within the all-encompassing Mind of God."'

Sandra Leonard Starr writes that Cornell 'begins with the finite reality of the object, proves the unreality of it and our seeing it as such, and arrives at a statement of aesthetic experience as a manifestation of spirit.'

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Al Green - How Great Thou Art.

Passion: pictures, poems and prayers

Jesus dies on the cross

The sun is eclipsed, early nightfall,
darkness covers the surface of the deep,
the Spirit grieves over the waters.
On the formless, empty earth, God is dead.

Through the death of all we hold most dear, may we find life. Amen.

Henry Shelton and I have just published our second set of images and meditations on the Passion narrative.

Our first set entitled Mark of the Cross (available in booklet, presentation, and individual images formats) has proved a popular download from the 12baskets site for user contributed worship resources and can be purchased by clicking here.

Our second set comes initially as a double-sided A3 sheet with all the images, haiku-like meditations and prayers laid out in sequence for ease of devotional use.

These pictures, poems and prayers enable us to follow Jesus on his journey to the cross reflecting both on the significance and the pain of that journey as we do so.

Henry and I have aimed in these reflections to pare down the images and words to their emotional and theological core. The mark making and imagery is minimal but, we hope, in a way that makes maximum impact.

Each sheet costs £3.50, plus £1.20 p&p per purchase. To purchase copies, send a cheque made out to commission4mission to Rev. J. Evens, St John's Seven Kings, St Johns Road, Ilford, Essex IG2 7BB or email to jonathan.evens@btinternet.com for more information.

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Larry Norman - Be Careful What You Sign.

ArtWay Meditation: Reto Scheiber

This weeks ArtWay meditation written by Johannes Manz is of particular interest as it focuses on works by Reto Scheiber utilising minimal imagery to explore belief.

Scheiber is a freelance artist and designer, who lives and works in Basel, Switzerland. After his studies at the College of Colour Design in Zürich from 2000-2003, he worked as a designer, creating numerous projects in the area of art within architecture as well as complete architectural designs. In 2006–2007 he studied fine art at the University of the Arts London/Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, where he obtained a Master of Fine Arts. He has taken part in solo and group exhibitions in England and Switzerland . He works in various visual art forms, such as painting, sculpture, video, photography and installations.   

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Blind Boys of Alabama - Free At Last.

Appropriate public thanksgiving?

The exhibition of Mexican miracle paintings at the Wellcome Collection (Infinitas Gracias) got me reflecting on the differences between Latin Catholic expressions of faith and those of Western Protestantism.
Usually commissioned from local artists by the petitioner, votive paintings tell immediate and intensely personal stories, from domestic dramas to revolutionary violence, through which a markedly human history of communities and their culture can be read. The votives are intimate records of the tumultuous dramas of everyday life - lightning strikes, gunfights, motor accidents, ill-health and false imprisonment - in which saintly intervention was believed to have led to survival and reprieve.

Votives are gestures of thanksgiving, examples of public gratitude for survival, something that we don't do well in the Western Church where public memorials are either reserved for the wealthy or are controversial when they reflect popular culture. Thousands of these small paintings line the walls of Mexican churches. This, again, would seem to be something that we value in other cultures but which consider as anathema in our own Western churches where minimalism rules and the naïve is undervalued.

The regulations governing churchyards and churches (including the otherwise excellent new guidelines from the Church Buildings Council) would seem to specifically exclude from our churches any local expression of the type of art which is being celebrated through Infinitas Gracias. It may be worth the CBC, DACs and other bodies concerned with the upkeep of churchyards and churches to consider how they would respond to requests for naïve or folk art should these arise.

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Bob Dylan - Senor (Tales Of Yankee Power).

Capel Manor - MU trip

Today's MU trip from St John's Seven Kings was to Capel Manor Gardens; 30 acres of gardens to explore including:

• Old Manor House Garden (opened by the Queen in June 2010)
• Family Friendly Garden (a 2010 Chelsea Flower Show Gold Medal Winner)
• Italianate Maze
• 17th Century Walled Garden
• Japanese Garden
• Le Jardin de Vincent (Chelsea Flower Show winner)
• Georgian Manor House and Victorian Stables
• Sunflower Street
• Plant collections including Scented Pelargoniums, Chrysanthemums, Salvias and the National Collection of Sarcococca
• Which? Gardening trial gardens

I particularly liked the minimalist and Growing Together In Faith gardens.

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Larry Norman - Nightmare #71.

Exhibition: Alan Stewart (2)

Tonight I was at the opening night of Alan Stewart's exhibition at St Mary Hertingfordbury. It was a well attended evening and Alan's work proved popular with those who came. The exhibition continues tomorrow at 4.00pm.

I was impressed once again with the fluency of Alan's mark making. He possesses an intuitive ability to make right choices as he applies charcoal or pastels, an ability which is seen most clearly when his work is at its most minimal and every mark matters. He consistently blurs the borders between figuration and abstraction, an approach which he has also carried over into recent experiments with oils. This exhibition, with its landscape focus, was at the commercial end of Alan's work and included work of abstract beauty and evocative minimalism.

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Fleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal.