Art that depicts biblical scenes and art that looks at the world with new eyes

The ArtWay December 2013 newsletter highlights the dilemma or both/and that currently bedevils all Christian Arts organisations. Research into young Dutch Christian artists showed that although "the notion of ‘Christian art’ is often associated with art that depicts biblical scenes, the artists ... investigated turned out to focus mainly on other themes, while the link with their faith [was] present in a more indirect manner':

'As to style, media and approach their works displayed a rich variety. Only some of them, to a very limited extent, worked for the church, or, indeed, for a specifically Christian audience. Their concern is to be present in the middle of society.  They desire to show beauty, inspire, prompt reflection and make people look at the world with new eyes. For these artists art is not a form of evangelism. They welcome the multi-layered character of art and leave room for different interpretations.'
   

ArtWay seeks to encourage churches opening up to art and artists opening up to the church: 'For the more conservative Reformed world in The Netherlands art in the church is a new development, while the mainline Protestant and the Catholic churches are happy to receive a new stimulus in this area.' Yet for this engagement to occur, artists are needed who are willing to work for the church and specifically Christian audiences and to create, at least at times, art that depicts biblical scenes.

 

Most Christian Art organisations end up focussing their attention on one side or the other of this dilemma but, for all of us, both should have real significance and value.

 

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Energy Orchard - King Of Love.

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).