South Africa: the art of a nation

In his review of Martin Scorsese’s Silence, John Patterson comments that ‘Christianity is one of the Big B’s of violent colonial intrusion – Bullet, Bottle, Bacillus, Bible.’ (‘A test of faith’, J. Patterson, guide 31 Dec – 6 Jan 2017) This succinctly outlines the issues with which the curators of South Africa: the art of a nation have to grapple when it comes to exploring the influences later religions have had on South African art. They do so with rather more nuance, subtlety and grace than Patterson manages in his review.

As is the case with Shusaku Endo’s novel on which Scorsese’s film is based, artists in South Africa exploring aspects of religion have done so within their own culture and, as a result, what we view and discuss cannot simply be dismissed, as Patterson seeks to do, as alien poisons. The curators of South Africa: the art of a nation tackle these complexities from several angles. They showcase artworks indicative of indigenous beliefs as well as positive examples from later religions of engagement with the Arts, whilst also balancing confessional artwork with art which questions religion from within the belief system of the religions questioned.

This is the first major UK exhibition to use objects to tell the story of South Africa’s art heritage and history over 3 million years, including rock art images which often depict shaman (or spiritual leaders) entering trance-like states while dancing, giving them the power to heal the sick, overpower evil spirits and summon rain. This modest but astonishing exhibition includes some of the earliest known human artworks and iconic pre-colonial art from southern Africa. It also explores the impact of nonAfrican artistic influences and traditions from the 17th century onwards, showcases 20th century apartheid ‘resistance art’, and celebrates the contemporary art of post-apartheid transformation.

When the history of modern art in South Africa is examined, as here, the influence of Christian missionaries cannot be overlooked. Rasheed Araeen described Ernest Mancoba as ‘Africa’s most original modern artist’ and noted that ‘he enters the space of modernism formed and perpetuated by the colonial myth of white racial supremacy and superiority and demolishes it from within.’ Mancoba’s missionary training, however, was typical for ‘that magnificent generation’ (to use Mancoba’s own words) of ‘pioneer modern artists in South Africa that included Gerard Sekoto (a close friend and colleague of Mancoba) and George Milwa Pemba.’ ‘These artists were all, to a greater or lesser extent, educated and Christianised members of a small but influential African middle class that espoused the Victorian liberal values inculcated by their missionary training.’

Rather than highlighting the work of Mancoba, this exhibition shows the influence of the Evangelical Lutheran Church Art and Craft Centre at Rorke’s Drift, which together with Polly Street Art Centre and the Thupelo workshops, was ‘vitally important to the development of new artists.’ The legacy of these centres ‘lives on in South Africa’s contemporary art scene.’ (South Africa the art of a nation, J. Giblin & C. Spring, Thames & Hudson / The British Museum, 2016) Rorke’s Drift ‘became one of the most important institutions for black South African artists during apartheid,’ with Emma Dammann, Lionel Davis, BongiDhlomo, Avhashoni Mainganye, Philda Majozi, Kasigo Patrick Mautloa, AzariaMbatha, Elizabeth Mbatha, Gordon Mbatha, John Muafangejo, Sam Nhlengethwa, Anthony Nkotsi, Mpolokeng Ramphomane, Joel Sibisi, Paul Sibisi, Velile Soha and Vuminkosi Zulu all having taught or studied there. Works by Davis, Muafangejo and Nhlengethwa are all included within the exhibition, as are works from Helen Mmakgabo Sebidi and the Siyazama Project which utilize Christian imagery in the context of struggles with apartheid and HIV/Aids.

Rorke’s Drift was far from being a one-off however. Sister Pientia Selhorst of the Congregation of the Precious Blood as well as other Christian missions, including the Ndaleni Teachers’ Training College and Mariannhill Art School, all made their contribution towards the provision of access to opportunities for art education.

As a means of exploring the positive and negative legacies of Christianity in South Africa, the curators examine the work of Jackson Hlungwani and Willem Boshoff. Hlungwani was ordained in the African Zionist Church and founded New Jerusalem, a church at the site of an ancient hilltop settlement where he carved monumental wood sculptures of animals, warriors and Biblical figures. His Christ with football indicates the essential humanity of Christ, as a man for all peoples. Boshoff’s Bad Faith Chronicles skewer thirty-six very small baby dolls through the heart, like insects, labelled and displayed on a collector's chart. The labels bear the names of Old Testament nations who had lost their land and lives in ancient Israel. Below each collection is a Bible in an official South African language, opened at Psalm 111:6, which in an English translation reads: "He has given His people the power of His works, giving them the lands of other nations.” Boshoff’s work is ‘an angry response to the way in which Christian churches colluded with the apartheid regime, and to how the Bible was used to justify apartheid.’

Fiona Rankin-Smith has noted that ‘the immense and often unfathomable topic of faith is frequently debated in the public sphere in South Africa’, including its political history. The 2006 Figuring Faith exhibition that she curated provided multiple depictions of the symbols, people and places associated with belief. William Kentridge, whose work features in South Africa: the art of a nation, spoke at the opening of Figuring Faith saying that the works showed that ‘we are incurably en route’ between ‘a quotidian, every day reality and the world of mystery and transcendence beyond.’ This journey is ultimately what is depicted in South Africa: the art of a nation. The very activity of making the work’, Kentridge suggests, ‘involves the artist in a journey of going from what is known to what is glimpsed at, half understood and tentatively approached within the work.’ (Figuring Faith, ed. F. Rankin-Smith, Fourthwall Books, Johannesburg, 2006)    

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Soweto Gospel Choir - Thina Simnqobile.

Beyond 'Airbrushed from Art History' (3)

Caribbean Art contains a chapter covering Popular religion, festival arts and the visionary which includes the following:

"Two aspects of popular culture, the religions and the festival arts, are particularly important to the visual arts, as subjects and as sources of artistic production in their own right …

Philomé Obin … was a devout Protestant and primarily a secular artist … Obin’s best-known religious works are his contributions to the mural cycle at the Episcopal Cathedral of the Holy Trinity (1950-51) in Port-au-Prince.

The Holy Trinity mural project was executed by the major ‘primitives’ attached to the Centre d’Art at the time. It was initiated and directed by Selden Rodman and enthusiastically supported by Bishop Alfred Voegeli, an early patron of the Haitian art movement. The first section to be completed was the apse, with three major murals, The Nativity, The Crucifixion and The Ascension by Rigaud Benoit, Philomé Obin and Castera Bazile, respectively. Despite the distinct painting styles of each contributor, the apse murals form a surprisingly coherent whole, although the sugary angels and tumbling rosebuds by Gabriel Lévèque (b. 1923) in the upper section detract from the more formal compositions below. Obin also painted the stately Last Supper in the west transept chapel and Wilson Bigaud the spectacular Wedding at Cana in the east transept. The mural cycle includes smaller paintings by Bazile and several other artists. In 1954, Bishop Voegeli added a terracotta choir screen by Jasmin Joseph (b. 1923).

The biblical events represented in the Holy Trinity murals were placed in a modern, recognizably Haitian context, a revolutionary departure at the time. The actual biblical figures were represented according to conventional Christian iconography, although most were ‘Haitianized’ by combining Caucasian features with a darker skin. Some murals contain Vaudou-related motifs, such as the drums and sacrificial animals in Bigaud’s Wedding at Cana. While several participating artists were Vaudou practitioners, this does not mean that the murals are disguised Vaudou art since the references to Vaudou were included to depict typical Haitian life. Not all of this happened spontaneously, however, and contemporary accounts reveal that Rodman encouraged the artists to include anecdotic Haitian details, to the point where some felt he was interfering. While the results were generally successful, the mural project illustrate that the ‘primitives’ were already then willing and able to adapt to the demands of patronage.

Predictably, the project was at first highly controversial in Haiti. Some members of the establishment felt the murals were sacrilegious and inappropriate for a mainstream Christian church. The Holy Trinity murals were executed during the conflict about the promotion of the ‘primitives’ by the Centre d’Art and in fact contributed to the crisis. The importance of the murals to Haiti is now well recognized, although they are in urgent need of restoration …

The Jamaican intuitive sculptor and painter Mallica ‘Kapo’ Reynolds (1911 - 89) was a Revivalist bishop and, like most other Caribbean artists-priests, he claimed to have received divine instruction to start carving and painting. His subjects vary widely, from biblical figures, angels and Revivalist rituals to the landscape or market scenes, yet even his secular works portray the social and physical context of Revivalism. Many paintings and sculptures are autobiographical and include self-images of Kapo in his capacity as church leader. Some of his most outstanding works are about women and reflect the prominence of women in the cult …

… Guyanese painter and sculptor Philip Moore (b. 1921) … is associated with the Jordanites, an inspirational Guyanese church, but his work expresses a very personal, utopian vision of Guyana, an ideal of community in a country that has a history of racial and political divisiveness. Like Everald Brown in Jamaica, Moore frequently uses polymorphic imagery, but his brilliantly coloured, symbol-laden pattern structures are even more intricate …"

In Art of the South African Townships Gavin Younge describes the involvement of the churches in black art training and the subsequent rise of community-based educational initiatives:

"Another important art centre was established in Natal in the early 1960s. A radio talk, given by the Swedish missionary Helge Fosseus, resulted in the formation of a committee which raised sufficient funds to enable Ulla and Peder Gowenius to come out to South Africa in 1961 and to start a weavery and art school at Umpumulo. Two years later this was moved to the Oskarsberg Mission at Rorke’s Drift. The weaving workshop was organized co-operatively and gave employment to local women and helped subsidize the school which was known as the Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELC) Art and Craft Centre. A ceramic workshop, under Kirsten Ollson, was added in 1968.

A ex-principal of the school, Jay Johnson, has stated that the school and centre was established ‘to explore the possibilities of the arts and crafts as a means of livelihood.’ With this aim in mind the organizers have, perhaps not surprisingly, identified west Europeans as their potential market. This has led the weavery to concentrate on luxury wall and floor coverings using the finest wools and mohair. The weavers are responsible for the design and choice of colour and over the years a tradition of figurative tapestries with a strong autobiographical and narrative structure has evolved.

The largely foreign market and the fact that the weavery has not oriented itself towards a ‘village industry’ producing blankets and other locally useful goods has prompted allegations that the centre is organized along neo-colonial lines. The school has faced financial difficulties and the principal, Goran Skogland, was forced to close it temporarily at the end of 1982. However, in its twenty years of operation a number of young artists have successfully completed the two- and three-year Fine Art Certificate.

Together with Azaria Mbatha, John Muafangejo is probably the best known of these students and both have enjoyed international exposure and acclaim. Other students have become teachers. Anthony Nkotsi now teaches printmaking at the Johannesburg Art Foundation; Lionel Davis teaches at the Community Arts Project in Cape Town, and Velile Soha teaches at the Nyanga Arts Centre. Paul Sibisi, who studied at Rorke’s Drift in 1973 and 1974, won a British Council bursary in 1987 and is now a language teacher at the Umzuvela High School in Umlazi, Durban …

Mpolokeng Ramphomane’s painting For the Gift of Love is typical of the more tutored and sophisticated technique of artists living within commuting distance of Johannesburg. Nearly two metres wide, it is large in comparison with the work of other artists to have graduated from the ELC Art and Craft Centre at Rorke’s Drift. The nervous flick of brushstrokes in the background provides a bogus psychological space within which two lovers turn to face the viewer, their faces in sharp focus against a frieze of dark shadowy figures …

In 1981 his [Paul Sibisi’s] exhibition broke new ground, white viewers suddenly saw a reflection of what was going on in the closed world of the townships. His photo-journalistic treatment of police intervention in Umlazi Township also broke new ground technically. It was at this time that he began using a paint atomizer to lay down thin colour washes over ink drawings. The unusual, perhaps photographically inspired, cropping of his images, gave them added immediacy and when the critic Edward Lucie-Smith asked to be shown the work of some black artists, it was Paul Sibisi he was taken to see …

… Paul Sibisi acknowledges the influence of the nineteenth-century satirists (among them, Honoré Daumier, whose work he saw in reproduction whilst studying at Ndaleni College) but claims that his imagery is not politically motivated. ‘Artists should be above politics. I’m depicting what is happening on the street, the way I see it.’ …

Jackson Hlungwani has said that his work does not originate in himself but that ‘it comes from God Himself, and from the Lord, and from the Holy Spirit.’ He is not only referring to his sculpture, but also to his evangelistic work as the overseer of an African Independent Church called ‘Yesu Geleliya One Apostle in Sayoni Alt and Omega’ …

Although Hlungwani frequently refers to Christ as the source of life he makes little use of central Gospel themes. Instead, as Schneider notes, he dwells on one recurrent apocalyptic vision, ‘Heaven and Hell are about to be radically transfigured, and mankind will open its eyes. The old world of sin and strife is about to be replaced by the new world of forgiveness and brotherhood.’

… Seeing Straight is an idealized self-portrait. We see a man pointing forward with his whole body. Hands with long outstretched fingers guide the man’s gaze forward, like the blinders on a carthorse. But the real exhortation, to ‘see straight’, derives from a curios protruberance of raw, unworked wood which rises from the subject’s head. This, according to Hlungwani, is the ‘map’ by means of which people must live their lives. It is not a concrete representation of abstract thought, but life prefigured.

[John] Muafangelo’s work is strongly autobiographical and he often includes written observations on the events he portrays in his prints. What began as labelling device after his return from his second stay at Rorke’s Drift in 1975 quickly took on an important supplementary function. Whilst the text in Battle of Rorke’s Drift (1981) is little more than a title, his New Archbishop Desmond Tutu Enthroned (1986) includes a prayer asking for God’s help. This meshing of two narrative structures, text and image, gives his work a topical currency and, on occasion, historical importance …

… A number of prints deal with the bombing of church buildings at Onilpa. The image of Bishop Kauluma outside the boarded-up windows of the seminary at Odibo in Anglican Seminary Blown Up is a catechism on the principle of Christian forgiveness. In many other prints, notably New Archbishop Desmond Tutu Enthroned and Activity Centre, black and white people are shown shaking hands in ‘love and co-operation’. This was Muafangejo’s message to the world …"

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Jonathan Butler - Falling In Love With Jesus.

Airbrushed from Art History (21)

Daniel Johnson Fleming wrote that his book Each with His Own Brush: Contemporary Christian Art in Asia and Africa (Friendship Press New York, 1938) was "the first attempt … to bring together pictures of Christian paintings from various lands." He wrote:

"Now that Christianity has become ecumenical (or, in the literal sense of this word, has gained a foothold in all parts of the inhabited earth), one expectantly surveys the younger Christian communities of the world to see what use the church has made of form and color in the expression of her life and faith. This expansion of Christianity into the non-Christian world opens up a new significant period, not only in the expression of the spirit but also in art."

Fr. Sergio Ticozzi, PIME, wrote in Tripod in 2008 that "the new schools of Christian painting in China, Japan, Korea, Indochina, Indonesia and India … succeeded in translating with the brush all the poetry of their art, so spiritual, and celebratory of the Christian mysteries. Theirs is an art perfectly Christian and deeply indigenous!" Similarly, Fr. Joseph Schad, SJ, has written that: "The history of the Society of Jesus is marked with examples of Jesuits encouraging indigenous artists to take Christian imagery and make it their own. In India, the Philippines, Japan, Mexico, and Paraguay, this process found beautiful and powerful expression in religious art."

Archbishop Celso Costantini (1876-1958, later a Cardinal), who was the Apostolic Delegate to China beginning in 1922, was one of those who sought to inculturate the Christian faith in indigenous cultures. His own artistic talent and expertise in the fields of sculpture and architecture greatly contributed to his efforts. He wrote in 1940:

"One day, in 1929, I went to visit in Peiping the personal exhibition of the painter Chen Yuandu. I noticed that this young artist showed a special mastery of his craft, good talent, together with a very solid background in the national style of painting. What I enjoyed most was the spirit and poetry that his paintings expressed. It could be said that he turned lines into scale and the colors into music. I invited him to come to the Delegation's quarters, and I talked to him about the Virgin Mary and the Bible. I showed him several pictures of the early Italian painters and handed him religious works of art for study. After a few days, he painted a picture of the Virgin Mary adoring the Child Jesus, and showed it to me. This beautiful picture in the Chinese style, which has been published in almost all the missionary magazines, became the first symbol of the new Chinese Catholic painting. At Pentecost in 1932, Mr. Chen received baptism and joined the Catholic Church, taking the name of Luke."

Fr. Ticozzi continued the story: "Luke Chen Yuandu (Chen Xu, 1902/03-1967) was later invited to teach in the Art Department of Furen [Fu Jen] Catholic University in Beijing. He formed a group of Catholic artists. Their work has enjoyed considerable success, both in Beijing and in the West. Among his students were Lu Hong Nian, Wang Su Da, Zeng San, Xu Qi Hua, Monica Liu, and other artists. The Art Department of Furen Catholic University produced more than 180 works of Christian art. From 1935 to 1938, the Art Department organized three exhibitions each year for consecutive years. In 1938, at the instigation of Mgr. Costantini, it also organized and conducted a series of itinerary exhibitions in Budapest, Vienna and the Vatican (Rome)."

Fr. Schad wrote about the mission work among the Aborigine peoples undertaken through the Kutjungka Catholic Church at Wirramanu in the Balgo Hills, Australia:

"The bright, acrylic paintings of Balgo are much like stained-glass windows that tell bible stories through brightly colored pieces of glass. The … placement of these articles and figures, the colors, and Aboriginal design elements give an extraordinary character to these works ...

In the works of certain artists, such as Matthew Gill, this integration and interplay of Aboriginal and Christian imagery occurs … successfully and beautifully. Using the earthy reds, yellow ochres, and black and white of traditional cave drawings, Matthew Gill produces striking images of biblical narrative, such as the parable of the Prodigal Son and Pentecost. His paintings have been exhibited in Australia and abroad, but some of his most important initial works hang in the church in Balgo ...

Gracie Mosquito, another artist who lives and works in Wirramanu, is an active member of the parish. Her earlier works, some created in collaboration with other artists, portray similar Christian themes. One of her banners depicts the Holy Spirit as a beautiful bird rendered in pastels, reminiscent of Native American design. There are streams of tear-like drops seemingly emitting from the body of the creature. When asked about the meaning of these stylized droplets, she said that they were blessings flowing from God that envelop the Spirit and are simultaneously "sent out" from the Holy Ghost to all Christians ...

Linda Syddick … lives in a community just outside Alice Springs, more than 500 miles east of Wirramanu. Her works masterfully incorporate a classic dot design in untraditional color combinations. A catalogue describes one of Linda's more explicitly Christian works as a depiction of "the spirits of Aborigines in heaven praying for Aboriginal people on earth." This same overtly religious aspect of Linda's work is also apparent in some of her other paintings, most notably a representation of the Ascension, in which Christ, poised for flight, is brilliantly clothed in yellow ochre robes punctuated with golden crosses, all pointing toward heaven."

The ELC Art and Craft Centre at Rorke’s Drift, Natal, was established in 1962 and had a significant impact on the development of South African art and craft in the 1960s and 1970s. This influence continued in the 1980s, through the graduated students who have filtered into many areas of South African cultural life. Graduates of the ELC Fine Art Course have gone on to work as administrators and educators at virtually all of the existing art centres in the country.

The Art and Craft Centre was established in 1962 by Swedish artists Ulla and Peder Gowenius, who were employed by the Church of Swedish Mission. A Fine Art School was included in the activities and during its 20 years of existence many students from all over of Southern Africa have attended of which many have won national and international acclaim. Rorke's Drift has been the home of worlds famous artists like John Muafangejo, Azaria Mbatha, Bongi Dlomo, Pat Mautla and others and today there are such recognised artists and crafters like the weavers Philda Majozi, Emma Dammann, in the ceramic studio like Gordon Mbatha, Joel Sibisi, Elizabeth Mbatha.

Such initiatives led over time to the formation of Christian Art Associations such as the Asian Christian Art
Association (ACAA) which was founded in 1978 to encourage the visual arts in Asian churches:

"At that first consultation of artists in Bali, the aims of the Association were clearly stated, as follows:

" To encourage artists to express Christian concern through their art in an Asian context.
" To coordinate the activities of individuals and groups in the Asian region who are working on indigenous
art forms.
" To provide a means of communication and information.
" To work with churches, with the Christian Conferences of Asia and with other bodies seeking to witness to Christian faith in Asia.

This association was the result of many conversations between artists and theologians in Asia. Theologians who appreciate the creative mind of the artists as expressed in their works have also inspired and helped artists in their theological reflections which are manifest in their paintings, sculptures and dances. The Christian Conference of Asia has played a significant role in facilitating the birth of this very important ecumenical association of artists in Asia, which has enriched the ecumenical movement globally.

In the last twenty years, many exhibitions have been held not only in Asian countries, but also in Europe,
North America and Australia. Members have been assisted to exhibit their works nationally and internationally." (WEA Connections, September 2010)

Several books, such as Christian Art in Asia, Bible through Asian Eyes, and Christ for All People: Celebrating a World of Christian Art, have been produced by those, such as Masao Takenaka and Ron O’Grady, who have been involved in ACAA and which testify to the mission and talent of numerous artists worldwide.

Three significant artists with links to ACAA include He Qi, Jyoti Sahi and Sadao Watanabe:

• "He Qi was a professor at the Nanjing Union Theological Seminary and a tutor for master candidate students in the Philosophy Department of Nanjing University. He is also a member of the China Art Association and a council member of the ACAA. He has been committed to the artistic creation of modern Chinese Christian Art since 1983. He hopes to help change the "foreign image" of Christianity in China by using artistic language, and at the same time, to supplement Chinese Art the way Buddhist art did in ancient times. In his works, He Qi has blended together Chinese folk customs and traditional Chinese painting techniques with the western art of the Middle and Modern Ages, and has created an artistic style of colour-on-paper painting."
• "Jyoti Sahi was born in 1944 in Pune and studied art for four years in London, at the Camberwell school of Arts and Crafts. On returning to India, he taught art at the American International School in Delhi, and the Blue Mountains School in Ooty, South India. In 1967 Jyoti joined Dom Bede Griffiths, and Laurie Baker at Kurisumala Ashram in Kerala, where there was the idea to create a community of people interested in relating Indian Christian life to the cultural traditions of India. Jyoti set up the Indian School of Art for Peace (INSCAPE) in 1983, with the idea of relating art to Indian spirituality. Jyoti has been running art workshops, and art retreats for groups who want to relate art practices and spiritual insights in the Indian context. Groups of students as well as pilgrims to Indian Ashrams have spent time at the Art Ashram exploring the creative dimensions of their life, using extended art practices as a means to self discovery."
• "Born in Tokyo in 1913, Sadao Watanabe began by specializing in the art of "Katazome" (stencil printing). He studied under Soetsu Yanagi and Keisuke Serizawa. In 1947 he won the first prize from the Japan Folk Art Museum; and the Kokugokai Prize in 1948. A one-man show was held at the Portland Art Museum in 1962 and his works were exhibited in the Modern Print Show at the 1972 Winter Olympics, Sapporo, Japan. Taught printmaking in Oregon and Minnesota and in 1976 visit America again at the invitation of the Lutheran Church. One man show at the Grace Cathedral, San Francisco in 1977. In 1981, received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from Linfield College, Oregon. Watanabe's works are in numerous collections including the New York Museum of Modern Art, Art Institute of Chicago, Honolulu Academy of Arts and the Vatican Museum of Modern Religious Art."

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Jide Chord - Romeo and Juliet.

Biblical Art: An International A-Z - Part 3

Art histories rarely focus on modern sacred or religious art, giving the impression that the visual arts in the twentieth century were predominantly secular. This represents a Western view of art history which can itself be challenged and which completely overlooks the significant development of Biblical Art in Asia and Africa throughout this period and on into the contemporary scene. The following A-Z attempts to provide a brief sample of some of the artists and organisations that create and support Biblical Art in Asia and Africa:

He Qi (b. 1950): Qi’s vibrant biblical paintings blend together Chinese folk customs and traditional painting techniques with the western art of the Middle Ages and Modern period. He hopes to help change the "foreign image" of Christianity in China by using artistic language, and at the same time, to supplement Chinese art as Buddhist art did in ancient times.

Rorke's Drift Art School: played an important role in the development of art produced by black South Africans. Artists were trained in the use of linocut, etching and aquatint. Founded as the Evangelical Lutheran Church Arts and Craft Centre in 1962 by the Church of Sweden Mission, its pupils included Azaria Mbatha, Cyprian Shilakoe, Vuminkosi Zulu, and Gabi Nkosi.

Sacrum: A term coined by the Polish critic and art historian, Janusz Bogucki to describe the meeting of spiritual themes and Polish avant-garde artists. In the 1980s Bogucki organised a series of art exhibitions in Catholic Churches, the most famous being the 1983 exhibition, The Sign of the Cross, at the Church of God’s Mercy in Warsaw which brought together over fifty artists and photographers together with actors, musicians, art theorists, and filmmakers.

Alfred D. Thomas: an Anglican, from Uttar Pradesh in India, who depicted Christ’s life and ministry. His Christ had the ideal male body of classical Indian sculptures, with broad shoulders and narrow waist. An Indian art critic wrote that, “Thomas’s pictures of the Christ as child, man and divine-man are unique in their true oriental colouring and sentiment.”

Hatigammana Uttarananda (b. 1954): a Buddhist monk who has been influenced by Catholic theologian Aloysius Pieris. Through his interest in liberation theology, Uttarananda is aware of the way in which Jesus broke down barriers between people and consistently depicts this aspect of Christ ministry in paintings based on the Gospel narratives.

Hanna Cheriyan Varghese: a Malaysian artist who began painting on biblical themes after being inspired by works she saw in the ACAA’s Image magazine. Varghese dyes batik cloth pictures and paints in acrylics. She has said that, “Art is the expressive cry of the soul. All of us have that urge in one form or another. Discover it; nurture it.”

Sadao Watanabe (1913 - 1996): created paintings of biblical narratives in the paste-resist stencil dying technique of Japanese Folk Art called katazome. Reflecting both his folk and faith roots Watanabe said of his paintings, “I would most like to see them hanging where people ordinarily gather, because Jesus brought the gospel for the people.”

Ruben Xulu (1942 - 1985): taught to carve by sculptor Bernard Gwensa and encouraged by Father Kinch, of the Roman Catholic Mission of the Good Shepherd, Hlabisa in South Africa, Xulu and Gwensa produced many sculptures for this church and other mission churches in the area. Xulu’s Christ-Crucified is informed by his own silent resignation to God’s will after he lost his hearing as a child.

Yasantha Boange (b. 1945): Sri Lankan wood carver who has been greatly inspired by religious themes and, for whom, wood carving has deepened his understanding of religion.

Vuminkosi Zulu (1948 – 1996): a Rorke’s Drift graphic artist, his work was brought to international attention when a German Lutheran priest based in Switzerland began to collect Zulu’s works and use them to illustrate his sermons. Zulu’s work was exhibited in Germany, Sweden and the USA, as well as within South Africa.

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Flying Burrito Brothers - Sin City.