Support for artistic flight and future grace

In the absence of an Association of Scholars of Christianity in the History of Art (ASCHA) website that actually works, Stoneworks has helpfully provided more information on this newly formed professional organization that seeks to redress the tendency in much of recent scholarship to ignore or minimize the influence of Christianity on the arts.

A report on ASCHA's inaugural symposium in Paris can be found by clicking here. The art space in which the symposium met is a venue for the arts which seeks to support and encourage the arts and artists regardless of their faith affiliation by providing a space at an enviable address at a reasonable cost to the artists for performance of music and poetry, the mounting of art exhibitions, as well as meetings like the symposium.

Also seeking to support artists in expressing their Christian faith in the face of a lack of understanding of the resulting art is New York based artist Makoto Fujimura, who has recently published a letter to young artists in which he writes of the ability to learn to fly as artists as 'future grace' citing C. S. Lewis to describe an artist's early development - "while the wings are just beginning to grow, when ... the lumps on the shoulders…give ... an awkward appearance”:

"What if Lewis is right, and you are destined to “fly”? What if our awkwardness, and our uniqueness points to the potential of the person we are meant to become? In order to learn to fly, you need to be patient, and ready to experience many failures; we need an environment where we can fail often, but you also need opportunities to peer into the wonders and mysteries of the vista of the world to come. Since many, including those in the institutions of the schools or churches, will not understand, you may have to create “fellowship” yourself. Do not be surprised by their rejections ...

Even if you are not cognizant of a grace reality, you can still create in the possibility of future grace. That takes faith to do, but if you can do that, you will be joining so many artists of the past who wrestled deeply with faith, doubt, poverty, rejection, longing and yet chose to create. Know that the author of creativity longs for you to barge in, break open the gift you have been saving; he will not only receive you, he can bring you purpose behind the battle, and rebuke those who reject you. Mary’s oil was the only thing Jesus wore to the cross. He was stripped of everything else, but art can sometimes endure even torture. A friend of mine said that in the aroma of Christ, Mary’s oil mixed with Christ’s blood and sweat, there are da Vincis and Bachs floating about. He will bring your art, music and dance to the darkness of death, and into the resurrection of the third day ...

Growth comes by understanding how limited you are. Learning to use your wings means learning the discipline as a means to grace. Give yourself boundaries and goals; start with small things, like having a small table dedicated to your poems. Emily Dickinson wrote her poems on a small 18 inch by 18 inch desk in her room in Amherst. Do not put anything other than your poems, though, on that area. Guard against the world invading your boundaries. Learning to paint, play the piano, or dance has much to do with keeping your self-set boundaries, otherwise you will not own your craft. We are each given unique wings with unique particulars of how to use our wings; no one else can fly for you. You have to jump off the edge, and spread your wings."

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Mumford and Sons - Roll Away Your Stone.

Why Have There Been No Great Modern Religious Artists?

Stoneworks has information about a symposium entitled Why Have There Been No Great Modern Religious Artists? organised by the Association of Scholars of Christianity in the History of Art at the Museum of Biblical Art in New York next February which would seem to be discussing issues that are central to my 'Airbrushed from Art History' series of posts.

The Symposium summary states: "Mirroring the complex presence of religion throughout the 20th century, there has been a proliferation of religious expression in the visual arts. Many of the most prominent and celebrated artists of this century have employed Christian themes, iconography, and forms in their work. However, many of these artists and their works have been ignored, dismissed as aberrant, or condemned as an improper union of incompatible traditional and avant-garde values. The diverse and contradictory manifestations of religious expression in the art of this period, from private devotion to liturgical practice to critical commentary to creative expression pose methodological problems for narratives of modernist and post-modernist art history that have tended to omit serious consideration of Christian strains in 20th century and current artistic practice."

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Martyn Joseph - All This Time.