Visual Commentary on Scripture - Advent: Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love & Bible and Art Daily

This Autumn, the Visual Commentary on Scripture launched Bible and Art Daily, a new daily email exploring the Bible through art. Through concise but vivid day-by-day encounters, it takes you on a series of journeys through the world of Scripture and the history of art. The VCS have spent the last year bringing together experts in theology and art history to carefully curate a treasury of week-long series, each exploring a particular theme, an artistic medium, or a biblical character. Find out more and subscribe here.

Two of the commentaries I have written for the VCS have featured in a Bible and Art Daily episode so far. The first, 'Yet To Come', featured in the series on 'Picturing the Trinity'. This commentart comes from my exhibition 'A Question of Faith' which explores Hebrews 11 through the paintings of New Zealand artist Colin McCahon. McCahon is widely recognised as New Zealand’s foremost painter. Over 45 years, his work encompassed many themes, subjects and styles, from landscape to figuration to abstraction and an innovative use of painted text. His adaption of aspects of modernist painting to a specific local situation and his intense engagement with spiritual matters, mark him out as a distinctive figure in twentieth-century art.

'Picturing the Trinity' is described as follows: 'There are perils and peculiarities involved in visually depicting the Holy Trinity. Christianity insists that divinity is invisible, even if Jesus in his humanity reveals God’s purposes and presence. And the Bible’s multiplicity of images of what God might be ‘like’ forbid settling on any one as descriptively adequate. Some visual art has risked anthropomorphizing God; some has experimented with oblique or abstract modes of signification, recognizing that God ‘dwells in unapproachable light, whom [no one] has ever seen or can see’ (1 Timothy 6:16).'

The second commentary used that I have written has been included in the Series 'Trees of Life'. Episode 7 of 14: 'The Ground of Rebirth' has artwork by Arthur Boyd from my 'Back from the Brink' on Daniel 4. The image included is 'Nebuchadnezzar's Dream of the Tree'. The 'Trees of Life' Series is described as follows: 'The Christian story of salvation begins and ends with trees. The forbidden fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in Eden, once eaten, initiates a long pilgrimage through time, which will culminate in a heavenly city with a tree at its heart, whose leaves are ‘for the healing of the nations’.'

This year, the Advent programme from the VCS has had a slightly different look than those from previous years. Instead of daily emails for the duration of Advent, they have sent their Exhibition of the Week subscribers an email every Monday from December 1st, with links to seven different works of art and commentaries for each day of the week. The idea is to think of it as a traditional Advent calendar! Each of the four weeks has had a different theme, starting with Hope, then Peace, followed by Joy, and ending with Love in the week of Christmas.

Anyone subscribed to their Exhibition of the Week receives the weekly Advent emails. Their hope has been that we enjoy journeying towards Christmas with the help of these works of art. Sign up here for their Exhibition of the Week email.

The first week's commentaries included 'To Our Hopes', another of the commentaries from my exhibition 'A Question of Faith'. The most recent email reveals that the image chosen for Christmas Day is from my most recent exhibition for VCS.  Reflecting on 1 Thessalonians 2:17–4:12, the exhibition is called 'Establishing the Heart' and includes works of art by Antoine Camilleri, John Reilly and Stanley Spencer. This exhibition explores how pleasing God in our everyday lives - by living quietly, minding our own affairs, and working with our hands - leads us to see life, work and art as prayer. The image chosen for Christmas Day is John Reilly's 'Holy Family'.

John Reilly’s ambition was "always been to paint a picture which perfectly weds form and content” in order “to express in visible form the oneness and unity of [the] invisible power binding all things into one whole.” I was fortunate enough to meet him at his home on the Isle of Wight, while there on a family holiday. I didn’t know of his work before going on that holiday but found cards and prints of his amazing work in some of the shops there and had to find out more. He was kind enough to invite me into his home and show me his work and works in progress.

He has said: "My paintings are not concerned with the surface appearance of people or things but try to express something of the fundamental spiritual reality behind this surface appearance. I try to express in visible form the oneness and unity of this invisible power, binding all things into one whole. I try to express something of the universal and timeless truths behind the stories of the Bible.”

So, for Reilly, the unseen reality manifests itself both through pattern - “the oneness and unity of this invisible power, binding all things into one whole” - and through story - “the universal and timeless truths behind the stories of the Bible”. He has also used the greater freedom of expression that modern movements in art have given to artists to develop a visual language of forms and colours which he hopes expresses “something of their deeper spiritual significance.” His work draws on cubism, fauvism and orphism in particular.

Reilly has made a profound use of the circle in his work in order to depict the wholeness that he finds in the world and the life that God has created. He frequently bases his works on a central circle (often, the sun) from which facets of colour emanate, like ripples on the surface of a stream. The painting’s imagery is then set within these facets, each figure or object being embedded in the overall patterning of the painting and related to the environmental whole that Reilly creates.

By these means fragments of form and colour (the facets of the painting’s patterning) and the images that they contain are united to circle harmoniously around and within God, the central life and intelligence which is the light of the world. Works such as ‘Life Eternal’ utilise these methods and meanings and both contain and convey huge energy and resolution as a result.

His technique of colour fragments emanating from a central source enables him to suggest that his archetypal images of creation and the landscape are both, filled with the emanating rays and linked by them into a unified circle. His paintings (including 'Life Eternal’) therefore suggest the way in which we are linked both by being the creation of God and by being indwelt by his spirit.

The obituary I wrote for Reilly and my review of 'The Painted Word: Paintings by John Reilly' can both be found in the 'Church Times' Digital Archive.  

The VCS is a freely accessible online publication that provides theological commentary on the Bible in dialogue with works of art. It helps its users to (re)discover the Bible in new ways through the illuminating interaction of artworks, scriptural texts, and commissioned commentaries. The virtual exhibitions of the VCS aim to facilitate new possibilities of seeing and reading so that the biblical text and the selected works of art come alive in new and vivid ways.

Each section of the VCS is a virtual exhibition comprising a biblical passage, three art works, and their associated commentaries. The curators of each exhibition select artworks that they consider will open up the biblical texts for interpretation, and/or offer new perspectives on themes the texts address. The commentaries explain and interpret the relationships between the works of art and the scriptural text.

Find out more about the VCS, its exhibitions and other resources through a short series of HeartEdge workshops introducing the VCS as a whole and exploring particular exhibitions with their curators. These workshops can be viewed here, here, here and here.

My exhibitions for the VCS are:

'Back from the Brink' on Daniel 4: 'Immediately the word was fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar. He was driven from among men, and ate grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hair grew as long as eagles’ feathers, and his nails were like birds’ claws.' (Daniel 4:33). In the exhibition I explore this chapter with William Blake's 'Nebuchadnezzar', 1795–c.1805, Arthur Boyd's 'Nebuchadnezzar's Dream of the Tree', 1969, and Peter Howson's 'The Third Step', 2001.

My second exhibition was 'A Question of Faith' and explored Hebrews 11 through the paintings of New Zealand artist Colin McCahon. McCahon is widely recognised as New Zealand’s foremost painter. Over 45 years, his work encompassed many themes, subjects and styles, from landscape to figuration to abstraction and an innovative use of painted text. His adaption of aspects of modernist painting to a specific local situation and his intense engagement with spiritual matters, mark him out as a distinctive figure in twentieth-century art.

'Fishers of People' which uses Damien Hirst's 'Isolated Elements Swimming in the Same Direction for the Purpose of Understanding (Left) and (Right)', John Bellany's 'Kinlochbervie', and Paul Thek's 'Fishman in Excelsis Table' to discuss Matthew 4:12-22 and Mark 1:14-20. These artworks give us what is essentially a collage of the kingdom whereby we are invited to imagine the kingdom of God as a body of water in which Christians are immersed and through which they are raised.

'Before the Deluge', a series of climate-focused commentaries on Genesis 6 looking at 'The Flood' by Norman Adams, 'Noah in the Ark and a Church' by Albert Herbert, and 'Noah's Ark' by Sadao Watanabe.

Reflecting on 1 Thessalonians 2:17–4:12, 'Establishing the Heart' includes works of art by Antoine Camilleri, John Reilly and Stanley Spencer. This exhibition explores how pleasing God in our everyday lives - by living quietly, minding our own affairs, and working with our hands - leads us to see life, work and art as prayer.

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Arvo Pärt - Christmas Lullaby.

Mark Cazalet: The Tree of Life

This evening I was at Chelmsford Cathedral for an event with Mark Cazalet celebrating his remarkable painting The Tree of Life. Mark shared insights into the inspirations for and creation of The Tree of Life while exploring some of its key themes with the audience. This event also marked the closing of an exhibition featuring work by local artists from the Artists in the Meadows group. Inspired by Mark’s The Tree of Life, they have created their own collective interpretations, which were on display.

Mark, speaking about the installation, has said previously that the inspiration behind the piece was the music and choral tradition of the Cathedral and that he very much wanted his mural to reflect this, with the swirling motion in the painting representing the musical traditions. Mark wanted the symmetrical design of the tree to represent opposing ideas with the tree bursting into life on one side and dying back on the other.

The lighting in the Cathedral was very different from the church Mark had painted the mural in and he spent several weeks on a cherry picker, changing the colour and bringing the panels to life. His favourite part is Judas resurrected and the idea of the possibility of Judas being resurrected and spending a long time (hence the sandwiches and thermos) at the top of the tree and in turn that we too can be fully forgiven.

I wrote about The Tree of Life, Mark's image of St Cedd, and other artwork in the Cathedral (which includes the sculpture of St Peter holding the key to heaven by Thomas Bayliss Huxley-Jones on the exterior - see photos above) during my sabbatical art pilgrimage - see here. As part of my sabbatical, I also visited St Alban's Romford which has a ceiling painted by Mark - see here. In the area covered by the Diocese of Chelmsford, works by Mark can also be seen at Frances Bardsley Academy for Girls in Romford and Our Lady of Lourdes, Wanstead.  

Click here to read my Seen & Unseen article on the tradition of visionary artists whose works shed light on the material and spiritual worlds which includes Mark Cazalet, Thomas Denny, Richard Kenton Webb, Nicholas Mynheer, and Roger Wagner. In his talk, Mark mentioned stained glass windows at St Mary's Iffley by John Piper and Roger Wagner - see here.

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The Trees Community - Jesus He Knows.

Review - Exhibition of Works by Helaine Blumenfeld OBE: Tree of Life

My latest exhibition review for the Church Times covers “Exhibition of Works by Helaine Blumenfeld OBE: Tree of Life” which is at Ely Cathedral until 28 October:

'“Tree of Life” is one of Blumenfeld’s largest exhibitions to date. Her work is well suited to display in the setting of a cathedral, both because the works themselves are all about possibility and hope, healing, and renewal, and also as their luscious expanses of cream and white combine with the flow of their organic curves to contrast with the soaring vertical lines of Ely’s expanses.'

I have also written about Blumenfeld for Artlyst - click here to read.

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Joni Mitchell - Big Yellow Taxi.

Artlyst: 'Hard Beauty' and Helaine Blumenfeld

My latest piece for Artlyst is a review of ‘Hard Beauty’, the first film about the life and work of sculptor Helaine Blumenfeld which premiered on Sky Arts in April 2018:

'If Blumenfeld’s focus on beauty is one factor distancing her from a greater level of recognition in the world of contemporary art, then spirituality may be another. The film emphasises the extent to which Blumenfeld’s natural forms are also visionary. From an early age Blumenfeld has received the forms she now shapes into sculpture through her dreams. Clay is used as her malleable medium in which to capture what remains of these dreams before they fade.'

‘Tree of Life’, a major solo exhibition by Helaine Blumenfeld OBE is at Ely Cathedral until 28 October 2018.

My other Artlyst articles and interviews are:

• Alastair Gordon A Testament To His Faith
• Sacred Noise: Explores Religion, Faith And Divinity
• Bill Viola: Quiet Contemplative Video Installation St Cuthbert’s Church Edinburgh
• The ground-breaking work of Sister Corita Kent
• Katrina Moss Chaiya Art Awards Interview: Where is God in our 21st century world?
• Picasso To Souza: The Crucifixion Imagery Rarely Exhibited
• Apocalypse Now: Michael Takeo Magruder Interviewed
• Jonathan Anderson: Religious Inspirations Behind Modernism
• Michael Takeo Magruder: De / coding the Apocalypse – Panacea Museum
• Giorgio Griffa: The Golden Ratio And Inexplicable Knowledge
• Arabella Dorman Unveils New Installation At St James Church Piccadilly
• Can Art Transform Society?
• Art Awakening Humanity Conference Report
• Central St Martins in the Fields Design Then And Now
• The Sacramental And Liturgical Nature Of Conceptual Art
• Caravan – An Interview With Rev Paul Gordon Chandler On Arts Peacebuilding
• Art Awakening Humanity Alexander de Cadenet Interviewed
• Polish Art In Britain Centenary Marked At London’s Ben Uri Gallery
• Michael Pendry New Installation Lights Up St Martin In The Fields;
• Mark Dean Projects Stations of the Cross Videos On Henry Moore Altar;
• Refugee Artists Learning from The Lives Of Others;
• The Religious Impulses Of Robert Rauschenberg;
• The Christian Science Connection Within The British Modern Art Movement;
• Artists Rebranding The Christmas Tree Tradition;
• Art Impacted - A Radical Response To Radicalisation;
• The Art of St Martin-in-the-Fields; and
• Was Caravaggio A Good Christian?

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Gungor - Beautiful Things.

Scriptural Reasoning: Education and knowledge

Education and knowledge was the theme of the text bundle used in our local Scriptural Reasoning group meeting tonight. 

This meeting was hosted by the South West Essex and Settlement Reform Synagogue (SWESRS) who have recently installed a Tree of Life in the foyer of their prayer hall. The designer who created this beautiful and original commission had, by coincidence, celebrated his Bar mitzvah at what was then SWERS. The tree is mounted on boards for ease of maintenance. Leaves can be purchased to celebrate happy family events such as births, B’nei mitzvah, marriages, anniversaries etc and also to commemorate the life of someone who has passed away.

The Tree of Life is one of the names for the Torah. In the introductions to the Jewish and Islamic texts we heard about the focus on learning within both traditions. In my introduction to the Christian text (1 Timothy 3. 13 - 17) I focused on different ways of understanding the phrased 'God-breathed' as it relates to the inspiration of scripture:    

'God-breathed has been understood as a way of saying that the scriptures have been inspired by God. The idea that the scriptures are directly inspired by God is often understood as being the basis for an understanding of the scriptures which sees them as being literally true in every detail and which requires absolute obedience to their literal meaning. However, this is by no means the exclusive understanding of this phrase with Christianity today and is a relatively recent understanding of the phrase. According to an article in Theology Today published in 1975, "There have been long periods in the history of the church when biblical inerrancy has not been a critical question. It has in fact been noted that only in the last two centuries can we legitimately speak of a formal doctrine of inerrancy."

A more helpful way of understanding this phrase may be think about it in relation to basic needs. The scriptures are described as being like food and water, as well as breath. These are all things without which we will not survive very long. We can survive without food for about two months, without water for up to 8 - 10 days but without air or breath for only about 3 minutes. At one level, then, these are metaphors about the necessity of the scriptures for life itself. They are as fundamental to life as breathing, water and food.

These metaphors are also about taking the scriptures into our lives in order to gain benefit from them. We can observe and discuss food, water and even breath but they all have to enter our bodies for us to physically and literally benefit from them. This speaks of the necessity for us not simply to talk about the scriptures but also to apply them to our lives for real learning and benefit to occur. Learning from the scriptures is not primarily an academic exercise. They have to affect our heart as well as our head if they are truly to be of benefit to us.

Breathing, however, is not simply about taking in but also about giving out. This is, perhaps, another aspect of applying the scriptures; they are for giving out i.e.  sharing both in word and deed.

Finally, this image is not firstly or primarily about us but about God. The scriptures are the very breath of God but because breathing is about inhaling and exhaling we can understand scripture in terms of an interactive responsive to and fro, exchange or dialogue between God and ourselves. God speaks into our lives through the scriptures (this is inhalation) and we then respond in prayer or worship or action which then prompts further input into our lives followed by further response.

This to and fro between God and ourselves can be thought of in terms of dialogue or conversation which can take in all forms of response including praise, worship, acceptance, argument, complaint and requests among others. Like breathing, to be effective, this needs to be constant and ongoing but for most of us, perhaps all of us, is, in reality, halting and impaired.'

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Adrian Snell & David Fitzgerald - Shema (Hear O Israel).