Arnaldo Pomodoro: Sphere & Crucifix

The most famous of Arnaldo Pomodoro’s work is called Sphere within a Sphere, also known as Sfera con Sfera in his native Italian language. 'It is a monumental series of sculptures featuring a large bronze sphere with seemingly damaged surface and complicated inner design consisting of another smaller, broken sphere inside. The artist created this sphere for the Vatican in the 60s, but due to its international popularity, Pomodoro was commissioned to build the same sculpture for important institutions and organizations worldwide. At the moment, Sphere within a Sphere is located at the headquarters of the United Nations in New York, Trinity College in Dublin, The Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, the Columbus Museum of Art, Tel Aviv University in Israel and a couple of other locations.

Since the original design was created for the Vatican, the idea behind it is related to Christianity. Pomodoro claims that the outer sphere is the metaphor for Christianity while the inner sphere represents the Earth and people, suggesting that our world is contained within the bigger, sacred world of Catholicism. The layers of the inner sphere which contain gears are the symbol of intricacy and subtlety of our world. Pomodoro explained the motif of spheres in one of his interviews: A sphere is a marvelous object, from the world of magic and wizards. It reflects everything around it and it can easily get transformed or become invisible, leaving only its interior, tormented and corroded, full of teeth. Pomodoro feels puzzled by the perfect form of sphere and at the same time provoked to break its pristine roundness and cause the internal conflict, tension which is threatening to rip apart the entire form.

In addition to Sphere within a Sphere, Pomodoro designed many other pieces which found their home around the globe. For example, he created a large fiberglass crucifix for the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in Wisconsin. The sculpture is famous for its enormous, fourteen foot in diameter crown of thorns above the head of the Christ’s figure.'

Pomodoro says: 'My goal was to create a highly symbolic and expressive work in which suffering and glory, the human and the divine were united in the moment of the Crucifixion. But an approach to Christ as a human being also required His presence as a human figure: I therefore sought the collaboration of Giuseppe Maraniello, who in constructing his works has always considered the figure to be fundamental.

The radiant crown is the symbol of the Passion—the crown of thorns—and transforms into an enormous halo, whereas Christ, rather than on the Cross, is himself the Cross. I see this as a truly singular work and I believe it can be understood by everyone in an intuitive and immediate way.

The crown, charged with oversized thorns, spikes, and nails, shows full and empty spaces, and is constructed of wood, fiberglass, and copper powder. The light which falls from above on its numerous faceted surfaces refracts into thousands of gleams and iridescences, producing, here as well, a kind of reverberation, as though to “illuminate” those who are here in prayer.'

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Rush - The Sphere: A Kind Of Dream.

Divine Beauty: From Van Gogh to Chagall and Fontana

Divine Beauty: From Van Gogh to Chagall and Fontana is an exhibition at Palazzo Strozzi in Florence. This exhibition with over one hundred works by important Italian artists as Domenico Morelli, Gaetano Previati, Felice Casorati, Lorenzo Viani, Gino Severini, Renato Guttuso, Lucio Fontana and Emilio Vedova, together with international masters like Vincent van Gogh, Jean-François Millet, Edvard Munch, Pablo Picasso, Max Ernst, Georges Rouault and Henri Matisse, sets out to explore the relationship between art and the sacred from the mid-19th to the mid-20th century.

The curators argue that, while sacred art is traditionally linked with the period stretching from the Middle Ages to the seventeenth century, in reality, it has never completely vanished, and this exhibition retraces its history in the years between the 1880s and 1950, both in Italy and abroad. Divine Beauty investigates the relationship between art and the Church, a connection that had been unbreakable in previous centuries and that seemed to have been lost in the modern era. 

As a result, Divine Beauty investigates much of the ground that I have explored on this blog through my Airbrushed from Art History series and my Sabbatical Art Pilgrimage. This blog has also tried to regularly highlight places where discussion about faith and art has been occurring (see, for example,here, here, here, here, here and here).

Divine Beauty provides visitors with a unique opportunity to compare and contrast a number of famous works of art, observed in a new and different light, alongside pieces by artists whose work is perhaps less well-known today but who, in their own way, have helped to forge the rich and complex panorama of modern art as a whole, not simply in a religious environment. Religious art is presented here as a "genre" in its own right, as an art form that came down from the altar to play a direct role in the artistic debate between the 19th and 20th centuries while at the same time reviving the great themes on which religion and spirituality have been focusing from time immemorial. 

Curated by Lucia Mannini, Anna Mazzanti, Ludovica Sebregondi and Carlo Sisi, the exhibition, which is the product of a joint venture between the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, the former Soprintendenza Speciale per il Patrimonio Storico, Artistico ed Etnoantropologico e per il Polo Museale della città di Firenze, the Archdiocese of Florence and the Vatican Museums, is part of a programme of events devised to run concurrently with the Fifth National Bishops Conference, scheduled to be held in Florence from 9 to 13 November and in the course of which Pope Francis himself will be visiting the city. 

Divine Beauty analyses and sets in context almost a century of modern religious art stretching from the 1850s – when the Roman Catholic Church of Pope Pius IX actively encouraged the most innovative forms of artistic expression – to the 1950s, in a display hosting the best examples of that art to have been produced either in Italy or abroad, highlighting the dialogue, the ties, and at times even the clashes in the relationship between art and religious sentiment. This "divine beauty" takes on the significance of a grace that injects aesthetic substance into the form of works of art, each one of which emanates a different and unique kind of spirituality. 

After a period during which Christian art was associated with "historicism", an attempt began to be made in the late 19th century to identify an artistic vocabulary suited to modern times. This led in the course of the 20th century to the existence of multiple parallel yet different styles governing the representation of the sacred. This variety of expression is broadly illustrated by the works on display in the exhibition, which range from naturalism and the narrative style echoing the way history was depicted in the late 19th century to the Symbolist research of the early 20th century, and from the exploration of realism in the 19th and 20th centuries to interpretations bordering on the abstract and the downright controversial, as exemplified by the startling work of the Futurists or of Edvard Munch whose Madonna triggered such a storm of controversy that it represents one of the most provocative images of Mary to have emerged at any time in the course of the 19th century. 

The key pieces include masterpieces such as: Jean-François Millet's Angelus on exceptional loan from the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, a work that emanates an ancestral spirituality, a universal sense of the sacred that transcends all barriers; Vincent van Gogh's Pietà from the Vatican Museums, a crucial work because, despite his religious and mystic calling, Vincent rarely addressed the sacred in his art, and even when he did so, he took his cue from other artists' work; Renato Guttuso's Crucifixion from the collections of the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna in Rome, an emblematic work with an intense political connotation which, like Picasso's Guernica, embodies a cry of pain and grief; and Marc Chagall's White Crucifixion from the Art Institute Museum in Chicago, one of Pope Francis's favourite works of art. 

The exhibition is divided into seven sections. In the introductory section (From Salon to Altar), large paintings of the highest quality testify to the eclecticism in the styles and approaches to the theme of the sacred in the second half of the 19th century, with such works as Antonio Ciseri's The Maccabees and William-Adolphe Bouguereau's Flagellation of Jesus Christ. At the turn of the century, the theme of the Virgin (Rosa Mystica) acquired special significance as the Symbolist aesthetic began to take hold, with artists imbuing the image with their strong desire for the ascetic – a trend effectively illustrated, for example, by Domenico Morelli's Mater Purissima. The exhibits in the very extensive central section are arranged to echo the narrative of the Gospels. The Annunciation to the Virgin Mary is followed by Nativity and Childhood of Christ, Miracles and Parables, The Passion, The Last Supper, The Way of the Cross and The Crucifixion, Deposition and Resurrection (with works by, among others, Glyn Warren Philpot, Maurice Denis, Giuseppe Capogrossi, Odilon Redon, Arturo Martini, Stanley Spencer, Georges Rouault, Otto Dix, Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, Renato Guttuso, Lucio Fontana and Emilio Vedova). 

The works are arranged throughout the exhibition in chronological order, comparing modes of artistic expression which are frequently very distant from one another and which, on occasion, address the theme of the sacred with significant and sweeping new takes on modernity, thus highlighting the different trends and clashes of expression in the relationship between art and religious sentiment. In this context, a special section is devoted to Gino Severini: Mural Decoration from Spirituality to Poetry, which uses a selection of Severini's works to clarify the artist's philosophical dialogue with Maritain. This is followed by a video-installation entitled Architecture, illustrating the multiple solutions adopted between the 19th and 20th centuries in the construction and decoration of Catholic places of worship, also underscoring the close link between architecture and ritual. The penultimate section in the exhibition analyses the depiction of The Church (illustrated in the work of Adolfo Wildt, Scipione and Henri Matisse) with a reflection on the public side of religion; while the final section explores the private and intimate dimension of Prayer (with paintings ranging from Millet's extremely well-known Angelus to Felice Casorati's extraordinarily elegant Virgin).

Several major works of art have been specially restored to mark this exhibition. They are Antonio Ciseri's The Maccabees, Giuseppe Catani-Chiti's The Saviour, Vittorio Corcos' Annunciation, Arturo Martini's Prodigal Son and Primo Conti's Crucifixion. 

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Delaney and Bonnie - Poor Elijah.

The Venice Biennale - a place where you can speak

Micol Forti is the curator of the Vatican's first pavilion at the Venice Biennale. The Holy See is participating for the first time with an exhibition in the Sale d'Armi, a series of spaces the Biennale has restored and converted into permanent pavilions.

Charlotte Higgins reports in today's Guardian that Forti, who is also the curator of 19th-century and contemporary art in the the Vatican museums, thinks that involvement in the biennale is a significant opportunity for the Roman Catholic church. "It's very important for the Holy See to be here: it's a different situation where you can create a space for a dialogue with different ideas, different ideological thinking, different religions," she said. "Here at the biennale, it is not important where you are from: the only important thing is that there is a place where you can speak."

In commissioning for the Pavilion, they had deliberately steered clear of work that engaged directly with Catholic themes or imagery, she said. "For Cardinal Ravasi, it is very important to distinguish between religious and liturgical artwork and that which engages with spiritual ideas. The Sistine chapel is a church: it contains completely revolutionary artworks but it is still a church.

"[The Holy See pavilion] is not a church; this is a completely different context. We respect this context: it is a place for international art from different contexts, philosophies, culture and religions."

Forti said that she and the selection committee for the pavilion "never asked the artists whether they believed or not. We started from the topic of the exhibition: for me it was important that there was intellectual honesty, a clear path in the artists' thinking."

The Holy See pavilion takes the first 11 books of Genesis as its starting point. Its title – Creation, Uncreation, Re-creation – hints at ideas "fundamental for culture and for church tradition", according to Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, the president of the pontifical council for culture and the figure behind the Holy See's appearance at the biennale.

Three rooms of works take on the themes in turn: interactive videos by the Milanese collective Studio Azzurro focus on creation; then come stark images of man's destructiveness by Czech photographer Josef Koudelka. Paintings hinting at hope and renewal by American Lawrence Carroll complete the lineup.

Higgins has also written about another work at the Biennale which connects to religious themes; Ai Weiwei's SACRED. Situated in the church of Sant'Antonin, it consists of six large iron boxes, into which visitors can peek to see sculptures recreating scenes from the artist's detention. Here is a miniature Ai being interrogated; here a miniature Ai showers or sits on the lavatory while two uniformed guards stand over him. Other scenes show him sleeping and eating – always in the same tiny space, always under double guard. (The music video refers to some of these scenes with a lightly satirical tone that is absent from the sculpture.)

According to Greg Hilty of London's Lisson Gallery, under whose auspices SACRED is being shown, and who saw Ai in China a week ago, the work is a form of "therapy or exorcism – it was something he had to get out. It is an experience that we might see as newsworthy, but for him, he was the one in it."

The ecclesiastical setting, the title of the work, the appearance of the metal crates (which might resemble a reliquary or saint's coffin) suggest that Ai is positioning himself as a martyr. According to Hilty, however, "He is not pretending to be a saint, but the setting does suggest things such as the stations of the cross, or the temptations of St Anthony, to whom the church is dedicated. But these are human, universal things that go beyond Ai Weiwei … he's not saying he's a saint, or that he is wholly right or good. He's just being honest."

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Ai Weiwei - Dumbass.

Rituals of Life

More than 300 aboriginal artefacts – collected by missionaries for an exhibition commissioned by Pope Pius XI in 1925 – have been properly curated for the first time and can be seen in the Vatican Museums, an event project leader Professor Margo Neale described enthusiastically as “a miracle”.

These treasures are now on public display, thanks in part to Missionary Ethnological Museum curator Father Nicola Mapelli. Last summer, Mapelli flew to Australia and visited Aboriginal communities to request permission to display the collection. His objective was to "reconnect with a living culture, not to create a museum of dead objects." His goal is accomplished in the exhibition, Rituals of Life which is focused on northern and Western Australian art from the turn of the 20th century.

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Midnight Oil - Earth And Sun And Moon.