Veronica von Degenfeld: Giving Thanks

I was fortunate to see Giving Thanks: The Visionary Paintings of Veronica von Degenfeld at St Mary Le Strand on its penultimate day and to meet the artist together with those involved in bringing the exhibition to the UK. As an international painter and stained-glass designer von Degenfeld has exhibited in Rome, Paris, Salzburg, and New York, but this was the first time her work has been shown in London. 

She received her training as an artist and restorer by interning in studios of artists in various European countries and by studying at the Art Academy in Munich. Her semi-abstract paintings bring joy and colour primarily because, as she has said, 'painting means to me experiencing God’s generosity.'

Philippe Lejeune has written that: 

'Veronica seeks beauty as one seeks God, `feeling her way along´. She feels with the ultramarine and discovers that it is heaven etched out between the leaves.

From here, this painter invents an artificial order of things in which she both creates the rules and is keen to submit herself to them. She knows well that her created order is a reflection of her own being and that this is how she honours her Creator. She chooses as her model the laws of observation and concludes with the necessity of cause and effect. By inventing her own rules she submits herself to her Creator´s order.

The more free the artist is, the more faithful she is - realism in painting is like quotations in a text - one must choose either to represent, or to invent a way that traces the order things. The talent in all this can be compared to the foreign body that provokes that marvelous nugget within a mollusk, a pearl. For the artist, talent is this fruitful suffering, never to be satisfied with what the eye perceives.

While we are making comparisons, Veronica´s painting reminds me of Messiaen´s music. Bird songs melt into the noble artistry of the instruments so that the music does not disturb the prayer of the listener.'

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Bob Marley - Thank You Lord.

Exhibition of Contemporary Religious Art

Although it is over, it is still worth checking out the Exhibition of Contemporary Religious Art that was recently held in the Exhibition Hall of the Angel Ayala Memorial in Madrid.

The exhibition aimed to answer a series of questions that many people who love art and culture can ask themselves: is there today a religious art that responds to the same parameters that define avant-garde art? Are there contemporary artists who develop themes similar to those that, throughout history, have shaped and transmitted the main symbolic values ​​of Christianity?

The curator's answer was that we can indeed find a series of contemporary artists, who express, through the most avant-garde abstraction, their intense relationship with God. And, in turn, they transmit that sensation to the one who tries to interpret that message, allowing the one who looks at the work, also to enter into direct connection with God. As St. John Paul II said, "Art must make the world of the spirit, of the invisible, of God, perceptible - even more fascinating as possible." This exhibition allowed a deep reflection of the transcendent, based on the creative effort of these artists.

The exhibition was curated by the painter María Tarruella Oriol , who had already directed the exhibition “ART + FE. Christians in Contemporary Art ”, in 2011 on the occasion of the World Youth Day in Madrid. María selected a series of works by artists, Spaniards, such as Alberto Guerrero, Josép Cárceles, Matoya Martínez Echevarría or Alejandro Mañas and others, such as the Liberian Eugene Perry, the Chilean Sarai Aser, the German Veronica von Degenfeld or the Japanese Julie Quin, along with many others.

Since its foundation, last year, the Karol Wojtyla-S Institute. John Paul II, could not ignore his interest in the world of art that he expressed in his "Letter to Artists", dated 1999. In it, St. John Paul says that, "To convey the message that Christ He has trusted, the Church needs art.”

This exhibition showed that artists who express themselves through abstraction have found a suitable channel to express their relationship with God.

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Lucrezia Orsina Vizana - Sonet vox tua - Protector noster