Is the Art world anti-Christian?

Tyler Green's interesting and perceptive 'Art and Life' piece in the April edition of Modern Painters asked the question 'Is the Art World anti-Christian?' By doing so, Green followed the current trend in mainstream Art magazines to discuss the relationship between Art and Christianity without then taking the next step and giving significant examples of active modern or contemporary engagement between Christianity and the visual arts (see my post on the Art and Religion edition of frieze). Green ultimately presents only part of the story while arriving at the accurate conclusion that, while certainly not being anti-Christian, the art world seems ambivalent, conflicted or indifferent to Christian engagement with contemporary art:

"Given that the American people are conflicted about religion, it shouldn’t be a surprise that our artists and art institutions are too. As I worked on this column, I searched and searched for scholarly museum exhibitions that chronicle how today’s artists examine religion. I couldn’t find a single one. The only curator or critic I could find who has addressed religion in contemporary art in depth is James Elkins, who teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Elkins’s 2004 book "On the Strange Place of Religion in Contemporary Art" didn’t exactly kick off a flurry of discourse. Take that as another indicator of the art world’s indifference toward religion." 

Green's article focussed particularly on the way in which museums display their collections of Christian art making some astute observations along the way. The changing approaches to this issue that Scott Schafer speaks about in the article are not only a current phenomenon. For example, the latest edition of 'Art and Christianity' includes a review of A Place for Meaning: Art, Faith and Museum Culture which "reads like a thoughtful how-to: how to display, explain and make relevant religious art to a wide museum constituency." The book's reviewer Ena Heller writes of having had to address the same issues of how to educate a secular or multi-faith public without alienating the community of the faithful when she was, in the early 2000s, "struggling to articulate a vision and a realistic strategy" for the Museum of Biblical Art in New York. Heller wrote in 2004’s Reluctant Partners: Art and Religion in Dialogue that recent years had witnessed an increased dialogue, through both exhibitions and publications, and that "museums are ideally positioned to advance this dialogue, as they bridge the worlds of religion, art, and scholarship." Such work, however, is generally under-reported.

As we have noted Green writes of being unable to find scholarly museum exhibitions that chronicle how today’s artists examine religion and of James Elkins being the only curator or critic who has addressed religion in contemporary art in depth. Again, he is right in terms of what features on the radar of the mainstream art world but again there is much that is significant which goes under-reported. Periodic exhibitions chronicling how contemporary artists have examined religion have been held such as Beyond Belief: Modern Art and the Religious Imagination (Australia), Perceptions of the Spirit in 20th-Century American Art and The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting 1890–1985 (US), Prophecy and Vision (UK), and Traces du Sacré (France). While such exhibitions have been few and far between they indicate that there is a largely untold story of Christian engagement with the development of Modern Art which includes:

• the work of Adams, Aitchison, Barlach, Bazaine, Bernard, Boyd, Camilleri, Chircop, Cingria, Cocteau, Collins, Congdon, Denis, Desvallieres, Dottori, Feibusch, Filla, Finster, French, Gill, Gleizes, Herbert, Hone, Jellett, Jones, Kalleya, Kurelek, Manessier, Mehoffer, Minne, Morgan, Nesterov, Nolde, Piper, Previati, Rohlfs, Rouault, Serusier, Servaes, Severini, Smith, Spencer, Souza, Sutherland, Toorop, van de Woestyne, Van Rees, Verkade, Vrubel, among others;
• the writings of Christian philosophers and theologians who engaged specifically with the visual arts such as Hans Urs Von Balthazar, Jane and John Dillenberger, Jacques Maritain, Hans Rookmaaker, Calvin Seervald, Mark Taylor, Paul Tillich, and Nicholas Wolterstorff, among others;
• the commissioning of contemporary artists to create work for churches that was initiated in France by Couturier and Regamy (Assy, Ronchamp, Vence), in Britain by Bell and Hussey (St Matthews Northampton and Chichester Cathedral) and by Bogucki during the Sacrum period in Poland; and
• the building of modern churches - see, for example, Contemporary Church Architecture by Heathcote and Moffatt or Architectural Guide to Christian Sacred Buildings in Europe Since 1950: From Aalto to Zumthor by Stock.

Such engagement continues into the contemporary scene with:

• the work of artists such as: Breninger, Cazalet, Fujimura, Hawkinson, Howson, Kenton Webb, Nowosielski, Rollins and KOS, Spackman and Westerfrölke;
• exhibitions organised by the Wallspace Gallery which over its four year lifespan essentially surveyed the diversity of contemporary religious engagement with the arts including shows with Chapman Brothers, Douglas Camp, Hirst, Pacheco, Taylor-Wood, iconographers, visionary artists, and contemporary artists commissioned by churches;
• exhibitions/events such as: Crucible, a review of British sculpture held at Gloucester Cathedral; Enrique Martínez Celaya's recent The Crossing project at the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine; and the King James Bible Bash in the recent London Word festival; and
• a continuing stream of church commissions for contemporary artists including Cox, Emin, Gormley, Houshiary and Plensa, among others.

There is then much Christian engagement with Art that mainstream Art magazines could cover, critique and debate. While there are undoubtedly significant issues with the forms of engagement through which Christians engage with the Arts, it does seem to be the case that the ambivalence, conflicts or indifference that Green notes in the mainstream Art world also contribute to this lack of coverage.

Following on from Green's article, could Modern Painters break the mould by featuring or surveying the kind of work noted above, demonstrating that there is actually more to the art world's engagement with Christianity than ambivalence, conflict or indifference?

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The Innocence Mission - You Chase the Light.

Airbrushed from Art History (23)

Wallspace, the exhibition venue in the church of All Hallows on the Wall in the City of London which had as its aim to provide a spiritual home for the visual arts in the capital, closed at the end of February. After four very successful years, like many arts organisations currently, they struggled to secure the stable finance needed to ensure their future.

Wallspace achieved a huge amount in the past four years by highlighting the extent to which spirituality features within the mainstream art world and showcasing the breadth and diversity of those artists who express their faith commitment through their work or engage positively with the Church as a patron. The vision for, and achievements of, Wallspace were developed principally by its Director, freelance curator Meryl Doney.
 
As the email bringing the sad news of Wallspace's demise stated: "There really isn't anything else quite like Wallspace, with its dedicated focus on contemporary art that explored rich and challenging spiritual territory, in its spectacular 18th century sacred setting. We are proud of everything we've achieved since we began in March 2007. From our opening exhibition of Damien Hirst's New Religion, which examined issues of truth and human obsessions, to our final show Commission, which showcased the extraordinary breadth and depth of art in churches across the UK. Wallspace has established a benchmark for quality, variety and vigour."

The highlights from four years of Wallspace exhibitions showcase the breadth of an under-reported rich and challenging exploration of spiritual territory to be found in contemporary art:

• Damien Hirst's New Religion included an altar holding a cedar cross studded with gem-like pills, a child's skull and a heart wrapped in barbed wire and pierced by needles and razor blades, cast in silver, and a large carved marble pill. One complete set of prints and sculptural objects were displayed in a specially constructed devotional case or reliquary. And, so struck was Damien Hirst with the church's interior that he has also produced three large new paintings made specifically to hang behind the altar at All Hallows.
• 
  Sokari Douglas Camp's The World is Richer centred around new work for the bicentenary of the abolition of slavery. The Wallspace exhibition featured a number of steel maquettes representing the artist's thinking towards a major public memorial in London's Hyde Park to mark the 2007 bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade.
• Sam Taylor-Wood's Pietà, Ascension and Prelude in Air brought together three distinctive film pieces that include biblical and religious references, and spiritual resonances. They explored ideas of presence and absence, performance and vulnerability. The first two films made direct reference to traditional, western Christian iconography. The third presented a musician who is totally engaged with the Bach prelude he is playing, but he is performing the work without his cello. The music and the man are palpably present; the instrument that links the two is absent.
• For Epiphany Wallspace gathered together 15 contemporary, traditional iconographers who live and work in the UK for what was the first exhibition to get the work of the very best iconographers in Britain together in one place. All the icons shown were contemporary but nonetheless were produced in the traditional manner, using authentic ancient designs and methods. The exhibition was timely, given the current revival of interest in icons and their increasing appearance in cathedrals and parish churches across the country.
• In Memória Roubada (Stolen Memories) Ana Maria Pacheco, previously Associate Artist at the National Gallery, showed a dramatic 2-piece work for the first time. Her powerful and disturbing painted wooden sculptures Memória Roubada I and II confronted ideas of displaced people and severed cultures - results of the colonisation of Brazil.
• Visionaries: working in the margins was Wallspace's exploration of the work of visionary painters from Stanley Spencer to the Chapman Brothers arranged so that visitors were 'led' through the work from 20th to 21st century. The paintings looked stunning in the church, setting up dialogues between the artists and across a time span of 85 years.
• The Collection showed highlights and new works from the Methodist collection of modern and contemporary art. In the early 1960s John Gibbs, an art collector and Methodist layman, realising that many contemporary artists were concerned with themes from the life of Christ, decided to create a collection of such work. With the help of Methodist minister Douglas Wollen, he acquired paintings and reliefs, which became the core of the Methodist Church Collection of Modern Christian Art – described as ‘the best denominational collection of modern art outside the Vatican’.
• Commission: An exhibition of contemporary art in British churches took the story of commissioning contemporary art for British churches up to the present day. Starting with Henry Moore’s remarkable, and at the time highly controversial, altar for St Stephen Walbrook, the exhibition highlighted the work of 14 artists who have taken on the challenge of a permanent work for a religious space. Major recent commissions for the Lumen Centre URC church and St Martin in the Fields London, and Tracey Emin’s neon artwork for Liverpool Anglican Cathedral were all represented.

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Low - Weight of Water.

Commission: contemporary art in British churches

Much has been written about the ground-breaking efforts of twentieth century church art patronage, including the work of Marie-Alain Couturier and Pie-Raymond Régamey in France and George Bell and Walter Hussey in England. However much of this narrative, in the UK at least, peters out after the inauguration of Coventry Cathedral some fifty years ago. Commission, the current exhibition at the Wallspace Gallery, and the Art + Christianity Enquiry monograph Contemporary Art in British Churches seek to bring that story up-to-date.

Artists featured in Commission include Tracey Emin, Henry Moore, Craigie Aitchison, Mark Cazalet, Stephen Cox, Chris Gollon, Shirazeh Houshiary, Iain McKillop, Rona Smith and Alison Watt. The exhibition shows a key work by each artist together with installation photographs, drawings, maquettes and other documentation of the commissioned pieces.

The central argument of Contemporary Art in British Churches is that we are witnessing something of a renaissance of commissioned art for churches and cathedrals in this country. Paul Bayley argues that this upsurge of commissioning from the church sees many significant contemporary artists, such as those featured in Commission, creating art for church spaces. The approach underpinning this upsurge is, therefore, synonymous with that of Couturier and Régamey who argued that "each generation must appeal to the masters of living art, and today those masters come first from secular art."

Alan Green has provided a theological underpinning to this approach in the collaborative book by Chris Gollon and Sara Maitland based on Gollon's Stations of the Cross at St John on Bethnal Green; a commission which features in both the exhibition and monograph. In his Afterword Green points out that "Jesus was not afraid to associate with, and be looked after by, those who were not seen as good Jews ... Those who approached Jesus and seem to have got the best responses from him were not the religious elite, but those with no particular religious standing who nevertheless recognised something special in him and presented themselves honestly." As a result, he says "it seemed important to share this project with an artist who could come at the themes without the perspective of a shared faith." Maitland concurs saying, "I have come to think that there are real advantages, when working on themes about the Incarnation, in having an artist who is not an active Christian or, try as we will, the "God-bits" creep back in."

Maitland contrasts Gollon's powerful images with "the innumerable images of a rather soppy-looking Jesus, tidily and gracefully - if non-anatomically - pinned to his cross with not a wrinkle of pain on his forehead." Bayley too sets up a similar opposition between the significant contemporary artists participating in this upsurge of commissioning from the church and "self-styled 'Christian art' that though sincere and well-intentioned" is "often formulaic or decorative" and (tellingly) has "little or no standing within the art world."

There would seem to be here a danger of exchanging a religious elite for an artistic elite - the "loose amalgam of artists, curators, public and private galleries, art consultants and publishers" who, as Bayley notes, increasingly inhabit their own architecture, develop their own hierarchies and language, and expand the borders of their own ecosystem that to the outsider, and many an insider, can be opaque and excluding.

Although this reality is noted in the monograph, many of the criteria used to praise significant contemporary artists and dismiss self-styled 'Christian art' are drawn directly from this artistic elite. Contemporary art, for example, is viewed as 'challenging' and 'difficult' and is therefore a "critical dissenting activity" which changes the way we view the world as opposed to a lot of art commissioned for churches which reinforces the context, being decorative rather than transformative. However, the crowds which throng Tate Modern and other contemporary art galleries have been seen by some as evidence that contemporary art is 'populist' and 'easily understandable.' Conceptual art, it can be argued, is simply the illustration of ideas and once the concept has been grasped there is little left to contemplate. There are also legitimate questions that can be asked about the engagement of the art establishment in capitalism and of the extent to which spirituality in the arts provides a veneer for consumerism. These perspectives seem to rarely be heard within the arts world, and don't feature within this monograph, but dissenting voices should be heard if only to ensure that the current arts establishment does not become complacent.

Generalised and stereotypical oppositions of "significant contemporary artists" and "self-styled" Christian artists have always been characteristic of those who have argued for contemporary art in preference to earlier styles, whether the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood or Couturier and Régamey. What changes in these arguments is often simply the object of attack, as the previously avant-garde becomes passé. In contrast to such generalisations, what always truly counts in the visual arts is a sustained and contemplative viewing of works themselves which will realise depth of composition and insight within both the best of what is currently considered contemporary and what is currently considered traditional. This, to my mind, has been one of the strengths of the Wallspace Gallery with its embrace of, for example, conceptual, iconographic and visionary art.

There is a second exclusionary issue with a sole or primary focus on "significant contemporary artists" in church commissions which is that of cost. Much of the upsurge in church commissions of such artists has been publicly funded and Bayley notes that "in the wake of the credit crunch and public spending cuts the new austerity will slow the recent surge of Church commissioning." While the monograph contains some examples of local churches engaging with "the whole twenty-first century apparatus of arts consultants, planning stages and public consultations," such engagement is more suited to and more viable for Cathedrals and City centre churches. Local churches can therefore either feel excluded from or simply not consider the possibility of commissioning contemporary art.

If such churches are to be included in the upsurge of church commissions then they are likely of necessity, for reasons of access and cost, to engage with a different grouping of artists who will predominantly be those with local/regional, as opposed to national/interational, reputations. Generalised oppositions, such as that made by Bayley, are likely to discourage and depress such engagement because of the sense communicated of such commissions being second-rate. However where local churches genuinely take a sustained and contemplative look at the work of such artists creative commissions can result despite the absence of perceived 'significant' contemporary artists.

It is my experience, through commission4mission, that there are significant numbers of contemporary artists who are engaging with both faith and art yet who do not feel included by or engaged by the existing faith and art organisations and therefore lack networks for encouragement, debate, and connection to commissioning churches. It is also my experience, again through commission4mission, that the issues which seem to prevent a widespread involvement of local churches with commissions of contemporary art can be overcome through a different form of engagement to that which underpins the commissions highlighted by the ACE monograph.

I agree with Bayley that there has been a real and exciting upsurge in church commissions which builds on the twentieth century achievements of Couturier and Hussey, among others, and which is well documented by this monograph and Commission. Within this upsurge, I for one, wish to see the active encouragement and development of emerging artists and regional arts networks as another tier of such commissioning and as fertile ground for future creativity. My critique of aspects of the survey found in this monologue comes from this perspective and in this cause.

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Duke Special - Portrait.    

Collecting modern & contemporary art

Fascinating contrasts in collecting were on show tonight during the Artist's evening held at the Wallspace Gallery.

The current gallery exhibition shows highlights from the Methodist Collection of modern and cotemporary art. This collection was established in the early 1960s by John Gibbs, an art collector and Methodist layman, who found the artistic quality of much 'religious art' and church furnishings very poor. He created a touring collection of work by contemporary artists exploring themes from the life of Christ to encourage a more imaginative approach to the commissioning and buying of paintings, sculpture and church furnishings. Gibbs invited the Rev. Douglas Wollen to create the Collection and gave him a largely free hand to decide the nature of the Collection and the artists and works to be included.

Similar freedom was given to Stuart Evans, who spoke during the evening on 'Obsessive Collecting', by the law firm Simmons & Simmons, of which he was a partner, in building up their collection of contemporary art primarily focussed on the YBA's. At the time, for a company to collect art by seeking out work early in the careers of contemporary artists was to break new ground and led to Evans building friendships with many of the artists whose work he collected, both corporately and privately. Simmons & Simmons differentiated themselves in their market by collecting contemporary art and their collection brought potential clients to the company. Evans emphasised that, although art collecting is not necessarily a great investment strategy, he is not embarrassed by the commercial side of the collections including his most recent work, together with a club of 12 members each investing in the venture, the Lodeveans Collection which is focussed on modern and contemporary Latin American art.

Although the Methodist Collection has returned in more recent years to a practice of buying and commissioning new work, it has remained primarily within the parameters of figurative work relating to the life of Christ. Therefore, there is little connection between the artists and the styles of work in the Methodist Collection and the collections which Stuart Evans has built. While there is undoubtedly room for and value in both, the contrast raises the question as to whether Church commissions of artworks are genuinely contemporary or actually reflect the tastes and styles of earlier generations.

This question may be answered by the autumn exhibition at Wallspace which will examine contemporary Church commissions.

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Television - Guiding Light.

Highlights & new works for the Methodist Collection of Art

Wallspace is about to embark on their fourth year of operation with an exciting world premier of new painting for what has been described as “the best denominational collection of modern art outside the Vatican.”

The Collection: Highlights and new works for the Methodist collection of modern and contemporary art

23 June – 16 July 2010. Wallspace, All Hallows on the Wall, 83 London Wall, EC2M 5ND
Tuesday - Friday 12am – 6pm. Saturday 11am – 4pm. Nearest tube Liverpool Street or Moorgate. For directions go to www.wallspace.org.uk. Admission free.

Wallspace is delighted to host some great paintings from this remarkable collection. It is part of their vision to bring significant works of contemporary art to the City of London – and the fact that this exhibition will form part of the City of London Festival’s annual celebration of the arts is a real bonus.


This exhibition is the first opportunity to see significant new acquisitions and loans from major artists such as Craigie Aitchison, Susie Hamilton, Clive Hicks-Jenkins, Peter Howson, David Jones, John Muafangejo, He Qi, Sadao Watanabe and Roger Wagner.


Methodist Publishing and the Collection trustees will also take this opportunity to launch the new Guide to the Collection with an introduction by art critic and former Turner Prize judge Richard Cork.


During The Collection Wallspace will be hosting a number of special events. Here are just some of them:

• Artists' evening - Thursday 24 June, 7 – 9pm. Sold your Soul? Artists and collectors discuss their different perspectives on acquiring, or being acquired for, a collection. Open to all artists.


• Bible Society Reception and Tour of the Exhibition - 29 June, 7 – 9pm. An opportunity to view this unique collection of modern and contemporary art on the life of Christ, in the company of Luke Walton, Culture Programme Manager, Bible Society and Meryl Doney, exhibition curator and Director of Wallspace.


• Friends of the Methodist Art Collection - Thursday 1 July, 6.30 for 7 – 9pm. Reception and special viewing of the exhibition with an opportunity to meet some of the artists with works in the Collection. All welcome.


• Methodist Churches Late Opening - Tuesday 6 July, 6 – 8pm. Late night opening and tour of the exhibition, for members of all London Methodist churches.


• Moot Community Visit - Wednesday 7 July, 7.35 – 8.30. Late night opening for members of Moot Community, St Edmund the King & St Mary Woolnoth, Lombard Street EC3V 9EA.

Part of the City of London Festival programme 21 June – 9 July 2010. See http://irun.yourcrm.co.uk/app/e/l/289292/13105/367/22886.aspx for details.

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Sufjan Stevens - The Transfiguration.

Wallspace exhibition: Richard Gilbert

Here is advance information from Wallspace on their next exhibition - Envisage: a sculptural journey, 10 March – 3 April 2010, Richard Gilbert.

This exhibition of fourteen huge and impressive heads by Richard Gilbert takes us into Easter. The fact that there are 14 sculptures refers to the traditional 'Stations of the Cross', but this is no conventional piece of religious iconography. Each of these, sometimes fearsome, heads is deliberately made using different materials, expressing separate ideas, moods and resonances. Consequently – depending on one's perspective – they may act as a challenging sculptural journey or as the basis for pilgrimage, offering an opportunity for meditation in the run-up to Easter. Whichever way they are approached this collection of heads is a tour de force.

Richard Gilbert is a practicing artist and teacher of Art. He undertook postgraduate Study in Fine Art at Chelsea School of Art, London during 1983-84 where he gained the Barclays Bank Painting Award. Subsequently he was an Abbey Major Scholarship in Painting at the British School a Rome 1984-85. He travelled to the United States on a Harkness Fellowship to study at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (MFA Program) 1987-89. Recent one-person exhibitions include: Touching Silence - Hereford Museum and Art Gallery, 2002: Fourteen at Leominster Priory Church, Herefordshire and Fourteen at Worcester Cathedral in 2006. Passage, Beardsmore Gallery, London 2000. His work is held in public and private collections including amongst others, Arthur Anderson, Barclays Bank, Clifford Chance, Lloyds of London and Unilever, as well as in the Plymouth Art Gallery and Museum, the Contemporary Art Society, the De Beers Collection and the Victoria Art Gallery, Melbourne.

From 22 June – 16 July, Wallspace will present a world premiere of works recently acquired for the much-loved Methodist Art Collection, together with some of the existing gems. The exhibition will also be part of the City of London Festival 2010.

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The Low Anthem - Home I'll Never Be.

Greenbelt diary (2)

'Visionaries' exhibition

Paintings by Clive Hicks-Jenkins in the 'Visionaries' exhibition

Paintings by Phillipa Claydon in the 'Visionaries' exhibition

Sixpence None the Richer

Sixpence None the Richer

My Greenbelt began, as is often the case (and one of the best reasons for going), by an unplanned meeting with friends and the chance to share some food together as we swapped notes on what we planned to see and do over the Festival.

One of the first things that I did was to visit the Visionaries exhibition and chat with its curators, Meryl & Malcolm Doney from the Wallspace gallery. The exhibition brings together a selection of recent and contemporary artists working in the Visionary Art tradition - which has its roots in the work of William Blake, Goya and Samuel Palmer – i.e. those who explore with passion the territories of the spiritual, the religious and the human condition. This version of the exhibition, which was originally shown at Wallspace, had a slightly reduced range of artists exhibited but this had the positive effect that some of the less well known artists in the exhibition, such Clive Hicks-Jenkins, Phillipa Claydon, Harry Adams and Brian Whelan, could be more fully represented.

Dave Tomlinson spoke about 'Church without borders' by viewing conversion as a process and way of life and churches as the hands, feet and heart of Christ in their communities. His talk seemed to me to be a summary of what I see us being to a limited extent and what I want us to become more fully at St Johns Seven Kings and, as a result, I will post separately a fuller set of notes from this session.

In an aside he spoke about Jesus writing in sand which led on to my writing the following meditation:

You wrote
in sand
impermanent
washed away
in rain
swept away
by hand
You wrote
in speech
unrecorded
no scribes
journos or
dictaphones
at your feet
You wrote
in flesh
crucified
breath hammered
and beaten
from your
lungs

You wrote
in sand
a pregnant
pause
causing stones
to fall
from condemning
hands
You wrote
in speech
everyday
stories
turning our
worlds
upside down
You wrote
in flesh
an emptying
of self
filling
empty lives
with love

Finally Sixpence None The Richer played a great set which included most of their very wonderful Divine Discontent album, some crowd-pleasers in 'Kiss Me' and 'There She Goes', as well as new material for their next album. Matt Slocum and Leigh Nash went their separate ways after making Divine Discontent as Matt explained in the Greenbelt programme: "Leigh and I had been making music together since we were teenagers. As we approached our 30s, there was a bit of restlessness to explore other things, but in the midst of this exploration, I felt a void open up, like I needed to be making music with Leigh." I, for one, am glad to see them reunited and making great music together.

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Sixpence None the Richer - Melody of You.

C4M webpage update (11)

It's been a busy week on the commission4mission webpage beginning with a post on the Art in Religious Spaces consultation which we attended midweek at the Wallspace Gallery. Then there was a post of an article about commission4 mission that was published in the Veritasse Artisan's newsletter and two posts of photos and reports from our Art Installation workshop at the 'Fun in the Park' event for Barkingside.

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Delirious? - Majesty (Here I Am).

Visionaries

Visionaries is a sampling of Visionary Art which moves forward chronologically and selectively from Stanley Spencer to Street Artists while referencing Blake and Goya as giants on whose shoulders all Visionary Artists stand.

The exhibition sets up a series of polarities that derive, on the one hand, from Blake’s visions of spiritual reality breaking into the material world and on the other, from Goya’s nightmares revelling in the material reality of death and decay. The two are opposed as twin gateways at the exhibition’s entrance where a Stanley Spencer study for the Betrayal in the Garden, in which the everyday provides the setting for the mythic, faces down two of the Chapman Brothers’ revised and improved etchings from Los Caprichos, in which Goya’s original images of human vice are themselves defaced and destroyed.

The strongest works in this exhibition are those which work with these polarities in place of resolving them in one direction alone. Noel White’s Downland Discourse features three travellers walking between the parallel worlds of flesh and spirit with the central character of the three holding together the polarities towards which his colleagues veer. The Black Madonna of Norman Adams is integrated into the garden in which she stands, her form echoed by the natural geometry of which she is part. Here, darkness and light form one whole.

Crossing the Water to the Promised Land by Albert Herbert depicts turmoil and upheaval as a baptism through which we pass to emerge as children returning home. Peter Howson Legion portrays the violent expulsion of the demonic in the claustrophobic context of a fevered crowd by a Christ who is calmness personified. Adam Neate creates an icon of suffering humanity by transcending his transient materials of cardboard and spray paint, a reversal of iconographic technique and materials.

Meryl Doney, who has curated Visionaries, writes of Visionary Art as existing on the margins of contemporary art yet stubbornly refusing to wither and die. Its place can be that of the unheard, unregarded prophet, the holy fool crying out in the wilderness. Its strength, and that of this exhibition, is the vigour and passion with which the spiritual and material territories of the human condition are explored.

Visionaries is at the Wallspace Gallery, London, 20 May to 10 June and Greenbelt Arts Festival, Cheltenham, 28 to 31 August.

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Bob Dylan - Every Grain Of Sand.

News from Wallspace

News from Wallspace:

Last chance to see 189 Miles Wool installation by Angela Wright - This has been a great experience and is coming to an end on Monday 13th April, come and take the opportunity to see it over this bank holiday! We're open 11am - 4pm. Over 600 people have come to see the work so far, here are a few of their responses:

• Impressive work. Impressive setting.
• Lovely to see light and shade passing across the work.
• I must admit it was my first time visiting the space and I thought Angela Wright’s installation was just excellent – really worked in harmony with the space, remarkably avoiding any overt religious symbolism which I found fascinating. Beautiful work, and I sincerely hope to visit Wallspace again in the future!
• I LOVE Angela’s piece, found it mesmerizing and fantastical, desperate to touch and stroke it, took supreme effort to leave it alone. Images of Rapunzel, Miss Haversham, and Gabriel kept coming to mind! Ultimately, felt it was about ‘grace’ in some strange way.

Next Exhibition: VISIONAIRIES working in the margins (May 19 – June 11 2009) - An exhibition of works and performance by artists on the edge – visionary artists whose work is set outside or on the fringes of cultural institutions, often offering a trenchant critique of culture.

Visionaries brings together artists working in this honourable and challenging tradition; essentially those who explore with passion the territories of the spiritual, the religious and the human condition.

The exhibition will include works by Stanley Spencer and Cecil Collins of the twentieth century, mid-twentieth-century paintings by Norman Adams, Albert Herbert and Anthony Goble, later painters such as Peter Howson, Clive Hicks-Jenkins and Brian Whelan, and twenty-first-century artists such as the Chapman brothers, Billy Childish and Adam Neate.

The visionary tradition can also be confrontational – evoking the anger and stridency of the prophetic voice throughout history. The artist can be the outsider, the 'voice crying in the wilderness', the holy fool. For this reason, the exhibition includes performance artists whose work references this rich tradition.

The exhibition, curated by Wallspace will be on show at All Hallows from 19 May to 11 June. It will then travel to Greenbelt Arts Festival, at Cheltenham Racecourse, August Bank Holiday weekend, 25 to 31 August.

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Lou Reed & Victoria Williams - Tarbelly & Featherfoot.

commission4mission members & news

Peter Shorer

Harvey Bradley

Rosalind Hore

Joy Rousell Stone

Michael Creasey

commission4mission is growing following our launch at the beginning of March. Our artist members who are available for commissions are as follows:

• Harvey Bradley: My creative work includes: Stoneware and Porcelain pottery (domestic with ecclesiastical commissions); Oil Paintings (reflective, figurative subjects that are open to prayerful interpretation); and Designs for banners (carried out by Emmanuel banner group).
• Alexander Chaplin has been appointed Music Director of East London Chorus from April 2009. Educated as a chorister at Canterbury Cathedral, he held the organ scholarships at Lincoln Cathedral and Lincoln College, Oxford, where he read Music, before studying conducting and organ at the Royal College of Music under Neil Thomson, Edwin Roxburgh and Nicholas Danby; he participated in masterclasses with George Hurst, Paul Goodwin and Sir Peter Maxwell-Davies. He graduated from the RCM with distinction and as a major prize-winner. In February 2008 Alexander was invited to participate in a competitive masterclass in St Petersburg with Alexander Polishchuk, from which he emerged as one of the prizewinning conductors.
• Anne Creasey: Textile artist and embroider working in a variety of styles from traditional to abstract and experimental. Also very interested in helping people discover their spirituality through the creative process.
• Michael Creasey: A serious amateur painter who has sold a good amount of work over the years, including a number of commissions. I am not especially a religious painter, as I mainly paint portraits and figure studies, but I do also paint abstract works which tap into emotional and spiritual aspects of my life and reflect my Christianity.
• Jonathan Evens paints in a symbolic expressionist style and has facilitated the involvement of churches in a range of public art projects. His arts journalism has featured in publications including 'Art & Christianity' and 'The Church Times'. He is also a creative writer (meditations, poetry, short stories, and a blog) and is the Vicar of St John the Evangelist Seven Kings. Jonathan is the Secretary for commission4mission.
• David Hawkins: The Bishop of Barking is the Patron of commission4mission and a practising artist in his own right. Predominantly a landscape painter, he has also participated in a collaborative art project with Pippa Hale and Stuart Tarbuck for Situation Leeds. Mene Mene located 13 New Testament texts around Leeds city centre in a variety of formats from high profile banners and adverts on bus shelters, to more intimate plaques on benches and handwritten signs. Some were affirming and instructive, whilst others were more predictive and challenging.
• Rosalind Hore: I am a sculptor and painter of Christian subject – Christ figures, nativity sets, Ecce Homo, Stations of the Cross etc. I work in clay, plaster, concrete (figures can also be bronze cast at the foundry). My paintings are mostly in acrylic of the events in the life of Christ. Rosalind’s Pieta is currently on display at St Laurence’s Upminster.
• Mark Lewis: Mark is an artist, silversmith, Arts Lecturer at London Metropolitan University and Chair of Faith & Image. He has undertaken drawing and painting in a Christian context and has designed and made Church plate.
• Henry Shelton is a noted painter of religious art in a contemporary style. He trained as an apprentice draughtsman in a London studio developing his drawing skills in lettering and fine art. After 15 years he set up his own studio receiving many commissions to design for such clients as the Science Museum, Borough Councils, private and corporate bodies. In recent years he has worked designing in studios across the world, including Hong Kong and the USA. Throughout this time he has painted Christian art and his commissions include an Ascension installed as an Altar piece in the Church of the Saviour, Chell Heath; the Millennium clock tower in Goodmayes and, most recently, the memorial etched glass windows in All Saints Church, Goodmayes, depicting events in the life of Jesus. Henry is the Chair of commission4mission.
• Peter Shorer: Museum trained Conservator and Archeologist commissioned to mould original antiquities for reproduction in bronze, gold, silver and pewter.
• Joy Rousell Stone: Studied under John Nash, Edward Bawden, Stanley Spencer, Edward Ardizzone at Royal College of Art. Many one man shows. Favourite subject matters: The Holy Land, Egypt, Greece, Italy (especially Assisi) and USA. All media. Retired Head of Art & Design at The Plume School, Maldon, Essex.
• Martin Webster: I am interested in promoting Christian Art as a form of engaging with the gospel. I paint (oils and acrylics) particularly 'sacred spaces' usually forest/landscape views.

We are currently planning towards the following events:

• Four commission4mission members will exhibit in the Pentecost Festival Art Exhibition (30th May at Central Hall Westminster).
• An art workshop for the 'Fun in the Park' event being organised by Holy Trinity Barkingside on Saturday 13th June 2009. Workshop participants will be asked to create an artwork that says something about themselves. These will be hung on a large wooden cross which will be displayed at Holy Trinity Barkingside after the event.
• An invitation to exhibit at All Saints West Ham for the West Ham Festival from 20th - 27th June 2009.
• A concert given by the East London Chorus conducted by Alexander Chaplin at All Saints' Goodmayes on 17th October 2009. Artworks by commission4mission members will also be on display.
• exhibition (2nd - 7th November) and Study Day (7th November) featuring the Bishop of Barking, Dean of Chelmsford Cathedral, DAC Chair and commission4mission artists at Chelmsford Cathedral.
  

We have recently been awarded a grant by the London Over The Border Council to produce a catalogue of commission4mission artists and activities to encourage Churches to commission contemporary Christian Art.

We have also been contacted by Wallspace, a gallery based in All Hallows on the Wall, as part of promoting networks and partnerships exploring the relationship between contemporary art and spirituality.

We have recently set up a website for commission4mission which can be viewed by clicking here.

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Maurice Durufle - Requiem, Op. 9, Agnus Dei.

Lumia Domestica

Lumia Domestica is the current exhibition at Wallspace and an ongoing series of works investigating the transformative power of light. In the pieces featured in this exhibition Willie Williams, stage designer for U2, transforms the ordinary glassware from which each piece derives into ethereal, abstract and constantly changing light paintings by means of projectors and turntables. His aim is to discover beauty in unlikely places.

Watch an interview with Willie Williams about the exhibition here to see what I mean and I guarantee you'll want get your skates on to see these pieces for yourself before the exhibition ends on 12th December.

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U2 - Running To Stand Still.

Review of 'Memoria Roubada'

Bookended by bookcase and cupboard, Ana Maria Pacheco’s two Memória Roubada sculptures face each other across a pavement of slate slabs forming a space for the contemplation of suffering.

In this space we come and go throughout the private view blithely speaking of Pacheco, the power and perfection of her art and, in one conversation, offering a jar of 19th century hand-made nails for the artist to drive into future creations of mutilated heads.

And yet I speak with a man who, claiming no artistic sensitivity, feels “got in the gut” by Pacheco’s severed head of John the Baptist which, gashed by chain saw, charred by flame and pierced by nails, rests on a large wooden platter placed on the font of All Hallows on the Wall, the church which houses the gallery in which this exhibition is displayed. In Pacheco’s hands, this church has been released from the safeness of a thousand crucifixes into a real reflection on the reality of torture and its instruments that in turn revives awareness of the suffering which is at the very heart of our faith.

This man is joined at the private view by a National Gallery custodian who having, like myself, walked among the disturbing and unsettling figures forming Pacheco’s Dark Night of the Soul tableau, first exhibited at the National in 1999, had been irresistibly drawn to view more of Pacheco’s work tonight. Such response is the true power of her art.

In Memória Roubada I six heads seem to burst from a cupboard whose doors have been flung wide open. In Pacheco’s Brazilian culture such cupboards are oratories housing statues of saints or the Holy Family and used as private chapels for prayer. Pacheco’s oratory is far more disturbing containing disembodied heads - screaming, still, fearful and anxious – deriving from ballads which immortalised the deeds of Brazilian bandits who were decapitated when caught. Memories of the violence both of their actions and of the vengeance enacted on them by the colonial power bursts from Pacheco’s oratory, each head retaining the emotion of their final moments in the features of their faces.

Memória Roubada II is a calmer work containing fifteen smaller heads and pierced torsos placed symmetrically on the shelves of a bookcase. Here are grieving heads displayed as owned objects, domestic trophies or statuettes, and referring, as is made clear in the quotation carved into the slate slabs, to the state of slavery that was the experience of many in colonial Brazil. With this new work the sense of initial shock is muted in contrast with the first and yet the sense of outrage grows the more these trophy heads are contemplated.

Placed on the slate slabs, one in front of each sculpture, are two images with Christian resonances that offer hope despite the horrors we have faced. In the first, a heart is pierced by seven gold swords. Pacheco has spoken of “the need for all of us to find our way, with our hearts, not just with our heads” but, in this church context, we are also reminded of Simeon’s words to Mary, that a sword would pierce her heart, with its promise of redemption through suffering. In the second, a silver shell sits on the slate, a symbol familiar to pilgrims journeying to Santiago de Compostela and, for Pacheco, a sign that “as with the Santiago pilgrims, there is a way to find yourself.”

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Bruce Cockburn - Soul Of A Man.

Gallery info

Here are a couple of interesting items from arts newsletters:

Wallspace will be holding an evening with Ana Maria Pacheco on Thursday 23rd October from 7.00pm. Ana Maria will take participants around the Memória Roubada exhibition and talk about her work, its background and inspiration. RSVP to info@wallspace.org.uk. Pacheco is featured artist in Melvyn Bragg's Faith in The Frame ITV 1 series broadcast on 2 November 2008.

Veritasse are featured on the Brits at their Best website. Sculptor and writer Shawn Williamson put the site in touch with Veritasse and their entry includes the news that St. Andrew's bookshop in Maidenhead has teamed up with Veritasse to create a new gallery in a refurbished area of the bookshop bringing Christian art onto the high street.

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Nu Colours - Yes, I Will.

Memória Roubada

Last Tuesday I was at the private view for Memória Roubada, the latest in a series of major exhibitions to be held at the Wallspace Gallery by significant contemporary artists utilising Christian imagery within the works exhibited. The work of Ana Maria Pacheco exhibits a compelling yet disturbing merging of Brazilian folklore, classical myth, mystical Catholicism and political satire.

Memoria Roubada I, exhibited here for the first time in the UK, was originally completed in 2001 for Fråvær/Absences, a touring exhibition in Norway while Memoria Roubada II is a new work produced specifically in response to the space used by Wallspace at All Hallows on the Wall.
Bookended by bookcase and cupboard, the two Memória Roubada sculptures face each other at Wallspace across a pavement of slate slabs forming a space for the contemplation of suffering.

One of the most interesting aspects of being at the private view was seeing the response of others to these works. I spoke with one man who, though he claimed to have no artistic sensitivity, felt “got in the gut” by Pacheco’s severed head of John the Baptist which, gashed by chain saw, charred by flame and pierced by nails, rests on a large wooden platter placed on the font of All Hallows on the Wall. This man is joined at the private view by a National Gallery custodian who having, like myself, walked among the disturbing and unsettling figures forming Pacheco’s Dark Night of the Soul tableau, first exhibited at the National in 1999, had been irresistibly drawn to view more of Pacheco’s work tonight. Such response is the true power of her art.

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John Lennon - Isolation.

Greenbelt diary (1) & Windows on the world (13)

Greenbelt, 2008

I arrived early at Greenbelt on Friday afternoon; a sign of my eagerness to be back after a number of year's absence. Virtually the first people that I saw on arrival were my friends Paul Trathen and Heather Whicker who were volunteering on the Church Action on Poverty and Operation Noah stands respectively. One of the things I was looking forward to at Greenbelt was catching up with a number of friends but hadn't expected that to begin as soon as I arrived. But once we were onsite we were soon in conversation with other friends and, as expected, this continued to be a special feature of the Festival for me.

Tim Hull, who had been one of my tutors at NTMTC, was one of the friends that I met. Tim is now at St John's Nottingham where he has produced a number of very useful dvds on key theological issues. The two of us went off together to hear Brian McLaren speak about rediscovering Christian faith as a way of life. On the way back we talked about Peter Rollins' book How (Not) To Speak Of God which Tim thought may have put theology back 30 years or so through its emphasis on existential experience which ultimately may have no need of the Christian narrative at all. I pointed out that McLaren had also been emphasising experience over doctrine but we agreed that what he had said had been clearly rooted in the Christian story.

After that I checked into the Artist's Forum to confirm whether Meryl Doney (Director of the wallspace gallery) wanted me to show during the Festival the DVD of the Love & Light public art event which featured St Margaret's Barking.

I spent the remainder of the evening shuttling between mainstage and the Performance Cafe to sample sets by Emmanuel Jal, Michael Weston Smith, Juliet Turner and Michael Franti and Spearhead. It felt great to be back!

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Michael Franti - East To The West.

Art & prayer initiatives

On Thursday I visited Reunited: Gwen John, Mère Poussepin and the Catholic Church at the Barber Institute in Birmingham to review the exhibition for Art & Christianity. With loans from Amgueddfa Cymru — National Museum Wales, Tate and Southampton City Art Gallery, the exhibition explores the development of the artist’s portrayal of single female figures, the growing importance of her drawings from 1910 onwards, and the inextricable links between her work and her new faith.

The same evening back in London I caught the tail-end of the Summer Party at wallspace where I was pleased to catch up with Martin Wroe, who I trained with at NTMTC. Martin is a writer mainly working for newspapers and websites. He is one of the editors of Developments Magazine, often writes for this and sometimes turns out a book, most recently this. He can often be found here and here, is one of the movers behind Generous and a Greenbelt trustee.

On Saturday I ran a Quiet Day on Praying through the Everyday for St Andrew's Hertford. Alan Stewart, the priest-in-charge is also a friend from NTMTC days and someone else who shares many similar interests to do with the Arts and spirituality. The group from St Andrews was engaged and engaging, we met in a hidden gem of a house and grounds, we reflected on prayer as an ongoing conversation with God in which we pray through our emotions and our everyday encounters and made use of poetry and music in our reflections. Among the poems used was John Berryman's first Address to the Lord:

Master of beauty, craftsman of the snowflake,
inimitable contriver,
endower of Earth so gorgeous & different from the boring Moon,
thank you for such as it is my gift.

I have made up a morning prayer to you
containing with precision everything that most matters.
‘According to Thy will’ the thing begins.
It took me on & off two days. It does not aim at eloquence.

You have come to my rescue again & again
in my impassable, sometimes despairing years.
You have allowed my brilliant friends to destroy themselves
And I am still here, severely damaged, but functioning.

Unknowable, as I am unknown to my guinea pigs:
how can I ‘love’ you?
I only as far as gratitude & awe
confidently & absolutely go.

I have no idea whether we live again.
It doesn’t seem likely
from either the scientific or the philosophical point of view
but certainly all things are possible to you,

and I believe as fixedly in the Resurrection-appearances to Peter and to Paul
as I believe I sit in this blue chair.
Only that may have been a special case
to establish their initiatory faith.

Whatever your end may be, accept my astonishment.
May I stand until death forever at attention
for any your least instruction or enlightenment.
I even feel sure you will assist me again, Master of insight & beauty.

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U2 - Window In The Skies.

Inspire: mortal & visible

Inspire: mortal & visible – a group show of eight new-generation artists - is the next offering from the Wallspace Gallery according to their latest mailing.

This is the first of an annual series of exhibitions showing the work of emerging and mid-career artists. On this occasion, they've gathered together eight artists with a track record in highly individual explorations of the human condition.

The exhibition runs from 23 April – 23 May 2008 at Wallspace, All Hallows, London Wall, EC2M 5ND. Entry, as usual, is free. Opening times are: Tuesday – Friday 12–6pm; Saturday 11am – 4pm.

The artists are: Jyll Bradley, Aileen Campbell, Julie Cook, Katharine Dowson, Kaori Homma, Cath Keay, Rona Smith, Sparks (Sparks are a collaborative group of three artists – Michael Gough, Andy Huntington and Caz Puntis – so technically there are 10 artists altogether!).

Julie Cook combines 'found materials of comfort' as protection against, or healing for 'internal turmoil, collective trauma and pain'. Rona Smith and Jyll Bradley examine, respectively, moments of everyday and heightened ritual. Japanese-born Kaori Homma deals with feelings of displacement and disinheritance and the concept of ‘eastness’. Aileen Campbell draws on her choral background to challenge assumptions about what it means to 'give voice'. Katharine Dowson responds to the fabric of the church, using glass to harness light in an ethereal exploration of miraculous biblical narratives. Cath Keay’s earthier extruded clay sculptures depict the dialogue of female psychiatric patients who discuss their feelings in very physical terms. The collaborative artists' group Sparks employ their distinctive ‘skills switch’ to produce a mixed-media meditation on hope.

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Elvis Costello - Deep Dark Truthful Mirror.

Engaging with perennial big questions

The latest issue of Art and Christianity has arrived today featuring an interview with Meryl Doney, Director of the Wallspace Gallery based in All Hallows on the Wall, which includes this positive take on the extent to which contemporary artists are interested in engaging with the "perennial big questions":

"I was surprised and delighted by the overwhelmingly positive responses I have received from artists. Despite the prevalent idea that we are a secular culture that has turned its back on religious possibilities, contemporary artists are still at a profound level wanting to tackle issues of human identity, meaning and the transcendent. Yes, there is a lot of thin, ironic, one-look art out there, preoccupied with show and gloss or shock. But you don't have to look far to find people who are genuinely asking questions about the real, or who are fascinated by the numinous, longing for something beyond the merely material. And it's more than simply playing art historical games with Christian iconography. It's engagement with the perennial big questions. That's what's exciting and that's what we're there for."

One such artist is Oona Grimes, whose Conversations with Angels exhibition I have reviewed for this edition of Art & Christianity. Grimes’ collages present us with the dilemma of belief; a frame of reference, a history, a set of images and writings which suggest a pattern for perceiving life but with faith the additional element required to complete the picture. In these collages what is not depicted or signed is at least as significant as what is.

Finally, from the information accompanying the magazine, In Other People's Skins is an interactive artwork by Terry Flaxton inspired by Leonardo Da Vinci's The Last Supper and which can be seen at Cathedrals and Abbeys between February and June 2008.

It consists of a large table covered in a white cloth and surrounded by chairs. Projected from above onto the white surface will be life size moving images of hands and arms (12 people) as they take food, break the bread, drink the wine. Visitors to the installation will be free to sit down at one of the 12 chairs and interact with the virtual guests - and to inhabit Other People's Skins.

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Rickie Lee Jones - Nobody Knows My Name.