Is Atheistic Art Also Religious?

February 4th, 2007 by Menachem Wecker

I’ve been asked by a number of people recently whether I intend to cover atheistic artwork as well. It’s a question I’ve been pondering myself. The same question holds for sacrilegious or anti-religious art (see Ernst’s The Virgin Spanking the Christ Child before Three Witnesses, pictured). See also Leo Steinberg’s wonderful letter about Updike’s review of Ernst, including: “Mr. Updike is right to say that ‘this scene cannot be enrolled in Christian iconography—it has no Gospel authority….’ But enrolled it may be in the iconography of medieval folklore, drawing authority, not from the canonic, but from Apocryphal Gospels.”

I will give this some more thought, but for now I will say that I do hope to cover works that grapple with religion in any way — even by opposing religion or asking complicated questions about it — but I will do so with trepidation.

If the art truly addresses religion in a mature, honest and insightful manner (as Ernst’s does, arguably), then I see no reason to exclude it. Smearing elephant dung on a Christ image might not cut it without some reflection upon what constitutes the objects identity as art and as valuable analysis of and commentary upon religion.

I am open to suggestions about these ideas.

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