Arts Roundup: The Pope on Sacred Art and from Religious Art to Celluloid Movie-Star Posters
February 24th, 2007 by Menachem Wecker
In a recent speech, the Pope addressed sacred art, “which he described as a living catechesis. The richness of religious art, he added, shows that the Church ‘has always been a source of inspiration.’” [Indian Catholic]
Wired has more on the story about 13th century Muslim architects’ use of geometry, including two turf wars. [Wired Science, see also KABOBfest and Drudge Retort]
From religious art to celluloid images of movie stars. Will our society follow our lost sense of true icons? [The Celebrity Asylum]
According to inspectors, Chester Catholic High boasts “an ‘excellent display’ of religious art throughout the school.” [Chester Chronicle]
To raise money for the new Islamic art department at Simon Fraser University (SFU) in Canada, artists from Egypt, Iraq, and other countries will be auctioning off works. [Press TV (Iran)]
The Walters’ show of Korans, according to associate curator Martina Bagnoli, shows all handwritten calligraphy works — “calligraphy … is considered the highest art form and especially writing a beautiful collection of the Koran is one of the most important art forms.” [VOA]
A stalled blog gets stalled trying to define what is ‘good’ about good art. Here is one attempt: “It seems like many people choose to use ‘art’ to rationalize ‘bad’ (moral) content). This thought led me to suggest this definition of what makes art good or bad: Good art is both well made and is morally good (using the Bible’s standards of morality).” And then, the ghastly conclusion:
Having worked through all that, we can lay out four principles that will help us clean up and improve our definition a bit.
1. All art has a message.
2. The art itself is the means of conveying the message.
3. Good art includes a Biblically good message.
4. Good art is also artful.
“The Bone and Bird Art of Joyce Cutler-Shaw and Sarah Perry” at the USC Fisher Gallery draws from da Vinci’s drawings of bones, “Buddhist art [which] often depicts birth, life, death and then birth again” and “The Book of Genesis [which] states explicitly, ‘For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.’” Read on for further oddities. [LA Downtown News]