Arts Roundup: Is Religious Art Simply Cleaning Material?
February 27th, 2007 by Menachem Wecker
Hugh McNichol asks some difficult questions about Catholic art:
Why don’t we get serious as Catholics and start paying attention to the quality of the visual arts that are present in our Catholic churches? Why is there no vehicle of communications between the Catholic liturgical artists community and potential patrons? Shouldn’t the liturgical arts community tout the artistic expertise that it possesses?
His questions are quite intelligent ones, but the answers, however useful they would be if they could be implemented on a large scale, are unfortunately somewhat Utopian.
Raise awareness and appreciation of fine religious art.
Encourage the use of religious fine art in our churches, schools and homes.
Facilitate contact between professional artists, architects, contractors, church and school building committees.
Host religious fine art exhibitions, portfolio shows, architectural displays and educational seminars.
Enhance religious fine art educational opportunities through scholarships and internet links to related Web sites.
Catholic Art is a cute blog with some interesting art. I hope it’s not defunct, though it is looking that way.
Kevin J. Bickle (see his artist’s statement) views the world as a messed up place:
as if someone kicked over a dirty mop bucket of water in a perfectly clean room and it is my job as an artistic, spiritual janitor to clean it up. I feel called through my art to clean up all the things that have been done to defile and ruin my God’s name through my paintbrush, my person, and the Holy Spirit in me.
I’m not sure is work is so new, and it might be a little slick for my taste, but it is certainly worth a look, and the artist seems quite serious about both his art and his faith.
Diamonds are a girl’s best friend … and shoes posts an interesting history of the violet, including its surfacing in the story of Zeus and Io, as well as its role in Christian art as a symbol of the Virgin Mary’s humility. The post is clearly plagiarized from here.
Art and Perception, which I discussed earlier today, has caught the attention of mootblog as well. Moot laments the “real dearth of good art-related blogs at the moment.” I’m doing my best to change that.
In the news, Placid Stuckenschneider, a monk at St. John’s Abbey, has died at age 80. He received the Mother Teresa Award from the St. Bernadette Institute of Sacred Art “for being a pioneer of American liturgical art.” [St. Cloud Times]
To Gracy Singh, dance is “a spiritual art which connects me to God and is my first love … Inspiration is one thing, but in order to excel you must be keen to pursue the art. When I dance I feel uplifted, forgetting all that is happening around me.” [Pune Newsline]