Arts Roundup: Abbas Kiarostami and is Doubtful Art Cowardly?
March 10th, 2007 by Menachem Wecker
Ars Catholica renames a Haene painting “Jesus Christ crucified shedding His Divine Blood for the redemption of mankind.”
Hand Maid Leah links an interesting article on the Differences of Western Religious Art and Orthodox Iconography.
Buddhist art will go on exhibit in Singapore, with particular attention to the late Master Hsu Yun; “as many thousands of devotees flock to remember Buddha’s Birthday this May across Asia, it is hoped that the artifacts of one of his most influential Buddhist teachers in recent years will further inspire the virtues of compassion and selflessness.” [CNA]
Newsweek sheds further light on the recently discovered geometric insights of ancient Muslim artists, which Harvard professor of Islamic art, Gulru Necipoglu, explains in religious terms. “The human creation was imitating, in abstract fashion, the wondrous creation of God.”
In “Onward, Christian Soldiers! Part One,” Mary Grabar laments Christians’ retreat in the cultural arena:
Did Dante express doubt? Did Flannery O’Connor? The artist who expresses doubt is at one and the same time a coward and a tyrant. He is a coward, obviously, because he is afraid to express his faith, to go out on a limb, to be vulnerable to being wrong or attacked for his views. The doubter, the equivocator, is above criticism, and above engagement. [Townhall]
In an interview with the NY Times, Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami, who says were he not a filmmaker, he’d be a truck driver critiques Ahmadinejad and says Iranian restrictions makes artists more creative, “because art is the one positive thing they can get out of their life in Iran.” [NY Times]