Catholic Church Seeks Religious Art, But is it Searching the Right Places?
June 8th, 2008 by Menachem Wecker
The Vatican’s Holy See (official site) is trying to court a new generation of artists to “rival the works of the Medicis,” reports Andrew Johnson of the Independent (UK).
“In an attempt to ‘lead by example,’ the Pontifical Council for Culture is now setting up a committee to find ‘world-famous’ contemporary artists it can commission to produce new religious and spiritual works,” writes Johnson, who observes that the Church held a monopoly of sorts on art patronage until the rise of abstract art, which saw “the once-dominant influence of the church decline as it continued to rely on figurative work. An attempt by Pope Paul VI in the 1960s to embrace contemporary art was stymied by traditionalists.”
Johnson then turns to Tim Marlow, exhibitions director at London’s White Cube Gallery. Marlow told him:
I think it’s a brave and important initiative by the church. Contemporary artists such as Damien Hirst, Chris Ofili and Sam Taylor-Wood do include religious iconography in their work but it is in a critical and questioning manner. I wonder whether the church can commission work that is both provocative and questioning.
And therein lies the difficult question. Pope Julius surely solicited art from the greatest artists of his time, including Raphael and Michelangelo. Pope Benedict XVI can follow suit, like Johnson suggests, and turn to blockbuster contemporary artists like Hirst (can the Vatican stomach a Koons cross?) and try to get them to work Catholically, and run the same risk Pope Julius did in trying to rope in Michelangelo on the Sistine Chapel. (See the new book, “The Sistine Secrets: Michelangelo’s Forbidden Messages in the Heart of the Vatican.”)
Or, the Church can take a riskier path — the American Idol approach — and try to identify emerging Catholic artists to represent the Church’s proud history and values. The advantage of this approach is clearly patronizing artists who identify as Catholic, rather than trying to fit a non-Catholic artist into a Vatican project. The disadvantage is that the artists are not yet stars, and they require inventing. But maybe the Vatican should go out on a limb here and pick the faithful and resist the temptation of bringing celebrities in to do believers’ jobs. Wouldn’t that send the right message?