Archive for the 'Buddhism' Category
Christmas icons and the ivory trade.
With the economic downturn, book thefts are up, reports the NY Times. The most frequently stolen book? I’ll give you a hint. It’s a religious one.
“Jewish art is like a pendulum, it swings back and forth, yes, no, maybe, yes,” says 81-year-old artist Jo Milgrom, creator of Visual Midrash. Particularly intriguing is the piece Milgrom describes on page two of the article based on Song of Songs.
On “egregious mistakes” National Geographic committed with respect to Jewish practice. [I haven’t seen the publication in question, but if this blog post is quoting accurately, NG should be very embarrassed.]
Yet another fantastic WSJ art piece, this time on Tissot (which I’m hoping to see this weekend) and R. Crumb.
A very interesting Buddhist performance piece. HT: BAN.
Police suspect the robbery of the Auschwitz sign may have a foreign collector behind it.
Controversial religious (anti-religious?) advertising.
BibleBeltBlogger on “Funny faith healing stories at Oral Roberts’ funeral.”
I was interviewed by Aaron Roller of the Mima’amakim journal on a variety of topics related to art and faith. The interview is posted here, and it addresses (at least in part) mostly Judaism, but also Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and LDS. (The photo, which Aaron selected without consulting me, is from my trip to South Africa a couple of years ago, but maybe it’s appropriate because the thing over my right shoulder looks like a cross.)
I am very grateful to Rick Holton (Twitter/site) for bringing Patricia Cohen’s NY Times article “Yale Press Bans Images of Muhammad in New Book” to my attention.
Cohen starts with an understanding of why Yale UP decided not to reprint the notorious Danish cartoons in Jytte Klausen’s book “The Cartoons That Shook the World.” But the article approaches the topic with a simplistic approach to the issues. For example, claiming that Muslims throughout the world saw the cartoons as “blasphemous” without defining the nature of the blasphemy (or even what blasphemy means in the context of the Koran), is not very useful. Also, applauding Yale for diligently consulting “two dozen authorities, including diplomats and experts on Islam and counterterrorism” (who said [surprise!] that the cartoons should be excluded) without at least wondering aloud why someone like Oleg Grabar was not included, immediately places the story in the context of international affairs rather than art.
There is some great comic relief in the article when Reza Aslan (Twitter) reminds everyone that it’s “an academic book for an academic audience by an academic press … There is no chance of this book having a global audience, let alone causing a global outcry … It’s not just academic cowardice, it is just silly and unnecessary.”
As I’ve said many times before, I’m not sure what the “blasphemy” is here. Cohen is right to point out that
Although many Muslims believe the Koran prohibits images of the prophet, Muhammad has been depicted through the centuries in both Islamic and Western art without inciting disturbances.
But I’d be very interested to hear more insight into whether those realistic traditions of Muhammad representation are largely in the Persian miniature style, as opposed to other traditions in Islamic art. I also have yet to hear any imams or other Islamic legal scholars weigh in on what exactly a representation of the Prophet entails. Does idolatry exclusively mean a realistic depiction, or can a cartoon constitute representation? What of a Cubist Muhammad (as in the rough image below, with thanks to this post) or a Fauvist Aisha?
It would surprise me if many imams had thought this through. Of course, that is hardly an indictment of their legal imagination, as studying art history is hardly a prerequisite to becoming a scholar of imam. When I asked several rabbis at a major Israeli yeshiva whether Cubist human figures or Fauvist celestial bodies violated the second commandment, I got blank stares (sort of like this joke, second-to-last blockquote on the page).
It remains my hope that a conference might be convened of Islamic legal and religious scholars, in which presentations would be made on what exactly the Koran permits for artists and what it forbids. This would be a great opportunity also to examine differences between Jewish, Christian, and Islamic interpretations of the Second Commandment, and also to include Buddhist and Hindu leaders, some of whom have told me that they resent the fact that their art is considered idolatrous and primitive.
Until then, we will continue to see more and more nonsense like this story.
Zoe Murdock is author of Torn by God: A Family’s Struggle with Polygamy (my review here). I first got in touch with Zoe on Twitter (follow her here). She mentions a lot of her bio and her Mormon upbringing in her answers that follow, so I won’t reproduce them here.
MW: Most of my readers know very little about Mormonism and have never been to Utah. What do you think are some of the misconceptions about Mormonism that should be cleared up from the start?
ZM: My first-hand knowledge of Mormonism is based on my childhood experience. I pretty much stopped attending church when I left home at 19. However, I did a fair amount of research while I was writing my novel, and I have read and thought a great deal about the LDS Church, and its various fundamentalist off-shoots, in recent years.
When I see Mormons represented in the media, or in film, or in programs like HBO’s Big Love, I recognize the image and the storyline, but it is almost always a limited and stereotypical view. The problem arises because Mormons are generally portrayed in the context of their past. Mormons today are a diverse group of individuals, much more so than in the past. I recently read that today only 12 percent of Mormons live in Utah, and less than half live in the United States. My novel, Torn by God: A Family’s Struggle with Polygamy takes place in the late 50s. Utah was much more homogeneous at that time, especially in a small town like the one I grew up in where very few people were non-Mormon.
I think the reason these stereotypes persist is because when it comes to the LDS Church, the past is much more interesting than the present, especially for today’s media which always looks for something titillating or controversial. The Church has been trying to move away from some of its more controversial originating doctrine. They have tried to play down the media’s incessant tendency to draw a connection between the mainstream Church and off-shoot groups such as the FLDS, but they can’t seem to escape the past. I think I know why. What we have is a modern day church trying to evolve. The problem is, they are trying to evolve away from doctrine (for example, polygamy) that were originally represented as coming directly from God. Polygamy was presented as an essential practice if a man was to reach the highest degree of heaven (in Mormon lingo, the Celestial Kingdom). Here’s a link to a site that covers Joseph Smith’s revelations regarding Celestial Marriageand polygamy.
I’ve heard they don’t talk about polygamy in Mormon Sacrament Meeting and Sunday School anymore. In fact, I’ve talked to a number of past members who became angry and disenchanted when they found out they’d been lied to about such things. For example, some grew up thinking that Joseph Smith had only one wife, Emma.
When I was a child, we knew all about polygamy. We knew it was practiced in the past, and we knew it would be practiced in the next life. But we also knew it was grounds for excommunication (and against the law) if you practiced it in this life. It was kind of an odd concept because we lived around people who practiced polygamy: the main enclave of the FLDS (Warren Jeffs’ group) was just up the road. We saw the FLDS kids as weirdos, and yet they represented our past and our future, so in that sense we were weirdos too. Even among good Church members, there seems to be some confusion as to what to believe, but most of them accept and live according to what the current prophet tells them. This issue of doctrine changing in the Mormon Church is central to my novel; the father, Michael, represents a member of the church awash in the confusion caused by the Church’s attempt to change.
If the LDS Church ever does overcome its polygamist past, they may become just another religion. If so, the Media may well lose interest in covering them to the extent that they now do. But then, there’s always their stand on homosexuality, which is bound to keep them in the news for some time.
Continue reading ‘Interview: Zoe Murdock, LDS, polygamy, religious fiction writing’
I “met” Clarke Scott (monk name Loden Jinpa, pictured above with HH Dalai Lama) on Twitter (follow him here). According to his website, Scott is a graduate student in philosophy at the University of Tasmania (Australia). His research areas include Madhyamaka philosophy, personal identity, epistemology, and philosophy of mind. Scott is a Buddhist monk ordained in the Tibetan tradition, and he has been studying with the Tibetan lama Geshe Thubten Loden at The Tibetan Buddhist Society meditation center in Melbourne Australia since 1995. Scott discussed the term “idolatry,” the intersection of new media and Buddhism, and the religious nature of Buddhist art.
MW: What does it mean to be a Buddhist monk ordained in the Tibetan tradition?
CS: It means to hold the 253 vows of a fully-ordained Buddhist monk. It means to be part of the oldest monastic tradition in the world. One that is very much alive and practiced to this very day. It means to take seriously the claims of the Buddha but to investigate these claims via experience and meditation, and just like in science, these experiments must be repeatable by any individual that performs the same meditations.
Therefore, I believe Buddhism is not simply a religious doctrine founded by a long-dead ancient culture with little connection to contemporary life. I would claim it is the investigation and articulation of natural laws. I would also suggest that at its core it is not mysticism, but rather empirical data garnered through investigation into such things as the nature of mind.
MW: What are some of the unique aspects of being a Buddhist in Australia?
CS: Generally speaking Australia is a very open country. Its people are open minded and respectful of other traditions, as Australia was born out of immigration.
So, I don’t think there is anything unique about being Buddhist in Australia. Although, teaching kangaroos to meditate has worked out to be very difficult.
MW: I see that you are very active on a variety of social media sites. Many Americans no doubt think of technology as antithetical to Buddhism. What’s wrong with that way of thinking?
CS: Anyone who thinks that Buddhism and technology cannot co-exist does not understand Buddhism. Technology is merely a tool for communication, improving the lives of millions of people. Who would be against that? The Buddha taught that all living beings have a natural disposition to seek happiness and the wish to avoid even the slightest suffering. Not only that, he said we also have the right to be happy. It is not selfish to want happiness. Unfortunately we sometimes employ erroneous methods thinking that happiness will be found in things and events. In this sense technology can sometimes get in the way of spiritual development, but it is not inherently like that — we make it like that.
MW: Many pastors, imams, and rabbis refer to Buddhist sculptures as idolatry in their sermons. Are they right in assuming that sculptures of Buddha are worshiped? How do you respond to that use of the term “idolatry”?
CS: With all due respect, it seems to me to be the other way round. In fact, the Buddha himself warned his followers not to take his words literally, simply out of mere respect, but to analyze what he had to say, to test his words, to investigate them for oneself. Even then if his experience does not makes yours, it is up to you whether you accept or reject his teachings.
Continue reading ‘Interview: Clarke Scott (Loden Jinpa), Buddhist monk’
The abhaya mudra gesture from Buddhist and Hindu art figures prominently in William Safire’s “On Language” column, though Buddhist scroll-painting techniques are elsewhere facing threats from modernity.
“Art museums have two central roles they can serve when the world is going to hell in a handbasket,” is just one of the lovely aspects of this great piece on museums and edginess/self-censorship.
MFA Boston gets to a keep a Kokoschka (I grew up loving), which a court said had outlived the statute of limitations, and might have been “legitimately” acquired by the Nazis. (There is also other good news in the Mass. art world.)
First porn literature festivals, and now asking for more sex in the arts? The eroticism of UK-based arts coverage. This reminds me of what may art teacher says is the test of good painting: something you’d want to take to bed with you.
An attempt to explaining what’s the big deal about the Mona Lisa, without once invoking the code.
According to her website, Nadia Janjua’s art draws from her faith. “One day after prayer, while I was making supplication, I became distracted by my hands, and how multi-colored they were,” she writes, “these were the hands that Allah had given me: dark under the nails, brown on the outside, white on the inside, and a blended line of distinction down the profile of my hand.” I first came across Nadia on Twitter (follow her @njARTitectr), and here is the result of our conversation…
MW: You talk in your bio about artists’ capacity to use their hands to create with Allah’s will. Does this mean you identify as a Muslim artist? What does that term mean to you?
NJ: I identify as an Artist, who happens to be a Muslim, an American, a Pakistani, a Kashmiri. My faith and religion are an indistinct part of everything I do, and I don’t feel I need to categorize myself as a particular type of Artist because of that.
I have a broad interpretation of the term “Muslim Artist,” or “Islamic Artist,” which relates more to my ideas of what exactly “Islamic Art” is. As an initial clarification, “Islamic” cannot be used in the same way as “Christian” in Christian Art, or “Buddhist” in Buddhist Art, for historically it’s always transgressed ethnic and geographical bounds. It was more so about culture, then religion. For me, the term “Muslim Artist” really implies a certain relationship between human and his/her surroundings.
In my statement about artists’ capacity to use their hands to create, “with Allah’s will,” I meant to emphasize the latter part of that statement: “with Allah’s will.” While we are the vessels through which the physical creation of art occurs, I wanted to make the distinction that in my belief, only God can ultimately create, and give us the ability to create inanimate work (inanimate in a biological sense, not spiritual).
MW: There are quotes (I believe from Hadith) about the Prophet condemning artists to the fire. How do you respond to these verses, particularly as an artist who works in a naturalistic mode some of the time?
NJ: Well, there are a few clarifications I’d like to make first. Muslims believe the Prophet Mohamad (peace be upon him) to be a messenger sent to humankind by God, needless to say, similar to Prophet Jesus, Moses, and Joseph (peace by upon them all), for example. The Prophets did not condemn anyone to hellfire; they communicated prohibitions or theological pronouncements to humankind through God’s revelations.
Traditionally, Islamic Art attempts to display Divine beauty by detaching that beauty from this world, basically, from things that figurative art attempts to represent. There is an abstract nature to it and it represent ideas, rather than objects. The Prophet’s prohibition of making images had to do with forbidding the practice in pre-Islamic and early Islamic times of worshiping these images, forms, and idols. In Islam, there is no space for worship of anyone as a partner to God.
Nothing about art has ever been literal or straightforward; it is its inherent nature. At best, I will say Islamic art, or the view of art in Islam, for Muslims, is that it’s neither tangible nor spiritual, it is something in between. It attempts to represent a vision of God’s presence in the world, simultaneous with His incomparability to anything in this world. In essence beauty is always to be connected with the Ultimate One who Created it.
Continue reading ‘10 questions for Nadia Janjua: artist, arch. designer’
Denying anti-Semitism won’t make it go away, one writer says (in a Jesuit magazine).
Without a spokesperson, American Muslims face many challenges.
Has the postmodern become “post-secular”?
A president of a Jewish cultural institution advocates for Jewish art in trying economic times.
More than 200 Buddha statues have been stolen from temples in Savannakhet, southern Laos. An expert says the statues often house relics, and some temples are built around them.
Toward a Christian (and idolatrous) angle on “Watchmen.”
Gary Susman (LinkedIn page, Twitter handle, and Facebook page) is an editor, writer, and critic, who served most recently as senior writer at Entertainment Weekly. He has contributed to the Village Voice, The Guardian (UK), MSNBC Online, College Music Journal, Rough Cut Online, Mr. Showbiz, and People Magazine, and he has interviewed more than 500 of the “top names in the arts and entertainment” for some of his thousands of articles, both print and online. Somehow, he also finds the time to blog at Pop Culture Warrior. I noticed on Gary’s LinkedIn page that he is a member of a group for Harvard Jewish alumni, which inspired me to reach out to him for this interview. I had also seen his byline many times before, as I’m sure many of you have as well. We talked about the future of art journalism, censorship, and what the secular arts community thinks about religious art.
MW: You have 20 years of experience writing on the arts, and are a member of the LinkedIn group for Harvard Jewish alumni group. To what extent do you put the two together and write about Jewish art?
GS: It’s not something I go out of my way to do, but when an assignment comes my way, I’m happy to take it on. For a few years, when I was living in Boston, I regularly covered the Boston Jewish Film Festival as part of my film beat at the Boston Phoenix.
MW: Do you think there is any such thing as Jewish art? If so, what does it entail?
GS: Certainly, there’s Jewish art, if you’re talking about content of specific interest to Jews. If you’re asking if there’s a Jewish aesthetic, well, that’s a lot harder to say. If there is, it’s easier to identify in literature (drawing on, say, Talmudic inspiration) or comedy writing/ performance (a stylistic line that can be drawn back through Catskill comics to wedding tummlers) or music (such as klezmer) than in visual arts.
Movies present an especially difficult case. Neal Gabler’s book about how the Jews invented Hollywood suggests an auteurist aesthetic that belongs not to the writers or directors but to the studio moguls, but that aesthetic is one of self-negation, as the Jewish moguls went out of their way most of the time to avoid specifically Jewish content (lest they call attention to themselves as Jews) and foster instead an ideology of assimilation into what they perceived as white/Christian-American virtues and aspirations. (Even an early movie as overtly Jewish as “The Jazz Singer” is more about assimilation, show business, and the general immigrant experience than about the particulars of Jewish life in America.) J. Hoberman wrote a fine book about Yiddish-language cinema, which, as produced in America before WWII, followed similar tropes as Hollywood movies despite a different cultural context (much as African-American independent film, made by such filmmakers as Oscar Micheaux, did in those same years). Today in Hollywood, Jewish filmmakers are free to wear their Jewishness on their sleeves as a cultural badge, but does that make, say, Judd Apatow’s “Knocked Up” any more of a Jewish film than “The Jazz Singer”? As I said, a lot to explore here, much of it murky.
MW: Many have noted that Jews seem to be over-represented in the arts. Do you think there is anything to that claim?
GS: What do you mean by “over-represented”? Too many? Who’s to say how many is too many? Certainly, Jews are represented out of proportion to their numbers in the populace as a whole, much as they are in law, accounting, medicine, and other professions whose prerequisites of advanced education mesh with the Jewish cultural emphasis on learning. I imagine art’s potential to allow the artist self-reinvention (or self-concealment) also appeals to Jews navigating the perils and benefits of assimilation.
Continue reading ‘9 questions for Gary Susman, arts journalist, editor’
I recently posted the following question on LinkedIn: “Boston College recently introduced religious art into its classrooms. To what extent should religious art be allowed in the workplace? Do you have religious art in your office/workspace? If so, what kind? Do you support its presence at work, or is it offensive?”
Here’s a great response which I received from Steve Mattero (LinkedIn profile), president at Dezine Line Screen Printing, Embroidery and Promotional Products. Steve gave me permission to post his answers and to edit them for style.
This may get fun, but let’s go anyway. The short answer is whose business is it, who signs the checks, etc. It is a free country, and this isn’t regulated in a private business, but you do need discernment.
I think if the art is from a classic artist, like a realist painter depicting a famous religious scene, that is fine. The history of our nation is Judeo-Christian, so anything related to the bible should be fine. Anything that is derogatory in nature toward any religion is out. Also, guidelines should be established about what would be offensive to some. The art in the office will be a reflection of the business. I have the Ten Commandments on my wall, in my office. If people are Christian, they say “Good to see that,” if not they may write me off as a Holy Roller, but as long as the prices are right, it’s not an issue.
In a generic environment the art should be tasteful, but not radical. A picture of Jesus beaten and bloody on the cross may be fine for a pastor’s office, not a business hallway. Some may not want a picture of Jesus because the bible doesn’t have a picture of Him, and it says not to make any “graven” image of Him. I don’t have a problem so much, some may.
Other religious art that is done well should be acceptable. Mormons have a statue of Cain and Abel in their town square. I don’t agree with them, but I would be fine with it from an art standpoint if it was good. I may not want a picture of anything from an Eastern religion. Even if it is wrong to stereotype, people do. ( I didn’t even like the cover of “Dark Horse” by George Harrison because he had this blue guy from his Hare Krishna faith. That’s just me.)
[Steve later clarified: “I believe it is a statue of Cain, and his sacrifice to God. The significance of this is that they seem to endorse the offering that God found unacceptable, since no blood was involved. I don’t support it theologically, but I can appreciate art if it is good. I always kid with my secretary, when during Christmas we play Josh Groban’s “Noel,” and I cringe when the song Ave Maria comes on. I start commenting that I don’t pray to Mary, but it’s a great song, well written and performed.
You can’t have equal time or space for all of the religions — you would need a big office — but much of the classic artwork is Judeo-Christian in nature because that was the prominent religion in their day. Michelangelo’s statute of David, van Gogh’s “Still Life with Open Bible,” and Rembrandt’s “Return of the Prodigal Son” all reflect where we were as a society at the time. Now we have so many isms I don’t think a contemporary work would be safe in the same way. “Stand-off at Waco” or “Jim Jones Kool-Aid” art, ya know, may be a reach.
I don’t know if the ACLU is a visitor at your place, if that is the case, stick to Ansel Adams or Kinkade.
Thanks so much Steve for letting me post this. Responses are welcome, as always, and I will post other replies I received if those who posted them give their permission.
- 1. Rabbi Marc Gellman: “Praying to the Buddha would be idolatry whether you’re a Catholic, a Jew, or a Muslim.” more.
- 2. James L. Evans: “There are many who look to their earthly treasures as the true source of their security and meaning. You used the word idolatry to describe that kind of thinking.” more.
- 3. Outrage at Nativity figures. more.
- 4. On Esau kicking in utero when his mom passed a house of idol worship. more.
Or something like that. more.
A six-foot menorah was stolen from Calif., perhaps to be sold for parts, according to Police (more). Either thieves or anti-Semites vandalized a Czech Holocaust memorial (more). And a statue of a Buddhist revivalist was desecrated in India (more).
Recovered: Caravaggio’s Kiss of Judas. more.
A German museum asks what traces Jewish artists have left in 19th and 20th centuries. more.
A show in California studies the art of “one of the world’s oldest yet least known religions,” Jainism. more/images.
Move over Sufism; this artist is creating Islamic-art surfism, a.k.a. “Inshallah surfboards.” more/YouTube.
Rosa Martinez:
“A reporter recently asked Anish how it was that he could be Hindu and Jewish and a practitioner of Buddhist meditation, and at the same time have this ‘Islamic’ mirror installed inside a Christian convent — he wanted to know what is coming out of all this. Anish said: ‘Art.’” more.
“Religious Arts of Asia” at Art Gallery of Greater Victoria. more.
Folk art collector Dorothea Rabkin (Jewish father, fled the Nazis) has died at 87. more.
Qatar’s new Islamic art museum: a mixed bag (e.g. no daylight), reports the IHT. more.
Bruce Herman of Gordon College (Wenham, Mass.) journeyed closer to Catholicism through painting triptychs of the Virgin Mary.
Buddhist monk Geshe Sangpo plays with his food … which he turns into sacred butter art and then unleashes upon the squirrels.
Esther O’Connor explains why she so enjoys the “earthy and raw” quality of Peter Howson’s “Christ before the crucifixion.”
The Met’s Christmas tree and Baroque crèche go up tomorrow.
AJ Sabatini wonders whether Pres. Obama will be good for the arts. The short answer: expect more of the same.
Jewish Greenhouse art — sort of.
America Magazine has announced the winner of its essay contest (see here), which had the topic:
At a time when atheism and religious belief have become prominent issues of discussion and debate in both our nation and our church, the editors chose as the general theme: “A Case for God.”
Clearly my essay didn’t win, but I include it below:
An Artful Case for God
A successful case for God must begin with God’s role as the creator rather than an outdated disciplinarian. If faith is to have any chance in the modern era it must convince young people, the unaffiliated, and atheists alike that it is still relevant in an age of iPods, blogs, sophisticated video games, alternate cyber-realities, and high definition television. One reason many people are not voting for God with their feet and filling church pews is because they see so much optimism, potential, and ingenuity in their technology and media and so much responsibility and antiquated repression in religion. Many religious institutions are increasingly turning to technology to disseminate their messages, but they are using new media to preach old messages and are effectively crossing their fingers and hoping an interested audience miraculously materializes and keeps coming back just because there are JPEGs, megabytes, and podcasts involved. God could surely help that square peg find its way into that circular hole, but we should not rely on Him to intervene when we are quite capable of developing a fresh strategy that can repair it ourselves.
Continue reading ‘My Submission to America’s Essay Contest: “An Artful Case for God”’
My article about why I study and write about religious art appears in World Jewish Digest.
To suggest “the impermanence of everything that is on Earth.”
The Republican running on an “anti-Sharia” platform tells FrontPage:
Our education system is bankrupt at all levels. Our universities do not prepare our young minds to see anything bad about Islam. Here in Nashville at Vanderbilt University you can get a degree in Islamic Studies and never read the life of Mohammed—and never read the entire Koran. You study Sufi poetry, Islamic art and Islamic history viewed as a glorious triumph. No kafirs suffer in this program and there is no history of Jew, Christian, Hindu or Buddhist suffering under Islamic rule for the past 1,400 years. A graduate from this program then goes out into the world professionally trained to be an apologist for Islam, a dhimmi. And this program is standard at all schools, not just Vanderbilt.
Terra cotta warriors in an image accompanying Holland Cotter’s NY Times review of Chinese art.
Meet Chinese artist Zhang Huan. There is said to be a Buddhist angle to his work, but good luck uncovering it.
The National Palace Museum’s (Taipei, Taiwan) dilemma, along with not being able to afford Hindu art.
- The Vatican calls for more porn in religious art [also see CNS]
- “Brush embroidery” and its resemblance to Islamic scroll art
- Apparently, some see “humour” in Hirst’s “Golden Calf”
- Can art teach us to see biblical origins to our conflicts?
- Koons’ “knotted balloon animal” seems “meant to be worshipped”
- The AP is trying to set standards for blogging its stories
- Piri Halasz writes intelligently on a show of Jilaine Jones’ sculpture
- My friend Dani Leeds has a great personal interfaith narrative
- Tracey Emin sort of means business when she says “expect outrage” and later insists her work isn’t controversial
- From a peculiar piece on the Vatican’s new art initiative: “Raphael was grand, Leonardo a bit surly, and Michelangelo tricky too”
Above: Mark 11:1-19, where Jesus meets the moneychangers, from “The Manga Bible“
- Nawal Gebreel started a clothing label in 2000 inspired by “the geometric patterns in Islamic art and the rhythm of nature”
- Here’s a list of the 10 “most incredible art heists of the modern era,” with religious art overrepresented
- The Vatican reopened “the largest and most luxurious of the pagan tombs”
- Many practicing Muslims have “a variety of popular devotional images” like calendar art, reports Yousuf Saeed
- Al Qaeda may be behind an attack near the Danish embassy in Pakistan, perhaps protesting the Danish cartoons
- Joseph Graber’s biblical chalk drawings focus on “heaven, and how to get there”
- Happy 3,048th birthday dear King David; read about it here
- Buddhist artist Ikuo Hirayama discusses his “huge, 6-paneled canvas called ‘The Holocaust of Hiroshima’”
- Daniel Grant writes on the Christian art market
- Richard Silverstein solicits Jewish graphic design for his blog; a storm ensues in the comments
- Religion and art historian Maureen Korp was surprised to find Pakistani students fascinated by Hinduism
- Is “Ardeshir Mohassess: Art and Satire in Iran” offers “a unique artist’s perspective on a tumultuous period in Iran’s history art”
My column “Gods and Idols,” a review of “Idol Anxiety” at the University of Chicago’s Smart Museum of Art through November 2, appears in the National Catholic Reporter (online here).
Here’s a selection:
Idolatry is a dirty word in academic and artistic circles, where it is viewed as a term imposed on objects that cannot resist the pigeonholing. One person’s idol is by definition another’s god. The Smart Museum’s show “Idol Anxiety” at the University of Chicago explores this complicated relationship between worshiped objects, the artisans who create them and the audiences who experience them.
- Daniel Walker writes extensively on Islamic rugs, including “geometric rather than representational” and animal forms
- “The pleas of the Vatican mean nothing to us,” says the Museum of Lleida, Spain
- “I want young people to understand how the Bible has enormously impacted literature, art, music, culture, history and politics,” says Sen. Roy Herron, sponsor of a bill to give “non-denominational” Bible electives to Tenn. students.
- “An Inch From the Heart” at the San Diego Art Institute comes from a course that encouraged students to reflect on “perspectives from Buddhism, Christianity, Islamism, Judaism, as well as the writings of Plato, Marx, Buber, Rand and many others.”
- Naveed Ahmad, head of investments-wealth management for Dubai Islamic Bank, says Islamic banks are ignoring Islamic art funds
- Andrew Sullivan posts on a debate about secular religion and art/propaganda
- Jennifer Harris writes very intelligently on Christianity and pop culture
- Don’t lead those people go! Church members are mad the police went easy on roof thieves
- As SF papers are abuzz with news (here and here) of the new Jewish museum, the UAE opens the Sharjah Museum of Islamic Civilization (see here), and Qatar builds the Museum of Islamic Art
- Rev. Robert Reed, minister to prisoners, also collects of their art
- Rev. Patrick Pointer, award-winning carver, says “Everything I do in life is an extension of my ministry”
- “Treasures Rediscovered” shows Chinese Buddhist sculpture, “a relatively young subject of art-historical study”
- VMFA hires John Henry Rice, “the new associate curator of South Asian and Islamic art”
- Design Without Borders reflects “a cultural mosaic … and embraces ethnic, cultural, religious and gender diversity”
- Mary Eberstadt on “the problems of Dull achievement,” including the “infuriating claim that religion is inseparable from — even responsible for — artistic achievement of the very first order”
- The Louvre has lent 270 pieces to the Quebec museum, including “several of its Islamic artworks that ‘don’t usually travel’”
[Edmonton Journal] It’s five weeks late and it missed the Pope, but the missing $20k painting, “Forgive Them,” has finally shown up at the National Museum of Catholic Art and History in New York.
[NY Jewish Week] David Volach, director of “My Father, My Lord,” says “Most of the time when you criticize religion you criticize people, you make them less appealing. But I try to say ‘No, the problem is with ideas, not with people.’’”
Right: [Star Tribune] Brandon Kidder, shown with his “Persistent Prayer,” says, “It’s more of an ethnic Jesus than we see in the traditional paintings, which tend to show him with blue eyes and lighter hair … I’m trying for a more realistic look, a more Jewish look, based on my study of the Bible and other books.”
[ArtDaily] See here for a great piece from the Rubin Museum of Art’s exhibit “Buddha in Paradise.”
[Jewish Exponent, PA] The Old City Jewish Art Center will benefit from a $225k grant for which its founder, Rabbi Menachem Schmidt (who also founded UPenn’s Lubavitch House ), didn’t even know he was being considered.
Stonehenge: “place of sacrament for the dead” or ancient spa? See the Chicago Tribune story here.
[WXII 12] Christian Musician Steven Curtis Chapman’s daughter was tragically killed in an accident. HT: DMN Religion Blog.
[Vos Iz Neias] Jack McConn took a “solid bronze desk set, with Hitler’s initials, and an eagle perched on a swastika” from the Nazi head’s desk. He wants to test the auction waters, but the Houston Jewish community think it ought to go to a museum.
[NYT] The bible relates many examples of copulation in the Holy City (think Bathsheba and David), but Jerusalem is saying no to “Sex and the City,” sort of.
[Radio Netherlands] The artist who goes by Gregorius Nekschot, who drew cartoons which were “insulting to Muslims and to people of colour,” has been arrested by Dutch authorities. Great commentary here.
[The Buddhist Channel] Amid wondering, “Is Buddhism a religion?” (spoiler alert: the answer is maybe), the Buddhist Channel explores the other Buddhist sculpture: the ones, “especially those of Tibetan origin,” that “have a frightening persona with piercing eyes, sharp teeth and even red skin.” See here for more.
