ArtWay

Beauty is not pasted over suffering but grows out of it—like the proverbial shoot from parched ground. Bruce Herman

ArtWay Newsletter December, 2017

ArtWay Newsletter December 2017

Dear ArtWay friend,

This Polish icon hangs in my home. To me it typifies the convergence of the old tradition of iconography and contemporary art. It is a work by the Polish artist Jerzy Nowosielski (1932-2011). He gave – with respect for the religious tradition in which he stands – an interpretation of his own of familiar biblical stories.

This is what visual art does more often: seek surprising forms to provide well-worn paths with a new surface. A startling painting of the Nativity can for instance make you look at Christmas with different eyes and can add new accents to your appreciation of this special feast. 

Renewed Looking
That is exactly what ArtWay wants to achieve. The visual arts cultivate a fresh and renewed view of deeply entrenched values. That is why we are happy to provide an online platform for old and new art rooted in the rich Christian tradition, so that a wide audience can become acquainted with it. Also this year our editor-in-chief Marleen Hengelaar-Rookmaaker, our Canadian associate editor Laurel Gasque and American assistant editor Victoria Emily Jones worked hard to make ArtWay a website of value. They do this as volunteers, deeply motivated to try and bring a wide range of art into the limelight.

One Million Visitors!
Let me mention a few facts and figures that underline the significance of ArtWay:

Once again ArtWay reached more people than the year before: daily 2500 visitors on average browse around in our digital art world. During Advent, Lent and Easter the number of visitors rises to 3500 per day.

Half of the visitors come from the Netherlands and Belgium, while the other half come from all over the world, with countries like the USA, England, France, Germany, Canada, Brazil, India, the Philippines and Ukraine taking the lead.

This boils down to one million unique visitors a year, which may arouse the envy of quite a few art museums!

This year we worked on setting up French and German sections on the website. They are still small, but growing. We were happy to discover that the number of French reading visitors to the website went up considerably.

Our weekly visual meditations reach 4100 subscribers, half of which are English reading. You are invited to let friends and acquaintances know about this service. In fact, encouraging subscriptions might be the best Christmas gift you can give them. It lasts all year round!

For quite a few people the meditations offer a breathing moment amidst a never ceasing stream of messages, feedback from pressured professionals to pastors makes clear.

In the Netherlands we have helped set up an art minor at the Christelijke Hogeschool Ede (CHE), so that there will be a place art students can go to when they seek to connect their art and their faith. Something like this was lacking in the Netherlands. Marleen is also working hard on a book about Christianity and art with an added focus on Calvinism and Neo-Calvinism and art that will be published in Dutch and English next year.

We Live on Donations
ArtWay is for 100% run by volunteers. For the expenses we make we depend on donations. That’s why we call upon your generosity: your gift can be remitted online. Go here to give a donation

When you prefer to send us a cheque, here are our account details: Account holder: Stichting ArtWay, Sloetmarke 33, Zwolle. IBAN: NL25INGB0003847269; BIC (also known as Swiftcode): INGBNL2A.

In Canada
Canadian citizens and residents can claim a tax credit by giving through MSC Canada, specifying that your gift is 'to support the work of the Lord under the direction of Laurel Gasque, Associate Editor of Artway.eu.' The mailing address is: MSC Canada, 101 Amber Street, UNIT 18, Markham, Ontario L3R 3B2, CANADA

The ArtWay team and board wish you a rich and creative Christmas and 2018.

Wim Eikelboom,
Chairman of ArtWay 

NB – Would you like to know more about the work of the Polish artist Jerzy Nowosielski? Then go to a presentation of his icons here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBslyBqzoU0.

PS – For a recent presentation about ArtWay by our chairman Wim Eikelboom, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EWtKVuHFmQ&t=24s.

*******

ARTWAY LIST OF BOOKS 2017

Alexandrova, Alena. Breaking Resemblance: The Role of Religious Motifs in Contemporary Art. New York: Fordham University Press, 2017. Focuses on the ways contemporary artists rework religious motifs as a means to reflect critically on our desire to believe in images, on the history of seeing them, and on their double power—iconic and political. Besides discussing a number of exhibitions that take religion as their central theme, the book devotes four chapters to individual artists: Bill Viola, Lawrence Malstaf, Victoria Reynolds, and Berlinde de Bruyckere.

Bishop, Brian Leslie. The Continuing Dialogue: An Investigation into the Artistic Afterlife of the Five Narratives Peculiar to the Fourth Gospel and an Assessment of Their Contribution to the Hermeneutics of That Gospel. Eugene, Oregon: Resource Publications/Wipf and Stock, 2017. Five paintings based on each of the five narratives particular to John’s Gospel—the Wedding at Cana, Jesus and the Woman of Samaria, the Woman Taken in Adultery, the Raising of Lazarus, and Jesus Washing the Disciples’ Feet—are considered in context. These are taken from the early fourteenth century (Duccio and Giotto) to the twentieth and twenty-first centuries (Max Beckmann and Constantina Wood).

Blyth, Caroline, and Nasili Vaka’uta, eds. The Bible and Art, Perspectives from Oceania. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017. This collection of essays explores ways that the visual art of Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia, and the Pacific Islands engages with the stories, themes, and theologies of the Old and New Testaments.

Buggeln, Gretchen, Crispin Paine, and S. Brent Plate, eds. Religion in Museums: Global and Multidisciplinary Perspectives. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017. Most museum collections include religious objects, and an increasing number are beginning to address religion as a major category of human identity. This global survey of religion in (art, archaeology, anthropology, and history) museums provides a range of case studies, from museums devoted specifically to religious diversity to exhibitions centered on religion at secular museums, and charts a course for future research and interpretation.

Case-Green, Karen, and Gill C. Sakakini. Imaging the Story: Rediscovering the Visual and Poetic Contours of Salvation. Eugene, Oregon: Cascade/Wipf and Stock, 2017. This coursebook invites groups to engage with the biblical metanarrative through art and poetry. Featuring works by a variety of artists and ideas for creative projects, each chapter guides participants through (1) reading a scripture passage, (2) responding, (3) reflecting, and (4) making.

Giebelhausen, Michaela. Painting the Bible: Representation and Belief in Mid-Victorian Britain. London: Routledge, 2006, 2017. (Paperback edition) Charts the emergence of a Protestant realist painting in a period of increasing doubt, scientific discovery, and biblical criticism, with particular attention paid to the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, especially William Holman Hunt.

Gordon, Alastair. God Art: Signs of Faith in Contemporary Art. London: Morphē Arts, 2017. Written and published by the cofounder of the Christian creatives network Morphē Arts, this sixty-four-page booklet comprises the author’s reflections on the ongoing discussion between faith and art.

Heal, Bridget. A Magnificent Faith: Art and Identity in Lutheran Germany. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017. This is the first study to offer an account of the Reformation origins and subsequent flourishing of the Lutheran baroque, of the rich visual culture that developed in parts of the Holy Roman Empire during the later seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. It argues that images became prominent vehicles for the articulation of Lutheran identity.

Homan, Roger. The Art of the Sublime: Principles of Christian Art and Architecture. London: Routledge, 2006, 2017. (Paperback edition) A comprehensive account of the course of Christian art, encompassing a re-evaluation of conventional aesthetics and its application to religious art. The author argues that Christian art must be assessed not in terms of its place in the history of art but of its place in Christian faith.

Jeffrey, David Lyle. In the Beauty of Holiness. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 2017. Lavishly illustrated with 146 full-color masterworks, this study guides readers through eighteen hundred years of Christian fine art while exploring the relationship between beauty and holiness.

Jensen, Robin M. The Cross: History, Art, and Controversy. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2017. Jensen takes readers on an intellectual and spiritual journey through the two-thousand-year evolution of the cross as an idea and an artifact, illuminating the controversies―along with the forms of devotion―this central symbol of Christianity inspires.

Kilby, Clyde S. The Arts and the Christian Imagination: Essays on Art, Literature, and Aesthetics. Brewster, Massachusetts: Paraclete Press, 2017. Editors William Dyrness and Keith Call bring together the writings of the late American evangelical scholar Clyde Kilby on the arts, aesthetics, and beauty.

Mattes, Mark C. Martin Luther’s Theology of Beauty: A Reappraisal. Ada, Michigan: Baker Academic, 2017. One of today’s leading Lutheran theologians analyzes Luther’s theological aesthetics and discusses its implications for music, art, and the contemplative life.

Moroncini, Ambra. Michelangelo’s Poetry and Iconography in the Heart of the Reformation. London: Routledge, 2017. This book shows how in the second quarter of the sixteenth century, Michelangelo’s poetry and aesthetic conception were strongly inspired by the revived theologia crucis of evangelical spirituality, rather than by the theologia gloriae of Catholic teaching. It especially examines his Last Judgment, his devotional drawings made for Vittoria Colonna, and his last frescoes for the Pauline Chapel.

Quash, Ben, Aaron Rosen, and Chloë Reddaway, eds. Visualising a Sacred City: London, Art and Religion. London: I.B. Tauris, 2017. The first examination of the religious visual art of London. Adopting a broad multicultural and multifaith perspective, its topics range from ancient archaeological remains and Victorian murals and cemeteries, to contemporary documentaries and political cartoons.

Romaine, James, and Phoebe Wolfskill, eds. Beholding Christ and Christianity in African American Art. University Park, Pennsylvania: Penn State University Press, 2017. Focusing on the work of artists who came to maturity between the Civil War and the Civil Rights Era, this volume constructs a vivid new history of African American art by exploring biblical and Christian subjects and themes in the work of such noted artists as Romare Bearden, Edmonia Lewis, Archibald Motley, Henry Ossawa Tanner, and James VanDerZee.

Sherman, Louise, and Christobel Mattingley, eds. Our Mob, God’s Story: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Artists Share Their Faith. Sydney, New South Wales: Bible Society Australia, 2017. Showcases, in full color, over 115 Bible-inspired paintings and faith stories by 65 of Australia’s First Nations artists.

Taylor, W. David O. The Theater of God’s Imagination: Calvin, Creation, and the Liturgical Arts (Calvin Institute of Christian Worship Liturgical Studies). Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 2017. Examines Calvin’s trinitarian theology as it intersects his doctrine of the physical creation in order to argue for a positive theological account of the liturgical arts.

Taylor, W. David O., and Taylor Worley, eds. Contemporary Art and the Church: A Conversation Between Two Worlds (Studies in Theology and the Arts). Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Academic, 2017. This collection of papers presented at CIVA’s 2015 biennial conference—written by artists, theologians, and church leaders—seeks to redress the misunderstandings and mistrust that abound between the worlds of contemporary art and the church.

Verdon, Timothy, ed. The Ecumenism of Beauty. Brewster, Massachusetts: Paraclete Press, 2017. Essays from Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant artists, scholars, clergy, and theologians explore beauty as a means to unify the body of Christ.

Winters, Michael. Filling Blank Spaces: “How-To” Work with Visual Artists in Your Church. Louisville, Kentucky: Sojourn Network, 2017. Written by the director of arts and culture at Sojourn Community Church, this e-book manual is for churches that are ready to start engaging the visual arts. It covers timelines for developing an arts ministry, how to cultivate a give-and-take dynamic with artists, how to assess your church’s visual culture, how to look at visual art, how to commission art, and more. 

Zuidervaart, Lambert. Art, Education, and Cultural Renewal: Essays in Reformational Philosophy. Montreal, Quebec/Kingston, Ontario: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2017. Interacting with the ideas of leading Kuyperian thinkers such as Calvin Seerveld and Nicholas Wolterstorff, Zuidervaart shows why renewal in the arts needs to coincide with political and economic transformation. He also calls for education and research that serve the common good.


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16 February 2023 / Ervin Bossanyi: A vision for unity and harmony

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01 December 2022 / ArtWay newsletter 2022

Artway will be continued by the Kirby Laing Centre for Public Theology from the beginning of 2024.

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20 October 2022 / Kuyper, the Aesthetic Sphere, and Art

After three centuries of silence about art in Reformed theological circles in the Netherlands, suddenly there was Abraham Kuyper, whose great merit it was that he once again drew attention to art.

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Through the project in Tehachapi JR wanted to "give voice to prisoners" and humanize their environment. 

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04 August 2022 / Joseph Beuys: A Spiritual German Artist

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Interview by JONATHAN EVENS

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21 April 2022 / Betty Spackman: A Creature Chronicle

When I consider the heavens, the moon and the stars that you have made, what are mere mortals that you are mindful of them… Psalm 8

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08 April 2022 / Historical Models for Crosses and Crucifixes Today

All crosses and crucifixes symbolise joy and salvation. But formally there are two different types: the victorious and the suffering crucifix. 

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16 March 2022 / Three artworks by Walter Hayn

by Gert Swart

These three artworks must have turned Walter Hayn inside out, being so powerfully revealing.

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22 February 2022 / Abstract Expressionism

by Nigel Halliday

It is worth the while to remember the deep seriousness of these artists – even if their suggested answers can look sadly thin.

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07 January 2022 / Artist duo Gardner & Gardner

by Elizabeth Kwant

During COP26 artist duo Gardner & Gardner installed their work I will learn to sit with you and I will learn to listen in Glasgow Cathedral.

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09 December 2021 / ArtWay Newsletter and List of Books 2021

Marleen Hengelaar-Rookmaaker intends to phase out her participation in the day to day oversight of the ArtWay website over the course of the coming new year.

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03 November 2021 / The Seven Works of Mercy in Art

by Marleen Hengelaar-Rookmaaker

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06 October 2021 / Disciplining our eyes with holy images

by Victoria Emily Jones

Images tend to work a subtle magic on us, especially after years of constant exposure.

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24 August 2021 / On the Gifts of Street Art

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27 July 2021 / Russia’s 1st Biennale of Christ-centered Art

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30 June 2021 / Jacques and Raïssa Maritain among the Artists

by David Lyle Jeffrey

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13 May 2021 / GOD IS...

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21 April 2021 / Photographing Religious Practice

by Jonathan Evens

The increasing prevalence of photographic series and books exploring aspects of religious practice gives witness to the return of religion in the arts.

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23 March 2021 / Constanza López Schlichting: Via Crucis

Perhaps what may be different from other Stations of the Cross is that it responds to a totally free expression and each station is a painting in itself. 

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10 February 2021 / Gert Swart: Four Cruciforms

In a post-Christian era, contemporary Christian artists have to find new ways of evoking the power of the cross. 

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08 January 2021 / Reflecting on a Gauguin Masterpiece

by Alan Wilson

An artist's reflection on Impressionism, Cezanne, Van Gogh and especially Gauguin's Vision after the Sermon.

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11 December 2020 / ArtWay Newsletter 2020

What makes the ArtWay platform so special is its worldwide scope thanks to its multilingual character. There are ArtWay visitors in all countries on this planet. 

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27 October 2020 / Art Pilgrimage

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by Lieke Wijnia

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18 September 2020 / Interview with Peter Koenig

by Jonathan Evens

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17 August 2020 / BOOK REVIEW BY HEINRICH BALZ

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17 July 2020 / The Calling Window by Sophie Hacker

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12 June 2020 / A little leaven leavens the whole lump

From South Africa

Ydi Carstens reports on the group show ‘Unleavened’ which was opened in Stellenbosch shortly before the Covid-19 lock-down. 

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14 May 2020 / Jazz, Blues, and Spirituals

Republished: 

Hans Rookmaaker, Jazz, Blues, and Spirituals. The Origins and Spirituality of Black Music in the United States. 

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17 April 2020 / Andy Warhol: Catholicism, Work, Faith And Legacy

by Jonathan Evens 

While Warhol’s engagement with faith was complex it touched something which was fundamental, not superficial.

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25 March 2020 / Sacred Geometry in Christian Art

by Sophie Hacker

This blog unravels aspects of sacred geometry and how it has inspired art and architecture for millennia. 

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22 February 2020 / Between East and West

By Kaori Homma

Being in this limbo between day and night makes me question, “Where does the east end and the west start?”

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15 February 2020 / Imagination at Play

by Marianne Lettieri

To deny ourselves time to laugh, be with family and friends, and fuel our passions, we get caught in what Cameron calls the “treadmill of virtuous production.”

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07 December 2019 / ArtWay Newsletter 2019

An update by our editor-in-chief 
and
the ArtWay List of Books 2019

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16 November 2019 / Scottish Miracles and Parables Exhibition

Alan Wilson: "Can there be a renewal of Christian tradition in Scottish art, where ambitious artists create from a heartfelt faith, committed to their Lord and saviour as well as their craft?"

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23 September 2019 / Dal Schindell Tribute

While Dal’s ads and sense of humour became the stuff of legends, it was his influence on the arts at Regent College in Vancouver, Canada that may be his biggest legacy. 

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04 September 2019 / The Aesthetics of John Calvin

Calvin stated that 'the faithful see sparks of God's glory, as it were, glittering in every created thing. The world was no doubt made, that it might be the theater of divine glory.'

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31 July 2019 / The Legend of the Artist

by Beat Rink

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02 July 2019 / Quotes by Tim Keller

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08 June 2019 / The Chaiya Art Awards

by Jonathan Evens

The Chaiya Art Awards 2018 proved hugely popular, with over 450 entries and more than 2,700 exhibition visitors.

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29 May 2019 / Art Stations of the Cross: Reflections

by Lieke Wynia

In its engagement with both Biblical and contemporary forms of suffering, the exhibition addressed complex topical issues without losing a sense of hope out of sight.

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03 May 2019 / Marianne Lettieri: Relics Reborn

Items that show the patina of time and reveal the wear and tear of human interaction are carriers of personal and collective history. 

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27 April 2019 / Franciscan and Dominican Arts of Devotion

by John Skillen 

This manner of prayer stirs up devotion, the soul stirring the body, and the body stirring the soul.

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13 March 2019 / Makoto Fujimura and the Culture Care Movement

by Victoria Emily Jones

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08 January 2019 / Building a Portfolio of People

by Marianne Lettieri

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01 December 2018 / ArtWay Newsletter December 2018

ArtWay has Special Plans for 2019!

After London, Washington D.C. and New York the city of Amsterdam in the Netherlands is now the anticipated location for a prominent art exhibition with the title Art Stations of the Cross.

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11 October 2018 / The Life, Art and Legacy of Charles Eamer Kempe

Book Review by Jonathan Evens

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13 September 2018 / A Visit to the Studio of Georges Rouault

by Jim Alimena

Everything we saw and learned reinforced my picture of a great man of faith and a great artist. 

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09 August 2018 / With Opened Eyes: Representational Art

by Ydi Coetsee

How do we respond to the ‘lost innocence’ of representational art? 

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13 July 2018 / True Spirituality in the Arts

by Edith Reitsema

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17 May 2018 / Beholding Christ in African American Art

Book review by Victoria Emily Jones

One of the hallmarks of Beholding Christ is the diversity of styles, media, and denominational affiliations represented.

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23 April 2018 / Short Introduction to Hans Rookmaaker

by Marleen Hengelaar-Rookmaaker

On the occasion of the establishment of the Rookmaaker Jazz Scholarship at Covenant College, Chattanooga, Tennessee, 12 March 2018

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04 April 2018 / International Art Residency in India

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15 March 2018 / The Stations of the Cross at Blackburn Cathedral

by Penny Warden  

Perhaps the central challenge for the artist in imaging the body of Christ is the problem of representing the dual natures of the doctrine of the incarnation.

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23 February 2018 / Between the Shadow and the Light

By Rachel Hostetter Smith

In June 2013 a group of twenty North American and African artists from six African countries met for two weeks of intensive engagement with South Africa.

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30 January 2018 / Sacred Geometry in Christian Art

by Sophie Hacker

This blog unravels aspects of sacred geometry and how it has inspired art and architecture for millennia. 

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01 January 2018 / Jonathan Evens writes about Central Saint Martins

Why would Central Saint Martins, a world-famous arts and design college and part of University of the Arts London, choose to show work by its graduates in a church?

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14 November 2017 / The Moral Imagination: Art and Peacebuilding

In the context of conflict transformation the key purpose of creative expression is to provide a venue for people to tell their stories, and for their stories to be heard.

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24 October 2017 / Bruce Herman: Ut pictura poesis?

For the last couple hundred of years the arts have largely been in "experimentation mode"—moving away from the humble business of craft and service toward ideas, issues, and theory.

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04 October 2017 / David Jeffrey: Art and Understanding Scripture

The purpose of In the Beauty of Holiness: Art and the Bible in Western Culture is to help deepen the reader’s understanding of the magnificence of the Bible as a source for European art.

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08 September 2017 / David Taylor: The Aesthetics of John Calvin

Calvin stated that 'the faithful see sparks of God's glory, as it were, glittering in every created thing. The world was no doubt made, that it might be the theater of divine glory.'

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23 August 2017 / ​Reconstructed by Anikó Ouweneel

A much talked-about exposition in the NoordBrabants Museum in The Netherlands showed works by modern and contemporary Dutch artists inspired by traditional Catholic statues of Christ and the saints. 

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04 July 2017 / Pilgrimage to Venice – The Venice Biennale 2017

When I start to look at the art works, I notice a strange rift between this pleasant environment and the angst and political engagement present in the works of the artists. 

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24 June 2017 / Collecting as a Calling

After many years of compiling a collection of religious art, I have come to realize that collecting is a calling. I feel strongly that our collection has real value and that it is a valuable ministry. 

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02 June 2017 / I Believe in Contemporary Art

By Alastair Gordon

In recent years there has been a growing interest in questions of religion in contemporary art. Is it just a passing fad or signs of renewed faith in art? 

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04 April 2017 / Stations of the Cross - Washington, DC 2017

by Aaron Rosen

We realized that the Stations needed to speak to the acute anxiety facing so many minorities in today’s America and beyond. 

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07 March 2017 / Socially Engaged Art

A discussion starter by Adrienne Dengerink Chaplin

Growing dissatisfaction with an out-of-touch, elite and market driven art world has led artists to turn to socially engaged art. 

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01 February 2017 / Theodore Prescott: Inside Sagrada Familia

The columns resemble the trunks of trees. Gaudi conceived of the whole interior as a forest, where the nave ceiling would invoke the image of an arboreal canopy.

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03 January 2017 / Steve Scott tells about his trips to Bali

In the Balinese shadow play the puppet master pulls from a repertoire of traditional tales and retells them with an emphasis on contemporary moral and spiritual lessons. 

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09 December 2016 / Newsletter ArtWay December 2016

Like an imitation of a good thing past, these days of darkness surely will not last. Jesus was here and he is coming again, to lead us to the festival of friends.

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01 November 2016 / LAbri for Beginners

What is the role of the Christian artist? Is it not to ‘re-transcendentalise’ the transcendent, to discern what is good in culture, and to subvert what is not with a prophetic voice?

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30 September 2016 / Book Review by Jonathan Evens

Jonathan Koestlé-Cate, Art and the Church: A Fractious Embrace - Ecclesiastical Encounters with Contemporary Art, Routledge, 2016.

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01 September 2016 / Review: Modern art and the life of a culture

The authors say they want to help the Christian community recognize the issues raised in modern art and to do so in ways that are charitable and irenic. But I did not find them so. Their representation of Rookmaaker seems uncharitable and at times even misleading. 

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29 July 2016 / Victoria Emily Jones on Disciplining our Eyes

There’s nothing inherently wrong with images—creating or consuming. In fact, we need them. But we also need to beware of the propensity they have to plant themselves firmly in our minds. 

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30 June 2016 / Aniko Ouweneel on What is Christian Art?

Pekka Hannula challenges the spectator to search for the source of the breath we breathe, the source of what makes life worth living, the source of our longing for the victory of redemptive harmony.

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09 June 2016 / Theodore Prescott: The Sagrada Familia

Sagrada Familia is a visual encyclopedia of Christian narrative and Catholic doctrine as Gaudi sought to embody the faith through images, symbols, and expressive forms.

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19 May 2016 / Edward Knippers: Do Clothes make the Man?

Since the body is the one common denominator for all of humankind, why do we fear to uncover it? Why is public nudity a shock or even a personal affront?

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27 April 2016 / Alexandra Harper: Culture Care

Culture Care is an invitation to create space within the local church to invest our talents, time and tithes in works that lean into the Kingdom of God as creative agents of shalom. 

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06 April 2016 / Jonathan Evens on Contemporary Commissions

The issue of commissioning secular artists versus artists of faith represents false division and unnecessary debate. The reality is that both have resulted in successes and failures.

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12 March 2016 / Betty Spackman: Creativity and Depression

When our whole being is wired to fly outside the box, life can become a very big challenge. To carve oneself into a square peg for the square holes of society, when you are a round peg, is painful to say the least.

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24 February 2016 / Jim Watkins: Augustine and the Senses

Augustine is not saying that sensual pleasure is bad, but that it is a mixed good. As his Confessions so clearly show, Augustine is painfully aware of how easily he can take something good and turn it into something bad. 

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11 February 2016 / H.R. Rookmaaker: Does Art Need Justification?

Art is not a religion, nor an activity relegated to a chosen few, nor a mere worldly, superfluous affair. None of these views of art does justice to the creativity with which God has endowed man.

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26 January 2016 / Ned Bustard: The Bible is Not Safe

Revealed is intended to provoke surprise, even shock. It shows that the Bible is a book about ordinary people, who are not only spiritual beings, but also greedy, needy, hateful, hopeful, selfish, and sexual.

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14 January 2016 / Painting by Nanias Maira from Papua New Guinea

In 2011 Wycliffe missionary Peter Brook commissioned artist Nanias Maira, who belongs to the Kwoma people group of northwestern Papua New Guinea, to paint Bible stories in the traditional style for which he is locally known. 

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