This Sunday we are meeting at the Columbus Art Museum for our discussion. First, the formalities – the art museum is free on Sundays, as is parking. We usually go from 3:00 to 5:00, but this time let’s start our discussion at 3:30 – we’ll meet in the central area where the chairs are. So, if you get there at 3:00, you’ll have 30 minutes to look at the gallery (or you can get there earlier, I’ll probably be there between 2:00 and 2:30). I don’t really care what you look at, so long as you are at least aware of the larger question, but it would be a good idea to at least look briefly at the European religious art section as it will certainly be relevant for our conversation. The museum closes at 5:30, so people should have a few minutes to look around at the end as well.
What would be best is if everyone could pick a work of art or two before the discussion that you fell best communicates spiritual meaning or makes an impact on you. We could certainly discuss how the image itself has changed it role in the Christian community, but I would rather focus more on us than the past. I really have no idea where our discussion will go (as I don’t really know the cma’s collection), but it should be fun and maybe we could even repeat it every six months or so if it goes well since we have discussed having a commitment to the arts as a potential aspect of our group.
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I found a very interesting and relevant article on the church and postmodern culture website. It's lengthy, but worth the read in light of our next gathering. Here's an excerpt:
"St. Paul had a choice on Mars Hill. He could easily have condemned as blasphemous those altars erected by the Greeks to the unknown god. That seems to be the strategy in much reflection on contemporary art from a Christian perspective. But St. Paul did not do that. As he walked around those monuments and altars he creatively interpreted them to be, in fact, altars to the one true God, whom the Greeks honored without full knowledge. St. Paul’s apologetic was to complete their knowledge, to fulfill it, not to destroy it. That is the model for Christian work in the contemporary art world. It is to show how and in what way contemporary artistic practice participates in, embodies, and points to religious truth, whether or not the artists themselves intend as much."
The full article is here: http://churchandpomo.typepad.com/
conversation/2008/03/art-and-religio.html
Perhaps in anticipation of the weekend, some of you might also be interested in attending this Artist's Talk tomorrow (Tues, March 25) at the film and video theater on campus (1871 N. High St.). The artist is from Israel and his portraits have been on display for a few months at the Wexner Center. You can read more about the event here:
http://www.wexarts.org/ex/index.php?eventid=2813
Thanks for posting this link Greg, it was very interesting. I agree that we should view art as pointing to religious truth, but I don't really know how to do it. I'm interested to see where our discussion will go. I also might want to do another of these artsy sessions in a few months where we discuss music, then at least the two of us will be a little more in our element.
Did you guys go to the artist's talk at the wex?
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