Sunday, November 29, 2009
Benedict Woos Artists, Urging ‘Quest for Beauty’
NYTimes.com: "And so in an effort to improve the Catholic Church’s engagement with contemporary artists — and perhaps put a gentler face on a contentious papacy — the Vatican invited more than 250 artists, architects, musicians, directors, writers and composers for an audience on Saturday with Pope Benedict XVI."
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3 comments:
This is a great example of how religious groups like the Catholic church are trying to recreate their connection with modern artistic movements. There used to be an amazingly strong connection world wide with art that was derived directly from religious beliefs, but in a lot of modern western art there is almost a denial of its existence. I would be extremely curious to see what kind of art the modern day Catholic Church would commission.
I don't know how passionate I am about the church reconnecting with the art world. One of the staple of modern art is its separation from any larger group. Artists today are free to express themselves how ever they want, and as a collective force artists aren't speaking as one voice. If we look historically at art religious iconography it what defined many periods like the medieval period and the renaissance. In these periods the church was crucial in stimulating art, but today we don't need the church for that - and I think any new association between the art world and the church would result in too much religious art. The allure of the modern age of art is its freedom, lets not tie it down.
I agree with Sarah that the art world should stay separate from the church. I have no problem with artists making religiously inspired pieces, but if the Catholic church wants to see more of this, Benedict is taking a bad approach. A better approach would either be to commission artwork that the church would like to see, or do something with the church's image that makes artists want to create artwork related to the church (and puts them in a good light, unlike "The Ninth Hour"). My impression of what Benedict did was to ask for more art to be done more in lines with the church, but without offering anything in return. In effect, it seems as if he is soliciting for free work.
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