{"id":19565,"date":"2018-10-18T19:45:59","date_gmt":"2018-10-19T02:45:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=19565"},"modified":"2018-10-20T16:45:12","modified_gmt":"2018-10-20T23:45:12","slug":"art-for-arts-sake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/art-for-arts-sake\/","title":{"rendered":"Art for Arts sake"},"content":{"rendered":"

“In some mysterious sense, all art aspires to be worship”[1] In this statement William Dyrness closes his chapter, Reflecting Theologically on the Visual Arts, with a call to understand that all art, whether by Christians or not, cries out to aspire to something greater than the artist. He goes onto argue the artist whether wanting to “praise God or not” [2] want their art to reach out for that which they are not, infinite meaning.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In his book\u00a0Visual Faith: Art, Theology, and Worship in Dialogue<\/em>, Dyrness brings and argument which can make some Christians squirm and has don so throughout history. He begins his discussion on visual art in the early church. The art of the church has always been theologically driven. Dyrness argues, even from the start though there was a split in the deeper meaning between east and west. Where in the West the mediated images used the death of Christ “which became especially significant in the Western artistic tradition” [3], where in Eastern thought it is the”incarnation taken as a whole that saves rather than simply the death of Christ” [4]. So, even in the early church there was division theologically seen in the art.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Fast forward to modern times, we live in a society inundated with images. Images come to us on our phones, in our cars on screens, from T.V, movies and from just about everywhere we look. In the early church they only place most people found art was in the church itself. That is why art was so closely associated with God. Even in other cultures, Egyptian, Aztec, Indian, Asia etcetera, we see so much art dealing with religious issues. It was how man connected with God. Christian art was, for such a long time the best way for the common person to connect with God. Most could not read or write, but they feelings that are associated with art told a story of redemption. This is missing in art today, most modern art is, like art in Medieval Times making a statement, but most, if not all art is not about God.<\/p>\n

I remember the outrage and calling for banning of National Endowment of the Arts after works such as The Holy Virgin Mary by Chris Ofili and Piss Christ by Andres Serano were put on display. While both artists argue they meant no offense it was just art, these pieces did just that offend. It is interesting though that neither piece brings glory to God yet both seem to be reaching for something bigger.<\/p>\n

In the opposite corner, though with just as much hate, you have another artist whose work led him to be called the “painter of light”, Thomas Kincade. Kincade was a born again Christian whose use of light in his paintings was his signature style. His paintings at one point sold at a clip of $100 million per year (not a single painting but in total) and yet those in the art world reviled him as ”\u00a0as\u00a0sugar-drenched,\u00a0unpleasantly artificial, and something\u00a0“normal” people\u00a0should recoil from. When he died last year of an\u00a0alcohol-and-Valium overdose, the\u00a0Washington Post<\/em>\u00a0pointed out\u00a0that many considered his work the ‘epitome of mediocre art.'”[5] Yet his works hang in homes all over the U.S., he is considered a great painter by many Christians because they feel “God in his paintings” [6]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

You have strong negative and strong positive feelings elicited from both sets of paintings yet both are works of art and at some level should be appreciated at the very least as coming from artistic gifts given to the artists by God. Dyrness argues, “Human art, when it is good, manages some echo of this reality–either to praise or to curse…art that is worthy goes with the grain of a God-inspired and Spirit-upheld order, or it stands against this order, or more usually, it stands in some ambiguous relationship to it.”[7]<\/span><\/p>\n

As art continues to evolve, whether it is installation art, video or performance there is a sense in some that art has fallen far since classical art. This argument though seems shallow, if the “great masters” would have had access to what we have today, who is to say they would not have created some of the same types of art you find in galleries today.\u00a0 In the time of classical art, the church was the main influence in their lives, it is not at all like that anymore. As much as Christians lament the lack of influence in the world, maybe it is ok to see art for what it is. Inspired by something greater that who we are that can either glorify him or not.<\/p>\n

[1]\u00a0Dyrness, William A.\u00a0Visual Faith: Art, Theology, and Worship in Dialogue<\/i>. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2003. 101.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

[2] Ibid. 101.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

[3] Ibid. 33.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

[4] Ibid. 33.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

[5]\u00a0Metcalfe, John. “Science Explains Why It’s So Easy to Hate ‘Painter of Light’ Thomas Kinkade.” CityLab. August 29, 2013. Accessed October 19, 2018. https:\/\/www.citylab.com\/design\/2013\/08\/even-though-hes-dead-people-are-still-ripping-painter-light-thomas-kinkade\/6710\/.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

[6] Quote from Liz Heslep in interview 10\/16\/18.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

[7]\u00a0Dyrness, William A.\u00a0Visual Faith: Art, Theology, and Worship in Dialogue<\/i>. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2003. 101.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“In some mysterious sense, all art aspires to be worship”[1] In this statement William Dyrness closes his chapter, Reflecting Theologically on the Visual Arts, with a call to understand that all art, whether by Christians or not, cries out to aspire to something greater than the artist. He goes onto argue the artist whether wanting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":102,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","cohort-lgp8"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/102"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19565"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19565\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19612,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19565\/revisions\/19612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}