Found at Amazon.com.
Last week I posted photos of some of the Yoruba Christian art housed at the SMA African Art Museum. Now I’d like to share a few from the museum’s Ethiopian collection.
Christianity has existed in Ethiopia since the first century AD. The Ethiopian Kingdom of Aksum adopted it as its official state religion around 324 at the decree of King Ezana, making Ethiopia the only country in sub-Saharan Africa to have accepted the Bible before the arrival of Western missionaries.
Ever since its founding by Frumentius, the Syrian traveler who converted King Ezana, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church has played a prominent role in the cultural development of the country. Ethiopian literature and art, for example, were born in the Church and traditionally are religious in content.
Below are a few detail photos of a twelve-panel folding icon, or chain manuscript, created around 1900. This form, called a sensul, first appeared in Ethiopia in the sixteenth century. It involves a cycle of pictures painted on a single strip of parchment, which can be folded for portability, for use either in processions or in private devotions.
The inscriptions, as in almost all Ethiopian Christian art, are in Ge’ez, the ancient Ethiopian ecclesiastical language. Like Latin in the Roman Catholic Church, Ge’ez is no longer widely spoken but continues to be used for scripture, prayers, hymns, and devotional literature.
This image shows Jesus tied to a wooden stake, being whipped by two servants of Pontius Pilate. Continue reading
Every once in a while on this blog I like to point out articles or videos that I consider neat or insightful. Here are a few I came across this week.
“They Feel ‘Blessed’” by Jessica Bennett: “There’s nothing quite like invoking holiness as a way to brag about your life. But calling something ‘blessed’ has become the go-to term for those who want to boast about an accomplishment while pretending to be humble, fish for a compliment, acknowledge a success (without sounding too conceited), or purposely elicit envy.” A good reminder for us to examine our motives anytime we use the term.
What to look for in a church, by Kurt Willems: After reflecting on five church types to avoid, Willems now provides a list of five church types to embrace.
“Why Did Methuselah Live So Long?” by Nathan Busenitz: I had never considered this answer before!
“Four Reasons Men Need Paternity Leave” by Christian Piatt: This article was written back in April in response to the flak received by New York Mets second baseman Daniel Murphy when he took off the first few games of the MLB season to be with wife during and after the birth of their son.
New recording of “It Is Well with My Soul”: This classic hymn by Horatio Spafford is featured on Jimmy Needham’s latest album, The Hymn Sessions. At the three-minute mark of the video below, John Piper tells the story of the tragic accident that prompted Spafford to write it.
Do you know Jesus?
Found at divinecotton.com.
Through July 30, 2014, the African Art Museum of the Society of African Missions is hosting an exhibition called “Africanizing Christian Art,” curated by Nicholas J. Bridger. About a half-hour drive from New York City, the museum is located in Tenafly, New Jersey, the American headquarters of the SMA (the acronym is taken from the Latin Societas Missionum ad Afros). It is one of five museums maintained by the organization worldwide, the other four being in France (two), Italy, and the Netherlands.
I had the privilege of viewing this special exhibition two weeks ago. It focuses—though not exclusively—on the legacy of Father Kevin Carroll and his artistic collaborations with the Yoruba people of Nigeria. These collaborations began in 1947, when Carroll was recruited to the position of manager of the newly formed Oye-Ekiti Workshop, founded by the Rev. Dr. Patrick M. Kelly with the aim of developing a new Yoruba Christian style of art.
The Holy Family. Part of a crèche set carved by Yoruba artist Joseph Imale in 1974, with beadwork by Jimoh Adetoye. Collection of the SMA African Art Museum. Photo: Victoria Emily Jones. To view the full set, see page 2 of the SMA sculpture guide.
Gomez-Prince collaboration: At last month’s Eyekons conference, artists Sergio Gomez and Steve Prince participated in a live drawing performance on the theme “Who Is My Neighbor?” They started drawing from opposite sides of an eight-by-thirteen-foot piece of paper and then crossed over into each other’s work after reaching the middle. Follow the link above to see the final work, including detail images, and watch the time lapse video below.
New Viola video installation at St. Paul’s Cathedral: Last month I wrote about a piece from Bill Viola’s Passions series. Well, last week a new work of his was unveiled, this time on a patch of prime real estate: the east end of the Dean’s Aisle in St. Paul’s Cathedral, London. Its title is Martyrs (Earth, Air, Fire, Water), and it is configured like a four-paneled altarpiece. Viola said he hopes that it and its companion piece Mary (to be unveiled in 2015) will function as “practical objects of traditional contemplation and devotion.” He describes the work as follows: “As the work opens, four individuals are shown in stasis, a pause from their suffering. Gradually there is movement in each scene as an element of nature begins to disturb their stillness. Flames rain down, winds begin to lash, water cascades, and earth flies up. As the elements rage, each martyr’s resolve remains unchanged. In their most violent assault, the elements represent the darkest hour of the martyr’s passage through death into the light.”
Photograph by Peter Mallet of a video installation by Bill Viola: Martyrs (Earth, Air, Fire, Water), 2014. Color high-definition video polyptych on four vertical plasma displays, 140 x 338 x 10 cm. St. Paul’s Cathedral, London. Duration: 7:15 minutes.
“Covering a City’s Potholes with Art” by Kate Sierzputowski: This article from Hyperalleric profiles the public-works project started by Chicago artist Jim Bachor: filling the city’s potholes with mosaics. At first fearful of legal repercussions, Bachor has since been awarded a commission by the Chicago Transit Authority!
Digitization initiatives: The Vatican recently announced that it has partnered with a Japanese IT company to digitize all 82,000 manuscripts in its collection, in an effort to expand access to its holdings. The first phase, which includes a batch of 3,000 manuscripts, is slated for completion by 2018. On another note, the Morgan Library and Museum has just completed its digitization of its almost five hundred Rembrandt etchings, many of which depict biblical subjects. Check it out!
Rembrandt van Rijn, The Raising of Lazarus: The Larger Plate (detail), ca. 1632. Etching, 36.7 x 25.8 cm.
Found at divinecotton.com.
CIVA has posted a podcast interview with Andy Crouch, the author of Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling. I loved his book, and this discussion with Brian Moss is equally interesting. I encourage you to follow the link to listen to it in full. It’s thirty-two minutes long.
1:56: What is the relationship between power and art?
Humans as image bearers — The cultural mandate and its tensions — Ancient cave paintings — Idolatry as an attempt to master reality, or the projection onto an image of the human quest for power — Dominion without control
8:04: How do you reconcile art making with the prohibition against graven images in Exodus 20?
The dangers of image making — Transcending time — The incarnation as a game changer (in Christ it was shown that matter can fully bear the presence of God)
11:28: It’s easy for families and congregations to know how to make music a part of their communal life of worship, but how can we participate together in the visual arts?
It’s not about drawing or painting together, but beholding together — Making your furniture match your art — Inviting contemplation rather than consumption
17:54: Visual art has the reputation of being elitist, mythical, so above us; what can we do in our churches to correct this attitude?
Beginner’s mind — Henry Ossawa Tanner’s The Banjo Lesson — Humility and patience
22:39: What do you think artists want the church to know?
Don’t mistake difficult work for unfaithfulness — Don’t think of us as prodigals — Accept our allergies
27:46: What does the church want artists to know?
“The church longs for artists to find a language we can share and help us name the deeper things that we can’t name without that language. . . . Sometimes the church feels like artists are speaking a very strange language that we can’t share or that we can’t understand, and we so long for artists to meet us halfway and give us ways of representing the world in all of its fullness and beauty and terror, in ways that we all can participate in and offer up as a sacrifice to God. And that requires a humbling of artists sometimes, because artists love to speak the most rich and complex languages, but sometimes that’s like speaking in tongues: when you bring it into the church without an interpretation, it can’t be heard. And maybe that’s another thing that the church is longing for: an interpretation. An interpretation of the artistic tongue.”
And for the final installment of the “Jesus on social media” T-shirt series . . . 
Found at zazzle.com.
The Jesus Question 