Found at notw.com.
“Beauty alone has never been the object of most of those who built, painted, sculpted, or carved to make visible this Jesus who left behind no proven image or even description in words of his appearance. He appears in art in many ways, from King of kings and Lord of lords to gentle rabbi, compassionate friend, and suffering Man of Sorrows. He has been imagined in the guise of every civilization. It may seem, then, as if the Jesus whom artists and their cultures portray is an entirely ideal projection of themselves. Yet for him to be made visible in such a variety of images when no one authentic image is possible, surely there is something more to this than our human needs. If Christ is, as he has been called, the image of the invisible God, of that God, in whose image humanity is said to be made, then is it any wonder that the faces given to Jesus Christ are as numerous as the peoples of the earth?”
—from The Face: Jesus in Art,
an Emmy Award-winning documentary written by James Clifton
Found at tshirtbully.com.
Calvin College’s Calvin Institute of Christian Worship has organized a weekend of seminars, workshops, and artist presentations that will focus on how we can use art to better love our neighbors. This exploration will be guided by the ideas of Latina theologian Cecila González-Andrieu (author of Bridge to Wonder: Art as a Gospel of Beauty) and philosopher Nicholas Wolterstorff (author of Art in Action: Toward a Christian Aesthetic).
The conference will take place April 25-26, 2014, with events spread across seven churches in downtown Grand Rapids. These churches will also host an art exhibition with over 300 pieces of original art, which will be open to the general public, free of charge, for the two weeks following the conference.
Standard registration is $150, but see here for special group, student, and single-day rates.
The artists who will be speaking about their work include:
There will also be hands-on workshops on printmaking, painting, ceramics, calligraphy, textile art, and mosaic.
Other talks include:
For more information, visit Eyekons.com.
On September 15, 1963, a bomb tore through the east wall of 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four little black girls who were attending Sunday school. The act of four white men, this bombing was only one of many racially motivated attacks in the city that had ended fatally that year, but this one gained worldwide attention and led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964.
Denise McNair, 11. Carole Robertson, 14. Addie Mae Collins, 14. Cynthia Dianne Wesley, 14.
How is one to respond to such a horrific act of violence? What comfort is there for the four families and the church body that were forever altered that day? What recourse?
Found at Shop2Wear.com.
Starting tonight and running on two other Saturdays this month, Cambridge artist Shin Maeng will be having his first art show. The focus will be on a series of drawings he made last year in response to Advent but will also include other pieces from 2013, including some collaborative drawings he did with his wife, Sarah Shin. His style is very much influenced by urban art and manga, and the content of his drawings by his Christian faith.
Visit his and Sarah’s Etsy shop to browse or buy prints. You can also hop over to Vimeo to hear Sarah talk about a recent drawing of theirs called Unleashing Grace.
I’ve been preoccupied lately with preparations for a lecture on crucifixion art, which I’ll be delivering on Friday (1/31/14) to the MIT Graduate Christian Fellowship. If you live in the Boston area, I invite you to attend! It will be at 7:30 p.m. in Room 407 of the Student Center. Here is the description:
The Crucifixion of Christ is the most represented subject in the history of Western art. And yet its paradoxical nature poses a challenge to the artist: What should an image of simultaneous suffering and hope, ugliness and beauty, shame and glory, look like? Is it possible to emphasize both aspects in equal measure? Over time various symbols, motifs, and figural representations developed, rooted in the Gospel accounts but influenced by contemporary political and theological climates, and drawing too from legend. Victoria Jones will teach us how to identify these elements in art ranging from the Roman catacombs to medieval prayer books to modern art galleries. See how the twentieth century, with its two world wars, transformed the way artists approached the subject of the Crucifixion, and how different cultures and subcultures have made it their own.
Image credits
Left: Illumination from the Gospel book of Countess Judith of Northumbria, England, c. 1030-50.
Right: Ricardo Cinalli, Encuentros V, 1994. Pastel on tissue paper, 284 x 195 cm.
Found at headlineshirts.net.
The Jesus Question 