Sacred Art

Charlotta Westergren: Rediscovering the Past

By Christopher S. Johnson AS IT HAS DONE WITH SO MUCH ELSE, contemporary art has largely jettisoned the Christian themes and imagery that defined the Western tradition for centuries.  (Those much publicized maestros of toilet media excepted, to be sure.) It came as a mild shock then, on the cusp of Holy Week, to stumble upon Victory, a painting by Charlotta Westergren, an artist previously unknown to me, to my regret. // Immediate and obvious pictorial antecedents are the still lifes with game birds, the twisted broken bodies dripping blood, of Chardin and Meléndez. Continue Reading
Palm Sunday, Then & Now

PALM SUNDAY COMMEMORATES JESUS’ ENTRY INTO JERUSALEM and marks the beginning of Passion Week. It observes the triumphal prelude—so misleading—to bloody days ahead, a time of betrayal, torture, and death. While portrayals of crucifixions continued well into the 20th century, Palm Sunday has largely been ignored by all but a few contemporary artists. Jacob Lawrence is one of the few. He framed the gospel story in terms of a black pastor greeting his flock, with particular tenderness toward the children: // // Romare Beardon, too, phrased the event in terms of the black community. Continue Reading
Sacred and Profane, Mainly

HOW TO BEGIN? Objects of Devotion and Desire: Medieval Relic to Contemporary Art does not make it easy. I could take the high road and start this way: “Memory of the sacred lingers even among secular moderns who proclaim themselves celebrants of a totally profane world.” Or I could be up front about the unbearable shallowness of being (an academic in the arts) that skews its subject into a myopic caricature of religious culture. The exhibition concerns itself with correspondence between certain contemporary artworks and ancient reliquaries. Continue Reading
My Apologies

STRAIGHTAWAY, MY APOLOGIES FOR BEING IN ARREARS.buy lipitor online https://blackmenheal.org/wp-content/themes/twentytwentytwo/inc/patterns/en/lipitor.html no prescription A few readers emailed to scold me for letting things lapse. Nothing is worse than a blog with no blogging going on, as I’ve been told. buy lexapro online https://medicalcoder.io/wp-includes/sitemaps/providers/php/lexapro.html no prescription Irresponsible, someone chided. Boring, was another complaint. All true. Have patience. Things will continue shortly. Life has a way of . . . well, getting in the way of the best laid plans. Bobbie Burns had it right; mice and men are equally vulnerable to the accidents of living. Continue Reading
Three Faiths, One Hymnal

THREE FAITHS: JUDAISM, CHRISTIANITY, ISLAM is two things at once. To the eye, it is a stunning exhibition of historic manuscripts, incunabula and printed texts of great rarity and beauty. On that level, it is nothing short of breathtaking. This is an uncommon opportunity to greet antiquities of incomparable scholarly and aesthetic value. Unhappily, the rarities on show, all from the New York Public Library’s permanent collection, are not displayed for their own sakes. buy zovirax online https://latinohealthaccess.org/wp-content/themes/twentyfourteen/inc/php/zovirax.html no prescription buy amoxicillin generic https://buywithoutprescriptiononlinerx.com/amoxicillin.html Continue Reading