H O M E
Jonathan
Cooper
Manager of Information,
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, AUSTRALIA
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H O M E |
Jonathan
Cooper |
Art and 'The Message'
Originally published in Southern Cross (Anglican Information Office, Sydney, Australia) February 1989
Appearances can deceive, even where matters of faith are concerned. We may think that we are being courageous by using our art to boldly proclaim the name and centrality of Jesus Christ when in fact we could be motivated by fear. How can this be? After all, if all of our life is to be Christ-affirming, shouldn't everything we 'create' be so too? (1) Shouldn't they be continually proclaiming the message of the gospel?
But where does the message, or meaning, of a work of art reside? In a Byzantine mosaic, it is about as close to the surface as it can get, because the forms are simple and clear, the gestures straightforward and all 'unnecessary' details are omitted. very few meanings are as close to the surface as this (i.e. residing in the subject matter).
Compare crucifixion paintings by the Italian Renaissance artist Raphael with one by the German Renaissance artist Matthais Grünewald (preferably the famous Isenheim Altarpiece). Raphael plays down Christ's suffering, emphasising instead the perfection of God's plan for humanity. Grünewald uses gross distortion to bring home the physical nature of Christ's suffering, creating an empathetic link with the viewers (many of whom may have been suffering the effects of the plague). In either case, the 'message' resides as much in characteristics such as choice of shapes (regular and curved versus irregular and jagged) and choice of colours (bright and clear versus harsh and sickly) as it does in subject matter (Christ dying on the cross). Similarly, a work of art with no overt content (be it Christian or otherwise) can communicate a particular world view, including one with Christ at the centre (e.g. the Australian bush paintings of Rick Ball).
An artist may have as his or her aim to faithfully record the visual world, to create beautiful objects, to move the viewer emotionally, to protest, to study light and colour scientifically, to analyse the deep structure of nature or to explore the possibilities of materials and methods. Whatever the aim, in each case there is a kind of 'micro-redemption' of our fallen world, anticipating Christ's final redemption of creation (2).
Art refines our sense of the significant in everyday things, but not merely by generalising them. To generalise, that is to escape the concrete in favour of the abstract, is a heresy which C.S. Lewis calls 'negative spirituality': "To shrink back from all that can be called Nature into negative spirituality is as we ran away from horses instead of learning to ride ... behind all asceticism the thought should be 'Who will trust us with the true wealth if we cannot be trusted with the wealth that perishes?' "(3). Or who will trust us with five talents (or five thousand) if we cannot be trusted with one? (4) Unless a grain of the gospel message falls into an art work and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies it bears much fruit (5).
Let us not try to protect the message out of fear; it is strong enough to survive without our help. As John says in his first letter, "there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear" (6).
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1. Merle Meeter 'Art and the Christian artist' in Arkenstone Vol. 5, Issue 4, July/Aug. 1981
3. C.S. Lewis Miracles 1947, chap. XVI