Opinion: Thoughts on modern art
  • Priestboi
    Posts: 155
    Here is some modern art that I actually like *runs and hides* it is the only painting in an otherwise whitewashed (soon to be graywashed as the parish priest said with an excited smile - grey is all the rage at the moment - sigh) 70's style church. What are your thoughts?
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    Thanked by 1CharlesW
  • StephenMatthew
    Posts: 97
    The figure in blue with the feet being washed seems to have the head and legs of a man but the body of a woman. That is rather off putting. Otherwise, not bad art, though not great either.

    However, as a general rule regarding modern art, I recommend adopting the following policy:

    Nuke it from orbit, it's the only way to be sure. (Xenomorphs are, obviously, an example of modern art.)
    Thanked by 3CCooze Casavant Organist Priestboi
  • CCoozeCCooze
    Posts: 1,259
    "Interesting..." is my thought. Happy that it isn't in my parish?

    I agree, though, that the one whose feet are being washed looks to be a female, except for the beard..

    Perhaps, from far away, it might be more "interesting" and less "interesting....."

    Thanked by 1Priestboi
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,366
    Um, the question is 'is this art, and, if it is, is it modern?'. The first part of the question is open to debate. The second part rather earns the answer, 'no'.

    I, too, am glad that it isn't in my parish.
    (It never would be!)
  • mmeladirectress
    Posts: 1,075
    perhaps instead of greywashing you could request an open rail for the choir loft, on the basis that any kind of panels obstruct the movement of sound waves from the loft area to nave. just a thought ??
    Thanked by 1Priestboi
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,933
    I can live with the girly man whose feet are being washed. All men don't look like Arnold in his prime. Let's honestly say most don't.

    You know, it's not bad. I have seen far, far worse. So it isn't Michelangelo, but what is? I wouldn't call this painting modern. A piece this size is meant to viewed from distance, so all those little details are not so apparent. One can always seize on some minor thing to obsess over when seeing it close up.
    Thanked by 1Priestboi
  • francis
    Posts: 10,668
    weird
    Thanked by 1Priestboi
  • matthewjmatthewj
    Posts: 2,694
    I'm not a fan.
    Thanked by 1Priestboi
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,366
    Speaking of art -
    I just returned from seeing the French film, Cezanne et moi, the story of the friendship betwixt Cezanne and Emile Zola.
    I recommend it to anyone near to whom it may be showing.
    A great artist he was, whom Picasso called 'the father of us all', but I had not known what a loveless and unkind person he was.
    I'm fond of watching his Ravine at Houston's museum.
    We are blessed here with a fine mediaeval collection, two Fra Angelicos, and much else.

    Do go to see Cezanne et moi if you are able. (Not for young children.)
    Thanked by 1Priestboi
  • Priestboi
    Posts: 155
    What about good modern/contemporary (or traditional) art in your home parishes? I would love to see what is out there.
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,933
    Sorry, don't have any. Other than an icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, the art consists of marble statues and a silver bas-relief of the Sacred Heart. All is traditional installed in this Gothic structure after it was built in 1926.
    Thanked by 1Priestboi
  • CCoozeCCooze
    Posts: 1,259
    My parish has Tiffany windows and large, lovely Stations of the Cross.
    It also has Immaculate Heart and Sacred Heart and Queen of Heaven statues in the sanctuary.
    Our church (though the parish is a bit older and was demolished during the Civil War) is less than 130 years old.
    Thanked by 1Priestboi
  • canadashcanadash
    Posts: 1,499
    There is a priest from a village very close to where my parents are from, in Slovenia. I admire his mosaics and art.

    http://jp2shrineblog.blogspot.ca/2015/10/the-pilgrims-way-mysteries-of-light.html
    http://zupnija-race.rkc.si/index.php/content/display/31
    Thanked by 2CharlesW Priestboi
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,366
    The tabernacle at Walsingham is unique. It was designed specifically after the idea's of our original pastor. It is a representation of the ark of the covenant, with a pair of opposing angels on top and the rods along the top edges by which it would have been carried. Featured on the doors are the fist and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
    Thanked by 1Priestboi
  • Priestboi
    Posts: 155
    @Canadash - it reminds me of the "Be Merciful as the Father" image somehow :)

    @MJO - This? Very cool indeed!
    https://heroicvirtuecreations.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/feawa.jpg
    Thanked by 2M. Jackson Osborn canadash
  • matthewjmatthewj
    Posts: 2,694
    I really love the tapestries in the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in LA.
    Thanked by 1Andrew_Malton
  • Richard MixRichard Mix
    Posts: 2,767
    On MJO's recommendation we just saw Cezanne et moi. Guillaume Gallienne gives a larger-than-life performance that contrasts strongly with the 'film actors' and sure enough "de la Comédie Française" appears after his name in the credits. It's a bit like the pleasure of studying up close the grease makeup and gaslights in Topsy-turvy. But the underscoring… o la la :-/
    Thanked by 1M. Jackson Osborn
  • Andrew_Malton
    Posts: 1,156
    @Priestboi, it's the same artist, Fr Marko Rupnik SJ.
    Thanked by 2canadash Priestboi
  • ghmus7
    Posts: 1,464
    I like the tapestries at the LA Cathedral also, I can't remember who the artist is, but they are remarkable.
  • SalieriSalieri
    Posts: 3,177
    MJO: I like the tabernacle, but the arrangement of the candles strikes me as being completely un-Anglican. I have only ever seen Two candles on the altar, as per the Sarum Customary, at least according to Dearmer. Having Four(!), which I can only assume are the Six High Mass candles and the Two Low Mass candles, seems unnecessary, and certainly un-Mediaeval, which is certainly the style that that lovely altarpiece is evoking.
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,366
    Salieri -
    You are right about the Sarum candle regimen. I have wondered about that, too. The nearest I can explain it (without asking Sir Clint Brand, our verger and liturgical scholar - which I shall do) is that the six smaller candles are, in the Episcopalian tradition, office lights, the two larger ones, eucharistic lights. At mass, though, all eight are lit. (Too, the number of 'office lights' varies in Episcopal churches - some even are placed in a set of menorah-like candelabra. At Christ Church, in Springfield, Missouri, where I was baptised, there are two pavement lights about eight or so feet tall which branch our at the top like menorahs - but still there are the 'mass lights' on the altar. (Both sets of my maternal great-grandparents were among the founders of this church in the mid-XIXth century.)
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