Henry Moore Artwork Catalogue
Art and the Church: A Fractious Embrace. Ecclesiastical Encounters with Contemporary Art
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Bib. Number0023368
Art and the Church: A Fractious Embrace. Ecclesiastical Encounters with Contemporary Art
Author/EditorKOESTLÉ-CATE Jonathan
PublisherRoutledge
Year2016
Date & Collationx.Acknowledgements.237pp.Illus.Bibliography.Index.
LanguageEnglish
More InformationBook exploring the expanding programme of art installations and commissions for ecclesiastical spaces. Rather than 'religious art' reflecting Christian ideology, current practices frequently initiate projects that question the values and traditions of the host space, or present objects and events that challenge its visual conventions. In the light of these developments, the book asks what conditions are favourable to enhancing and expanding the possibilities of church-based art, and how can these conditions be addressed? 73 reference to Moore and artist David Mach in chapter titled Sanctury and section titled Non-believing Artists. Adrienne CHAPLIN writes 'Works like Mach's challenge the assumption that only artists of faith can produce religious art. Indeed, it can sometimes be the artist without faith who does the better job, unencumbered by expectations of conforming to the standard interpretations of either the church or the history of art'. The author is not convinced that Mach's works would have the long-term religious significance of Henry Moore or Henri Matisse. 96-97 and 190-191 reference to and illus of Madonna and Child 1943-44 Horton stone (LH 226) in St. Matthew's Church, Northampton, including reference to commission by Walter Hussey; public response to the work; Kenneth Clark; Epstein; Sutherland. KOESTLÉ-CATE writes on appreciation of what 'Rowan Williams has called the 'beyond' of an artwork: 'that awareness of depth in the observable world beyond what is at any moment observable'. This awareness is, he continues, 'close to what seems to be meant by the scared"'. 105 'Moore and Sutherland's commissions for St. Matthew's Church now belong to a sanctioned ecclesiastical aesthetic'. 158 reference to Moore's Madonna and Child Sutherland's Crucifixion and Epstein's St. Michael and the Devil each make use of familiar religious vernacular. KOESTLÉ-CATE writes that 'Moore's Madonna set in chain a new attentiveness to the possibilities evinced by modern art for the church in this country'."