Christ For All Peoples:
Celebrating a World of Christian Art
edited by Ron O'Grady.
Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2001
159 pp., $30.00 Hardcover.
Reviewed by Kathryn Pigg
In this small volume, I traveled from the 3rd
century fresco called the Eucharistic Banquet on the wall
of Catacomb of San Calixto in Rome, to the wall of Holy Cross
Mausoleum in the United States, where contemporary Hungarian
Artist Isabel Piczeck has installed a work called The
Resurrection Trilogy.
Along the way there are works in many mediums
which alternate with pages of commentary: the artist on her or his
work, an observer of the artist or of the artist's work, the
artist on the process of making art, the history of Christian art,
or the value of art to faith.
Desmond Tutu comments on "art as the
"subversive claim in the face of injustice and
oppression....Through creativity, blacks transcend the
claustrophobia of their physical environment." Wendy Beckett
comments on Janet McKenzie's "Jesus of the People, the winner
of the National Catholic Reporter's Jesus 2000
competition.
Hans-Reudi Weber assists the reader in seeing
more deeply into three works which focus on the man Jesus himself:
French artist Georges Rouault's Ecco Homo; Mexican artist
David Alfaro Siqueiros's Christo; and the work of an
unknown sculptor from Haiti, Crown of Thorns.
Just under 50 countries are represented, with
some surprises. The word "Palestinian" in American
thought is not usually associated with Christian. But Zaki Baboun,
a member of the Christian minority in Bethlehem, was asked to
paint a biblical work for the book right after his family home had
been hit by a missile, and there were wounded children in the
streets of Bethlehem. He chose to paint The Massacre of the
Innocents. On the page opposite the painting is a message sent
by the Christians in Bethlehem to churches around the world at
Christmas 2000. Even though the artist chose traditional dress for
the biblical characters, the art work Baboun painted comes from
his immediate experience.
The collection of paintings, mosaics,
drawings, collage, sculpture, textiles, stained glass, woodcuts,
and cut paper includes artists well known around the world, such
as Rouault, Chagall, Picasso, and Michelangelo. Others are known
primarily in their own countries, including those who might be
characterized as folk artists. The book contains no elevation of
one kind or popularity of artwork over the others.
Icons of two styles and countries are included
with commentary about the debate on the nature of pagan idolatry
and the place of Christian images in the church, and a closing
prayer from the Seventh Ecumenical Council in Nicea, 787, when it
was announced that Christian icons are theologically
correct.
Historical items, such as this prayer, connect
the history of art, as it comes into use in places of worship and
homes, to the coming of Jesus as the incarnation, the Word made
flesh.
The history included in the book might lead
the reader to other books that have more words and fewer pictures.
Including a list of suggested readings would have been a useful
addition for those wishing to read more. But the scope of the book
might make a list of suggested readings quite complicated.
Asian writer Chung Hyun Kyung comments on the
Ciminaghi sculpture of the Annunciation in terms of the
liberating effect of Mary upon Asian women. Paul Oestreicher
writes about the two works on Mary, Mother of God of Chernobyl,
a wood icon from a Polish artist, and The Stalingrad Madonna,
a simple sketch by a German artist and doctor, who did his work on
the back of an army map as one of the fiercest battles of WWII
raged around him on Christmas 1942. This sketch survived his death
in a Russian prison camp.
With all the subjects suggested by this slim
volume, perhaps a reading list would be longer than the book
itself. The real purpose of the book is found in the power of the
visual images presented. I find myself being drawn into the
conversation of Mary and the Angel, bent toward each other in
focused strength in the Ciminaghi sculpture, Annunciation.
An oil painting by Roger Brown, The Entry of Christ into
Chicago in 1976, leads me to wonder how to portray Christ
entering my area of the world. The Open Hands of Christ is
a haunting chalk image of Christ looking straight into my eyes,
from a Brazilian artist, Flavio Scholles. I turn back a few pages
and laugh at the sunny, gleeful collage of Korean artist, Kim Jae
Im, Jesus Blesses the Children.
Ron O'Grady has done the world a beautiful
service in this collection of art and commentary. The arrangement
of the book by the periods in Jesus' life make it a valuable
resource for preaching and teaching--and as a book for use in
meditation. Its historical comments serve as a source of interest
for additional studies. The social justice themes move Jesus from
then to now. There is something here for anyone, something which
has the power to draw one closer to the person and work of Jesus,
and to his friends around the world.
Reviewer Kathryn
Pigg is a United Methodist Pastor serving in Virginia, and
formerly in Texas. Her passion is the intersection of the Arts and
Faith. An artist and poet, she generally publishes under the name
Kathryn Cramer Brown. Kathy is a member of EEWC, and her work
frequently appears in EEWC Update.
© 2001
Evangelical and Ecumenical Women's Caucus
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