New Book: God in the Gallery
Thanks to my friend Aimee Grauwiler, I have a new book recommendation to pass on!
“God in the Gallery”, by Daniel A. Siedell is apparently a very good read indeed. I have yet to read it, but here is the description from Amazon.ca…
Is contemporary art a friend or foe of Christianity? Art historian, critic, and curator Daniel Siedell, addresses this question and presents a framework for interpreting art from a Christian worldview in God in the Gallery: A Christian Embrace of Modern Art. As such, it is an excellent companion to Francis Schaeffer’s classic Art and the Bible. Divided into three parts–”Theology,” “History,” and “Practice”–God in the Gallery demonstrates that art is in conversation with and not opposed to the Christian faith. In addition, this book is beautifully enhanced with images from such artists as Andy Warhol, Jackson Pollock, Enrique Martínez Celaya, and others. Readers of this book will include professors, students, artists, and anyone interested in Christianity and culture.
You can find the book on Amazon here …
http://www.amazon.ca/God-Gallery-Christian-Embrace-Modern/dp/0801031842/
If you read it (or already have), let me know what you think. Makoto Fujimura thinks it’s good, so I’m sold.
October 29th, 2008 at 11:26 am
the latest issue of image: a journal of the arts and religion contains an excerpt from the book (http://imagejournal.org/page/journal/back-issues/issue-59), and their website has a web-exclusive interview (http://imagejournal.org/page/news/siedell-interview).
this latest issue is definitely worth getting (in fact, the journal in general is worth getting): good art (vija celmins!), good articles (daniel siedell, natch) and great poetry (nicholas samaras’ poems made me weep).
now here’s a thread of associations to track: siedell’s book was evidently generated by his participation in an exhibition at alogon gallery (http://alogongallery.com/portfolio.html - go to The Strange Place), in turn inspired by dayton castleman’s encounter (he’s also a christian artist) with james elkins’ on the strange place of religion in contemporary art (a book about which i will blog shortly — elkins is always interesting reading, by the way) resulting in an exhibition at that gallery, as well as a symposium at biola university: http://www.biola.edu/academics/undergrad/art/symposium/).
whew!
November 17th, 2008 at 9:55 am
nice little piece by siedell over at the church and postmodern culture: conversation (which i discovered snooping around catalyst stuff:
http://churchandpomo.typepad.com/conversation/2008/10/thoughts-on-cre.html
November 17th, 2008 at 8:38 pm
actually, siedell has blogged over there as a guest numerous times…
November 18th, 2008 at 6:58 am
This is an excellent book, one of the most helpful in recent memory in exploring the role of art in the life of the church community.
We have just published our review of it in THE ENGLEWOOD REVIEW OF BOOKS:
http://www.englewoodreview.org/?p=153
Chris Smith
November 18th, 2008 at 8:55 pm
while i am looking forward to reading this book, i would also recommend the following books about art and faith (of course, it goes without saying that art needs no justification and the death of modern art by rookmaaker and art and the bible by schaeffer are required texts, as well as anything by calvin seerveld - especially bearing fresh olive leaves):
art and soul: signposts for christians in the visual arts by chaplin and brand
a profound weakness: christians and kitsch by betty spackman
a visual faith: art, theology and worship in dialogue by dyrness
the prophetic imagination by walter brueggemann
state of the arts: from bezalel to mapplethorpe by gene edward veith
it was good: making art to the glory of G-d by ned bustard
the liberated imagination: thinking critically about the arts by leland ryken
a matrix of meanings: finding G-d in pop culture by detweiler and taylor
and finally, a tremendous resource is the dictionary of biblical imagery: an encyclopedic exploration of the images, symbols, motifs, metaphors, figures of speech and literary patterns of the bible edited by ryken (again)
at least, those are my faves (for what it’s worth)…
November 19th, 2008 at 8:37 am
I would like to add to it “Walking on Water” by Madeline L’Engle. That’s been “the one” for me.
November 19th, 2008 at 11:45 pm
perhaps others might weigh in with their favourite or most impacting books re: the arts, culture and faith? i’d also recommend:
artists, citizens, philosophers: seeking the peace of the city by duane friesen
god and the creative imagination: metaphor, symbol & myth in religion and theology by paul avis
unceasing worship: biblical perspectives on worship and the arts by harold best
seeing salvation: images of christ in art by macgregor and langmuir
December 1st, 2008 at 9:06 am
another one (which i’m currently re-reading) is greg wolfe’s intruding upon the timeless: meditations on art, faith and mystery, a collection of his introductory editorial essays from image: a hournal of the arts & religion (a must have for your library. really).
December 19th, 2008 at 10:44 am
i’ve started reading this and so far what i really like is the fact that he places modern (and post-modern) art within a context (in itself a very post-modern practise, especially in regards to interpretive strategies) - in this case, an institutional context. it’s the same way i try to engage people about institutional art acquisition practice (voice of fire, anyone?) and the tradition and trajectory of modern and contemporary art (from abstraction to installation to performance to relational aesthetics).
i’m still working through the whole art/ region/ spirituality relationship, but i do like how he is approaching the use of icons in that context. looking forward to reading more…
December 19th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
December 22nd, 2008 at 8:22 pm
I love Google Alerts - good for finding this blog.
I just want to offer a clarification about the thread of association regarding God in the Gallery: Dan’s book wasn’t generated in any way by the exhibition I curated at Chicago’s Alogon Gallery (…as much as I’d love to hang my hat on that kind of cultural impact.). Dan did contribute an essay to the show, along with James Elkins and Kevin Hamilton, but the God in the Gallery manuscript was complete by then. The show grew out of my ongoing conversations with Elkins about “On the Strange Place…” as a grad student at The School of Art Institute of Chicago, and the directors’ of Alogon interest in having a show related to art and religion.
December 22nd, 2008 at 8:33 pm
I just enjoyed browsing your portfolio. I laughed at the concept behind Bread Bird. Hopefully I was supposed to?
December 22nd, 2008 at 9:08 pm
December 23rd, 2008 at 11:37 am
thanks for the clarification dayton…
the book, the exhibition (and essay[ist]s) and your work (i know your work was on a CIVA directory cover - i’m a member) are all worth looking at and thinking about…
December 24th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Two places to explore the show a bit.
1) A small slide show on The Church Studios blog (http://thechurchstudios.blogspot.com/2008/04/strange-place.html). The Church Studios are a complex of studios I started in an old Presbyterian church in Philadelphia.
2) The Alogon Gallery website: http://alogongallery.com/section/41679.html (the essays can be downloaded here as well)
re: Bread Bird - I think it’s funny…