Art attacks...

I am reading an article about art in America today, found in First Things Magazine. The article quotes this little nugget from James Elkins book On the Strange Place of Religion in Contemporary Art. Apparently Mr. Elkins is affiliated with the Art Institute of Chicago. The article reports that Mr. Elkins would have us us believe that the art world, he says:

"can accept a wide range of 'religious' art by people who hate religion, by people who are deeply uncertain about it, by the disgruntled and the disaffected and the skeptical , but there is no place for artists who express straightforward, ordinarily religious faith."

The article continues, as Mr Elkins explains:

"To fit in the art world, work with a religious theme has to fulfill several criteria. It has to demonstrate the artist has second thoughts about religion... ambiguity and self-critique have to be integral to the work. And it follows that irony must pervade art, must be the air it breathes...Committed, engaged, ambitious, informed art does not mix with dedicated, serious, thoughtful, heartfelt religion."

Seriously?

Pope Benedict XVI talked about the dictatorship of relativism, if I remember correctly, in his final homily as Cardinal Ratzinger. Who couldn't recognize this in this statement about art. Why must art be this way? Because those who believe this way wouldn't accept anything else. People often talk about being open minded but I think G.K. Chesterton said it best when he said, "An open mind was meant to close on something solid." Instead of openness what we find here is a bigotry.

Perhaps we would do well as a parish to promote our children in not only the sciences but the arts as well. But if we are to change the face of our country we must first help them to see that there is only one thing that can supercede or transcend all categories of prejudice - really only one person: Jesus Christ.

Knowing the only true and living God allows us to recognize that all humanity is created in his image and likeness (Gen 1:27). Jesus reveals to ourselves that there is nothing which man does that is not meant to bring us joy. However, that action must be a moral action, it must correspond to the "rules," if you will, that God has laid out for us. But beyond those Ten Commandments, what is God's plan for mankind: "Be fruitful and multiply." In other words, we must recognize that only love creates, while hate destroys. This is precisely, it seems to me a problem of modern art, there are no forms or content in so many pieces because artists seek to deconstruct or alter reality, rather classical artists sought to appreciate and imitate the glory of creation - even if they didn't necessarily believe in God.

Nowadays, that glory has become a shackle to throw off. Yet the love from which the glory comes is still constantly offered to all. Each of our choice is whether we will see that love or whether we will harden our hearts to it. In the meantime, however, let us appreciate the glory of creation...for we know our Father has created and sustains it.