Aug 20, 2012
Posted by Holly Ordway in Music and Art | 3 Comments
Sacred Art in the Secular World
In this piece that I wrote for Houston Baptist University’s blog The City Online, I reflect on the place of sacred art in our secular world. After a rather disquieting visit to the National Gallery in London, I ended up asking: What if we had such meaningful beauty in our churches everywhere, that skeptics who loved beauty would go to church instead of the art gallery? Read the whole piece here. (And come back and discuss here!)
Early 14th century crucifix, in the style of Segna Bonaventura. In the National Gallery, London.
Great thoughts here, Holly, but also disquieting in the sense that you’re making me rethink some existing thoughts. I liked your post on Art and Grace in a Broken World and what appealed to me is that Fujimura takes what is essentially sacred art and presents it to the world. So to me, he helps break down the often artificial differentiation between secular and sacred by helping us to realize that all can be sacred.
What you do here is make me realize the issue of context and how without the context of their original surroundings, sacred art, while still sacred in its intent and effect on believers, ceases to function that way when placed in a museum. So is it no longer sacred as a result? Is the gallery not a sacred space because its objects are not complete or viewable within their intended context? I don’t know, but I’m really thankful for your post that you’ve made me ask those questions and to think about this. Good stuff.
Thanks, Steve. I am disquieted by this myself, as it forces me to recognize that there may not be a straightforward ‘right way’ to break down the sacred/secular divide. On the one hand, churches shouldn’t be ghettos for sacred art; indeed, the sacred should be present and recognized as such in all spheres of life, public and private.
I am reminded of poet Wendell Berry’s line, “There are no unsacred places; there are only sacred places and desecrated places.” I think that a gallery with sacred art is in a very ambiguous place. The ground can become sacred, as the viewer is drawn to reflect on the meaning of the sacred art that otherwise would not have been seen; but the ground can also become desecrated insofar as the viewer is encouraged to see it stripped of meaning and context, and reduced to a check-box of art history. Curators have a difficult job. I wonder how many Christians there are in the curating world?
Curators do indeed have a difficult job because their focus usually isn’t on the sacred context. I have a friend who did her doctorate in Medieval Art who isn’t a Christian but chose the subject because it conveyed a depth of meaning that she felt was missing from contemporary art. So it does speak to people of all faiths (though differently than to a Christian) if they are willing to take the time and create the space in their own lives to embrace the value of the sacred. That, in many ways, is the beauty (beyond aesthetics) of art: it opens us in ways we don’t always understand and hopefully connects us with the transcendent. Sometimes even in desecrated locations! Love the Wendell Berry line, btw.