Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Contemporary Art and the Church? Some Sources

I've had the privilege of visiting and even working at contemporary art museums in Chicago and D.C. Twentieth century music theory and history were easily the classes met with the least excitement by me and my fellow tonal music lovers in the conservatory, but, as a music composition major, I wrote about how I needed to to expand my horizons. Why not apply the same principles when I experience contemporary visual art?

And as I walk around contemporary art museums, I can hear the cliches in my head. "My kid could make that." "That's so simple. They made money off of that?" "Looks like they made that accidentally." On an on, but God-given creativity can be shown in other ways than complexity, function, and what naturally pleases the eyes and ears. I (and other Christians invested in the arts) would love to have discussions in philosophy of the arts. I'm no matchmaker, but I think the Church and the artistic community (particularly the contemporary arts) ought to spend more time together, because they have a lot more in common than they think.

Thankfully, here's some sources for that conversation, from a pastor's wife and art historian. Thoughts?    

No comments: