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A World of Christian Art
Christ for All People:
Celebrating a World of Christian Art
edited by Ron O’Grady
Orbis Books (U.S.A.), Pace Publishing (New Zealand), Novalis (Canada), and WCC Publications (Switzerland), 2001, 160 pages with full color throughout
In recent years, depictions of New Testament images have too often been the cause of controversy and strife that has pitted the arts and Christianity against one another. Whatever side one takes in such controversies, they exist to the detriment of both Christianity and the arts, and lead to the perception that the two cannot coexist. Christ for All People does its part to put to rest such a conclusion by presenting image after image in which artistic facility and Christian sensibility share the page and work hand in hand.
Starting with examples of ancient and classic Christian art -- a third-century fresco, a sixth-century mosaic, Michelangelo and Rembrandt -- the book moves quickly to contemporary images from all over the world.
The media range from oil and acrylic to tapestry and reinforced concrete, and the images from portraits of Christ and the Virgin to moments in Jesus’ ministry and passion. Some are joyous: in Yasuo Ueno’s Mother and Child, the figures, upright and strong, face us before a background of gold leaf and red and blue flowers. The Massacre of the Innocents, by Palestinian Christian artist Zaki Baboun, arrests the viewer’s breath with bold strokes that spell terror. Some of the pictures fill us with delight -- in a paper collage called Jesus and the Children, Korean Kim Jae Im offers a smiling Jesus to whom any child would be drawn.
The crucifixion and resurrection are amply represented as well, in manners both figurative and abstract. A distinctive crucifix, for example, from Amy Loewan of Hong Kong and Canada, features woven strips of rice paper decorated with calligraphy and English text (“forgiveness, understanding, tolerance, kindness”); on the opposite page, in People Descending the Slope by Japanese painter Tadao Tanaka, the foreground is filled with people leaving the execution scene. The three crosses, each made with just two strokes of the brush, stand on the horizon before a yellow sky ominous with dark clouds that seem to move rapidly across the canvas.
The images are supplemented by text from some of the artists as well as from and international sampling of writers and theologians. These texts sometimes provide illumination regarding the artworks, but the pieces themselves are, for the most part, so effective that the viewer is well-advised to read the text only after significant engagement with the pictures themselves.
There are no images in Christ for All People that are likely to ignite the sort of rage often engendered by Andres Serrano’s Piss Christ or Chris Ofili’s The Holy Virgin Mary or Sam Taylor-Wood’s Wrecked. In that regard this is a “safe” book of Christian-based art. It may, however, challenge the sensibilities of many viewers with its international perspectives and array of innovative techniques and styles. While ideal as an accompaniment to both study and prayer, Christ for All Peoples is above all an invitation to hear, and see, the Gospel story in fresh and varied lights.
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