Forbes And The AP Examine Faith And The Arts

| By Scott McClellan | Found in Communication | 3 Comments

Paint

One of best things to hit the Internet last week was this article on Forbes.com. In the article AP reporter Eric Gorski shares the story of Christian and artist (or is that Christian artist?) Makoto Fujimura, founder of the International Arts Movement. Gorski observes that Fujimura’s painting is much more reminiscent of Jackson Pollock than Thomas Kinkade, which presents something of a dilemma: what qualifies art as Christian?

Is it the message? If so, how direct or overt must that message be?

Is it the personal faith of the artist? If so, does that mean that we’ll never know whether some works of art are Christian because we don’t know enough about the artist? Does that mean we can observe a piece of art, wonder to ourselves if it is Christian or not, and then discover years that later while reading a biography of the artist that it was or it wasn’t because he was or he wasn’t? If he was, then are we ready to be moved and inspired by the art we observed years earlier? If he wasn’t, then are we prepared to disregard any movement or inspiration we experienced years earlier?

What Fujimura and others mentioned in the AP article seem to propose is art “informed by faith”–a concept that may be as appropriately abstract as Fujimura’s work. He says, “The Bible is full of abstraction…Think about this God who created the universe, the heavens and the earth from nothing. In order to have faith you have to reach out to something, to a mystery.” I think the point Fujimura is trying to make is that while we have art that directly depicts God (i.e. the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, or Thomas Kinkade’s “The Prince of Peace”), it is also important recognize images of God in the abstract (the Song of Solomon, the Grand Kanyon, or the work of Fujimura).

While it remains unclear (at least to me) what makes art Christian or  otherwise, it seems absolutely worthwhile to search for and appreciate glimpses of the eternal, immortal, and invisible  where they may be found–whether on a museum wall, on a movie theather screen, or in a well-tended garden.

  • http://theradius.org doug

    Did Jesus really intend that the word “Christian” be an adjective or simply a noun? I think the latter.

  • http://www.charleslonon.com BraCharles

    I bebeleive it a heart issue. Where was the artist at the moment of creativity. Did the artist find his answer in jesus. Christ are can be abstract, but the message must be clear. Clear enough that a child can see the love of Christian inside the object and color. God has made it clear that in order for use to get understand of who he is we must first accept Jesus as our Lord and Savoir. We need to ask ourselves if we feel encourage to press on with our life through the Artist Works. That’s Christian Art.

  • http://www.collidemagazine.com Scott McClellan

    Doug, interesting point. Sometimes it seems that in our subculture, “Christian” isn’t just an adjective, it’s the most important adjective! Adjectives that describe a work or art’s beauty, impact, creativity, etc. often take a backseat to the Christian (or “not very …”) distinction. Check out our first issue for a conversation along these lines we had with Jimmy Eat World’s Zach Lind.

    Charles, thanks for the feedback. One of my questions is how are we to know the artist’s heart? Are we to hold off on listening to an album or viewing a painting until we thoroughly research the artist’s personal faith? What about the possibility of God speaking to us or inspiring us through a work of art, regardless of how much spiritual depth or truth the original artist had in mind?

    Obviously this is a big conversation–a conversation that will be a mainstay in the pages of Collide. Thanks again, guys.