Earlier this week I had a wonderful day at the Tate Modern with some good friends. Some of the stuff is weird, a small amount is obscene but some of it is truly wonderful. No matter how many times I have seen one of Monet's 'Waterlilies' in books, there is nothing like seeing the real thing. There is a wonderful electricity that seems generated by a truly great work of art - it is as though the artist has left something of their very soul in their work. Being able to see the texture of each brush stroke is such a privilege.
For me visits to art galleries are spiritual experiences - they enhance my faith because I am confronted with artist's questions or perspectives on the world and human existence. For me this leads inevitably to the big questions about God and creation and the relationship between artist and their creation. Even art that has no aspiration to be 'religious' can have a profound effect on me. Is it okay to read matters of faith in the work of someone who would not ascribe to the existence of God?
On the whole I think there are two kinds of art - good and bad. The faith/worldview of the artist is not as important as their skill, imagination and ability to translate an idea into reality.
What do you think.
1 comment:
I like art, and I agree that good art makes for spiritual experiences. I think God is at work whether an artist acknowledges it as God or 'inpiration' or something else.
My idea of good art is something that breaks through some sort of barrier that normally surrounds us. It creates an encounter with reality - like Monet's waterlilies being the reality of waterlilies, more real than waterlilies, containing their essence.
I think that what we call reality - 'day to day reality', is a bit of a deadened experience. Most of the time we see the same things in the same way, without really encountering them. I guess it has to be that way for us to function, or we'd be standing around awestruck all the time and forget to go to work, eat, etc.
But art can make us see the world and ourselves in a new way that takes us unawares. We can see the world as God made it, as an awesome living creation, rather than a familiar 'form'.
I like Monet too (my favourite impressionist is Van Gogh) but I also like more modern stuff like Damian Hurst.
I remember queuing up to walk through a cut in half cow. It was a powerful experience, a visceral encounter with mortality that shook me up. I could tell that others were feeling the same. People were almost clinging to each other.
It was as if the reality of the fact that we are all mortal is something that is hard to grasp, but when we do it brings us closer to reality, closer to each other, and to God. So I would call that good art.
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