Theology of Making // ARTP 120

[Music] hello students art professor tim here today i'm going to talk to you about the theology of making specifically about why artists create work their motivations and kind of what that looks like through a lens of someone who follows christ but also as a believer what does it look like to negotiate or to look at visual art so the first image i have for you is actually a work of art by mary mccleary it's actually made out of a bunch of small objects but the title of it is 9.81 meters per second because that's how

fast you fall if you were thrown into the sky and you may feel like you are being thrown out of an airplane or such trying to navigate the world of visual art because it may be an area that you're unfamiliar with you're like i go to a museum and i'm totally confused i don't know what to do so my hope and prayer is that i'm able to offer to you some insights as to why people make art and some tools as to looking at visual art so first let's talk about two components that are at

work no matter what with a work of art so when you look at work a work of art here are some things going on and honestly they're pretty obvious but we're going to talk a little bit about the obvious the first is the artist themselves right and the culture the artist made the work within so that's going to determine a lot what the artwork looks like or what's created so the images i want to show you here are by katsushika hoksai on the left who is a japanese artist you may be familiar with the big

image i have there at the bottom called the great wave which is a japanese wood block print right so katsu chico hook sai on the right is going to have a very different approach to visual art working in the 1800s on his artwork as opposed to our artist on the right raphael from the renaissance right and you may be familiar with the school of athens painting there below him he's hidden himself in the painting so that's a little self-portrait in the upper right hand corner there so as we would approach those two works of art

we need to be a little aware right like the 1800s in japan is going to be a very different culture in which this artwork is made as well as the renaissance in italy is a different culture and since one of our themes for this course is humility with humility i need to approach well what would it be like to live during the renaissance or what would it be like to live in uh japan at the time in order to maybe understand the work a little further so to give you a little bit of a grid

or an example to look at those things we're going to look at christian art since you know there's a christian school let's look at some christian art so i'd like to look at early christian art a little bit to give you some understanding of what um what a viewpoint of an artist can look like so let's look at our early christians brothers and sisters and what they did right so we're going to start out in the catacombs underneath rome this these were carved in tufa stones up to three stories tall and it was where they

largely buried uh their dead and then they would pile up their bones later after they decomposed um some of the thought is there wasn't necessarily a lot of worship happening down there but some think they did have worship services down there but down in the catacombs we have our earliest images of christ right so i'm going to ask a question to you what do you think is the first image we have of christ that christians made any guesses i don't know could it be jesus washing people's feet is it christ on the cross is it

uh i don't know jesus healing someone right the answer is ding ding is jesus as the good shepherd so uh the images you're looking in this image are from the early like to the late 200s early 300s first images is jesus is the good shepherd why you may ask it's because the church is being persecuted and what they need particularly is a good shepherd that's caring for them that's benevolent that's loving on them that's taking care of them also in the catacombs we have images of like jonah being taken out of the whale the shadrach

meshach and abednego it's these images of rescue are the things that are needed most at the time right also curious check it out jesus doesn't look like me jesus doesn't have a beard at all in any of the early christian images also a first guide just so you know that gets a beard is peter but uh culturally they wouldn't have beard so our notion of christ with a beard etc is uh is more contemporary so how about that so our first images of christ are christ is the good shepherd because in their story that's what

we need is we need a good shepherd so the next images i'm showing the next image i'm showing you is part of a relief from a sarcophagus around 420 and here we have one of our first images of christ on the cross now what is curious to know is this is about 400 years after christ's crucifixion why does it take so long i want to say to get christ on the cross is because people were being crucified up until 100 years before we see so up until about 3 20 people were being crucified so your

uncle may have been crucified your sister and others you don't want an image of a cross because it's the sign of the abuse that's happened to your family and your community right but crucifixion when constantine comes into power crucifixion is no longer is banished and goes out of favor as a punishment so a hundred years later suddenly you have images of christ on a cross right curious enough huh because we think oh christianity christ on a cross nope early christians would have nothing to do with an image of christ on the cross so this ties

in then to our medieval images of christ that we have so medieval culture there's christ on the cross right but two things happen in this time we have the byzantine empires formed and then all these germanic tribes are coming in and warring and um invading areas right germanic tribes are real strong tough guys right so i want you to notice all the jesus's in these images his eyes are open he's on the cross like this he's like i got this i got this man because jesus is a i was a man's man jesus is tough

and strong trying to preach to trying to minister to those germanic tribes you want to show that you know jesus jesus is a warrior man he's gonna totally fight for you and he's got this he's paid for your sins here he is so in that culture we need jesus's warrior all right then also at the same time we have the byzantine empire happening right so the image that you have here is a byzantine christ from the main dome of a church in insta in istanbul turkey that was done around the 11th or 12th century here

jesus's in majesty christ is ruling over all right and that is what is needed because the byzantine empire kind of takes continues what constantine began and is this christian empire and look we're in control we're the ruler overall look how glorious and magnificent we are right so moving on in christian art history so that's what they needed so jesus and majesty moving on i want to show you a an altarpiece by matthias gruenwald and this is the eisenheim altarpiece it's in um colmar france you need to go there coalmar's an excellent amazing town right next

to germany it's right on the border beautiful town just saying this was done around 1515. very different image of christ here right so here christ is just wracked on the cross also notice he's bigger this is an element in our history and that often the things that are more important are larger christ is totally out of scale with the other elements and the other figures in that composition but but christ if you look closely at him and i'll show you closely the burial image he's suffering with us he's suffering with you in the image right

christ is suffering with us why because this image was actually in a hospital so and what did people have at the hospital if you look at the detail there of christ being buried they have the plague and so if you look closely at the figure of christ he's covered in plague sores so it's showing you that christ suffers with you he has the plague with you he's suffering too and but with that too comes the next image which is uh what when you opened up the altarpiece if it's on easter or celebration day or if

it's on sunday here we have christ healed and in glory and raised from the dead and he's like psychedelic rainbow dude coming out all better right so showing you that you can be healed and whole and you will be raised from the dead so this is what the people needed at the time right is this image of hope this image of christ suffers with me and christ and i will rise and i will get through this right so that gives you a little bit of insight of coming from the perspective of the artist and their

motivations right so moving on to the next image another image of christ besides the cultural lens that the artist brings the artist also brings their own um motivation for the image right they may have a purpose for the image or something they want to communicate to you or something they want you to know so if you look closely at this image you're gonna go okay tim this is great this is an early christian image of christ clearly right this is christ as panto creator excuse me while i get my notes um this is christ as

panto creator um which is christ in glory this is what's taken by the byzantine church they do tons of this right but you'll look at this painting and go tim can i be honest with you it's totally out of proportion like look at those eyes like what the heck is going on here right well i would say yes they're totally out of proportion but it's because the artist had a reason for this if we look closely at it clearly one of the eyes is much larger than the other but then moving on if we split

the image and i show you mirror sides of both images you now see it's actually two different people so the artist's motivation our early christian brothers and sisters early on in the beginning of christianity want to show us this is christ but also this is god so combined into one image so that's their motivation when they created that image so secondly also when looking at a work of art uh another person is involved and that person involved is you the viewer and your perspective and all that you bring whether you realize it or not so

here's a little image that i just absolutely adore um a baby's perspective of this sculpture is very different than our own right and very much caught the mother off guard um and it's actually kind of delightful in terms of this little boy's perspective he's like lunch this is great right so keep in mind especially as we try to view the artwork we're looking at with empathy and a warm loving heart our view that we bring sometimes it's wonderful like honestly i think this is pretty wonderful this kid's approach to the work like it's not wouldn't

have been my perspective and adds a sense of whimsy and life-giving and how wonderful right sometimes it can be a real gift but also sometimes our perspectives can get in the way of looking at the work so as we try to understand the work my hope is that we try to understand the work beyond like a six month old or eight month old right but that we understand the work as 20 year olds 18 year olds 50 year olds whatever that may be so we're going to aim to bring our perspective and the insights that

it has within the work of art but also we're gonna look at um trying to get the insights that the work and the artists created themselves so once again we've looked at what's at play when we look at a work of art from the start there's the artists themselves and the culture in which it was made so here we have katsushika hokusai again there's the artist's intentions or purpose behind the work so here's grunwald's christ dead with his plague sores and then there is also you the viewer the little guy looking going what's this about

right trying to figure it out so let's talk about the visual theology of making art and some of the thinking as to in faith communities what's some of the conversation about why they make art so one of the thinking simply is god did it first god was the creator and we as his creations uh mimic or uh mimic his creation we want to see it and uh make more and he's a creator so we're just like our um our father in heaven and want to create as well so um dante as you familiar with his

writing he said art is god's grandchildren which i think is a pretty fun insight and making art is intrinsic to us so whether we're looking at this korean artist who did replicas i'm staying with the christian art theme but whether heated uh replicas or images inspired by the last supper he did a whole series this artist wound boo kim ki chang did a whole series of work based on christ and putting him in korean settings or this african work of art uh that's actually a direct uh reference to the beatitudes here um those artists are

reflecting what they see around them and that is good like the idea that uh god created the world and said good good good so our call is to mimic that goodness and do the good of making i want to say the good of looking so that's one reason to make art another reason is it's an activity connected with being filled with the spirit one of the earliest references to the concept of being filled with the spirit or christ being in us god being in us is in um in the bible in exodus 3 where uh

bezalel the son of uri basically is given the instructions to create the ark and with this with he being filled with the spirit he's given the intelligence and knowledge and craftsmanship to devise artistic designs to work in gold silver and bronze and cutting stones etc so this idea that it is a spirit-filled activity to create work and clearly in the old testament it was one of the first spirit-filled activities so not only i would argue not only could it be a spirit-filled activity creating work it can be a spirit-filled activity looking at work and to

give you an example of that i'm going to show you a picture of a wall so imagine this we're in a castle and this is a dark wall that you've come up against right and as you travel along that dark wall you come up to a window in that wall and you're looking outside now the images i have for you clearly the wall is outside and we're looking outside but just pretend it's dark it's dark and we're looking out right so as we look out something we have all this information and goodness in the window

so like artwork is this beautiful thing that we enter into and find insights and are pulled into but also the light from the window casts on us so if we let it art can be this phenomenal tool an instrument that enlightens parts of us that educates parts of us that that brings to light things in us so that's a perspective i think the spirit very much can use also the last thing i'll talk about is it's about uh participating in and revealing god's kingdom here on earth and here i have a van gogh painting of

sunflowers so the idea of often some of the theology around art specifically with um rowan williams and thomas aquinas and jacques marita and even madeleine angle is this thinking that god's kingdom come onto this earth right and that we've looked at a base of flowers and we somehow go there's something more so i have to paint it it's like why on earth are you painting flowers there's already flowers right but it's this idea that we're about creating god's kingdom and with that there's more and more and more and the perspective we have of this world

is really small and god's kingdom is so big and so part of us making work is because we're contributing to that bigness we're seeing that there's more than what's there so here's van gogh's flowers but you know what guess what you already know van gogh is not the person of the only person to paint flowers here we have a painting uh from holland in the 1660s by jan van der heem the chinese are notorious painting flowers so here we have one from the 17th century with a little butterfly another painting from the 17th century and

then here is a turkish plate from the ottoman empire with flowers on it as well why on earth do these people keep painting flowers there's enough flowers right but it's because there's more to say god's kingdom is so much bigger than just what we see it's about the unfinishedness of ordinary perception all right so and the last thing i'll talk about in the tenets of literary faith is when looking through the eyes of faith i'm going to encourage you to think about philippians 4 8 and uh that scripture you have it in front of you

but i'm going to read it it's finally brethren whatever is true whatever is honorable whatever is just whatever is pure whatever is lovely whatever is gracious if there's any excellence if there's anything worthy of praise think about these things so lovely keep in mind nuts in there that's beauty right so whether i'm looking at things that are very outside of my realm be at this hollow self-portrait right which is referencing all sorts of kind of aztec thought and stuff in it as well as she just got a divorce from from diego rivera as well as

she just ended an affair with a photographer all kinds of stuff's going on there and there's kind of this thorny necklace or if we look at this uh moche vessel which was a drinking vessel probably in some sort of ritual but it's these characters are helping this wounded god to be healed uh if i was to use the tenants of uh philippians 4a to look at those things perhaps i can see some insights of things that are honorable or things that are excellent that are in them maybe not everything but can we look for these

qualities or often i use the term just good right true beautiful so i'm going to end with a crazy example as my last two so i have two pictures here and basically i'm asking you is one of these more good right true beautiful than the other one is clearly a man with an axe about to kill some people and the other one is an is a um madonna and child right if you were eight i sure hope you tell me the madonna child is more good right true beautiful right but as we enter into this

and try to get insights into trying to figure out what the artist is about and what's going on we need to go beyond uh surface on this and we need to in a sense look through the scripture at this work so if i was to show you just the image of the man with the axe this is by goya goya was a spanish painter the french he uh the french came in and just decimated the spanish people in uh the 1800s after the um after the french revolution and so here is a man basically seeking

revenge on that part so which is what lomismo means so he's pointing to this bigger picture of justice these actually weren't even exhibited at the time he's saying war is bad and and revenge is bad and it's just gonna this doesn't help right so looking at the insights with uh what we know about this image we can go okay maybe there's something more i need to look at with this and the other image not to give you just an obvious terrible example was painted by adolf hitler so uh killing millions of jews later and such

earlier he was a very frustrated artist who actually wasn't accepted into art school in vienna because of his lack of ability to paint and his inability to draw but here you have a picture of his in his late teens that he painted so with that i encourage you to maybe look beyond the surface when you look at an image just because it's a pretty image it may not be a good image and that's that's a bit of a challenge for us so uh in review when looking at a work of art and theology of making

uh keep in mind that uh the artist's intention keep in mind the artists themselves and uh keep in mind you the viewer and then um also uh as we consider what's important with the work of art remember we're god's creation so we create making is an act that can be filled with the spirit creating art is about participating in and revealing god's kingdom here on earth and lastly i would just really encourage you to use philippians 4 8 to as a grid to look through and look at art or you can do it the simpler

method because okay maybe i don't have that scripture entirely memorized so i just use is a good write true beautiful and how do i look for those elements in the work of art so as we explore art this semester i hope those uh these are some helpful tools for you to use uh as we begin our adventure [Music] thanks you