Art and Christianity Enquiry Meets in London
by Wilson Yates
Professor Emeritus of Religion, Society, and the Arts, United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities; and Editor Emeritus of ARTS, Wilson Yates will contribute occasionally to the ongoing work of ARTS. Here, he offers a review of a recent conference in London.
The Art and Christianity Enquiry (ACE) held its biennial meeting in London this past July, 2014. SARTS and ARTS have both had a long and cooperative relationship with ACE. I write this as one of the individuals who was at the first ACE meeting in London in 1991, and who remembers well the founding moment in the organization’s life—a moment that can engender a rich fabric of memories. Its British leader was Tom Devonshire-Jones and his American counterparts were John and Jane Daggett Dillenberger. And there were participants from Germany, Switzerland, Iceland, Sweden, The Netherlands, France, Australia, and the United States, all of whom were involved in the conversation—in the dialogue—between Christianity and the arts. We met in a church meeting room in London. It was rather warm and the food had the touch of church fare. But the presentations were splendid, the trips to the National Gallery and the Tate—there was only one Tate back then—brought us together around art and theological “enquiry.” From that first meeting, the wonderful balance of serious scholarship and communal sharing was a mark of ACE’s international meeting. One might say that the formal academic tasks were set within a communal context and all who came thrived in the interchange of ideas flowing out of our work and the stories flowing out of our lives.
I think that it is fair to say that those early meetings had the sense of being a part of a movement much broader than ACE but of which ACE was a significant player. Organizations existed in other countries—the Blake Prize Committee and its work in Australia; the Religion, Arts, and Literature section of the American Academy of Religion in North America (SARTS would come later); and still more. But ACE was special precisely because of its international character. Over the years, it would meet in London, Dresden, Berkeley, Amsterdam, Minneapolis, St. Petersburg, Oxford, New York, Cambridge, Strasbourg, Boston, and, again, in London, and always we were an international lot from different religious traditions and settings, different fields and different perspectives on art. There were debates, a few arguments, most all good papers, indeed exciting papers, except when one was not, but always good wine and cheese and robust dinners from local chefs. We talked about meeting in other settings. Someone came who insisted that we go to Egypt and Tom Devonshire-Jones, in the midst our discussion about where to go next, would always work in the idea of Morocco. After all, Matisse had gone before. And so it was, religion, art, a glass of wine, and good gemutlichkeit.
In the summer of this year we, again, met where we had begun—in London. The conference was a well-organized flow of papers—more than we had ever had—from standing scholars as well as doctoral students from Kings and other universities. The focus was on the church and art in London, and we moved from the early period of medieval architecture and art down to the present including presentations on specific artists such as Edward Hopper and John Donne, and particular churches and their work in the arts such as the programs at St. Martin’s in the Field. It was truly a memorable experience. At points, as a participant, I wished for a time when people introduced themselves and why they were there or had returned—something of an old ritual—and a bit of tromping in a museum or two. Perhaps we might have all sized up the blue rooster on the plinth in Trafalgar Square, or revisited the Wilton Dyptich and the brilliance of its own blue or, for that matter, Pisarro’s white snow that seems to take you into the cold warmth of a winter’s day and hold you for a moment somewhere beyond time. But that is the danger, the seductive danger of London. There is always more.
ACE will meet again in two years. Consider attending and joining ACE which has, itself, become a tradition for those who undertake that illusive task of sorting out the entangled relationships of art to religion. You can find out more at enquiries@acetrust.org. --Wilson Yates
Professor Emeritus of Religion, Society, and the Arts, United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities; and Editor Emeritus of ARTS, Wilson Yates will contribute occasionally to the ongoing work of ARTS. Here, he offers a review of a recent conference in London.
The Art and Christianity Enquiry (ACE) held its biennial meeting in London this past July, 2014. SARTS and ARTS have both had a long and cooperative relationship with ACE. I write this as one of the individuals who was at the first ACE meeting in London in 1991, and who remembers well the founding moment in the organization’s life—a moment that can engender a rich fabric of memories. Its British leader was Tom Devonshire-Jones and his American counterparts were John and Jane Daggett Dillenberger. And there were participants from Germany, Switzerland, Iceland, Sweden, The Netherlands, France, Australia, and the United States, all of whom were involved in the conversation—in the dialogue—between Christianity and the arts. We met in a church meeting room in London. It was rather warm and the food had the touch of church fare. But the presentations were splendid, the trips to the National Gallery and the Tate—there was only one Tate back then—brought us together around art and theological “enquiry.” From that first meeting, the wonderful balance of serious scholarship and communal sharing was a mark of ACE’s international meeting. One might say that the formal academic tasks were set within a communal context and all who came thrived in the interchange of ideas flowing out of our work and the stories flowing out of our lives.
I think that it is fair to say that those early meetings had the sense of being a part of a movement much broader than ACE but of which ACE was a significant player. Organizations existed in other countries—the Blake Prize Committee and its work in Australia; the Religion, Arts, and Literature section of the American Academy of Religion in North America (SARTS would come later); and still more. But ACE was special precisely because of its international character. Over the years, it would meet in London, Dresden, Berkeley, Amsterdam, Minneapolis, St. Petersburg, Oxford, New York, Cambridge, Strasbourg, Boston, and, again, in London, and always we were an international lot from different religious traditions and settings, different fields and different perspectives on art. There were debates, a few arguments, most all good papers, indeed exciting papers, except when one was not, but always good wine and cheese and robust dinners from local chefs. We talked about meeting in other settings. Someone came who insisted that we go to Egypt and Tom Devonshire-Jones, in the midst our discussion about where to go next, would always work in the idea of Morocco. After all, Matisse had gone before. And so it was, religion, art, a glass of wine, and good gemutlichkeit.
In the summer of this year we, again, met where we had begun—in London. The conference was a well-organized flow of papers—more than we had ever had—from standing scholars as well as doctoral students from Kings and other universities. The focus was on the church and art in London, and we moved from the early period of medieval architecture and art down to the present including presentations on specific artists such as Edward Hopper and John Donne, and particular churches and their work in the arts such as the programs at St. Martin’s in the Field. It was truly a memorable experience. At points, as a participant, I wished for a time when people introduced themselves and why they were there or had returned—something of an old ritual—and a bit of tromping in a museum or two. Perhaps we might have all sized up the blue rooster on the plinth in Trafalgar Square, or revisited the Wilton Dyptich and the brilliance of its own blue or, for that matter, Pisarro’s white snow that seems to take you into the cold warmth of a winter’s day and hold you for a moment somewhere beyond time. But that is the danger, the seductive danger of London. There is always more.
ACE will meet again in two years. Consider attending and joining ACE which has, itself, become a tradition for those who undertake that illusive task of sorting out the entangled relationships of art to religion. You can find out more at enquiries@acetrust.org. --Wilson Yates
