IN REVIEW
ReFORMation:
Exhibit at the Dadian Gallery
by Patrick Beldio and Kiki McGrath
Patrick Beldio has a Ph.D. in religion and culture from Catholic University of America, and is a professional artist who studied sculpture and art in Indiana, Rome, Italy, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C.
Kiki McGrath is a visual artist who studied exhibition design at the George Washington University and painting at The Corcoran College of the Arts and Design. She is curator of the Dadian Gallery in the Luce Center for the Arts and Religion at Wesley Theological Seminary.
Patrick Beldio has a Ph.D. in religion and culture from Catholic University of America, and is a professional artist who studied sculpture and art in Indiana, Rome, Italy, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C.
Kiki McGrath is a visual artist who studied exhibition design at the George Washington University and painting at The Corcoran College of the Arts and Design. She is curator of the Dadian Gallery in the Luce Center for the Arts and Religion at Wesley Theological Seminary.
In her review of Martin Luther: Art and the Reformation at the Minneapolis Institute of Art (MIA), Jennifer Awes-Freeman wrote: “it would have been interesting if the final room had incorporated a contemporary example of Luther’s legacy.”1 Although we did not plan the connection, we co-curated ReFORMation to explore contemporary art made for Protestant worship communities or as a critical response to religious traditions. This juried show in the Dadian Gallery at Wesley Theological Seminary presented sculptures, video, and mixed-media pieces reflecting the complex legacy of the Protestant Reformation on artistic practice today.
The exhibition Luther und die Avant Garde in Wittenberg, Germany, showcased contemporary art in response to Reformation themes. However, we found few similar shows in the United States during the quincentennial year. Our call for submission was specific to this vision, which seemed to limit the pool of potential participants as we received twelve entries and accepted eight:
In celebration of the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation the Dadian Gallery presents ReFORMation, an exhibition that seeks to explore the legacy of the Protestant Reformation on contemporary artists in the United States. This legacy is complex as it contains elements of iconoclasm as well as approval of imagery in Christian practice: how does this influence artists today? For this call we request the work of artists who are active members of a Protestant church tradition and create work that is relevant and meaningful to their communities of worship (either in actuality or aspiration), and/or those who are possibly critical of their Protestant tradition, yet still inspired or even haunted by that heritage and compelled to address these themes in their art.
The widely-publicized call invited all forms of contemporary art and media, limited only by spatial constraints in the gallery. The exhibition logo with its whimsical re-use of Lucas Cranach’s 1528 portrait image of Martin Luther signaled the non-historical focus of the show. We limited eligibility to applicants from within the Washington D.C.-Metro area so that no shipping costs would bar participation, and for the same reason set no entry fees. The juried applications were selected for “artistic excellence, innovation, creativity, mastery of craft, and demonstrated relevance to the theme.” Because hosting the exhibition required collaboration across the seminary, we divided the tasks. Kiki managed the exhibition planning and administration while Patrick researched and wrote the curator’s statement. Together, we designed and installed the show in the gallery and hosted the artist talk. The Center for Arts and Religion staff members and chapel committee contributed their time and talents which culminated in the reception held on Reformation Day, October 31, 2017. The service in Oxnam Chapel, Wesley Seminary, marked the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther posting 95 theses on the door of the church in Wittenberg.
The exhibition Luther und die Avant Garde in Wittenberg, Germany, showcased contemporary art in response to Reformation themes. However, we found few similar shows in the United States during the quincentennial year. Our call for submission was specific to this vision, which seemed to limit the pool of potential participants as we received twelve entries and accepted eight:
In celebration of the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation the Dadian Gallery presents ReFORMation, an exhibition that seeks to explore the legacy of the Protestant Reformation on contemporary artists in the United States. This legacy is complex as it contains elements of iconoclasm as well as approval of imagery in Christian practice: how does this influence artists today? For this call we request the work of artists who are active members of a Protestant church tradition and create work that is relevant and meaningful to their communities of worship (either in actuality or aspiration), and/or those who are possibly critical of their Protestant tradition, yet still inspired or even haunted by that heritage and compelled to address these themes in their art.
The widely-publicized call invited all forms of contemporary art and media, limited only by spatial constraints in the gallery. The exhibition logo with its whimsical re-use of Lucas Cranach’s 1528 portrait image of Martin Luther signaled the non-historical focus of the show. We limited eligibility to applicants from within the Washington D.C.-Metro area so that no shipping costs would bar participation, and for the same reason set no entry fees. The juried applications were selected for “artistic excellence, innovation, creativity, mastery of craft, and demonstrated relevance to the theme.” Because hosting the exhibition required collaboration across the seminary, we divided the tasks. Kiki managed the exhibition planning and administration while Patrick researched and wrote the curator’s statement. Together, we designed and installed the show in the gallery and hosted the artist talk. The Center for Arts and Religion staff members and chapel committee contributed their time and talents which culminated in the reception held on Reformation Day, October 31, 2017. The service in Oxnam Chapel, Wesley Seminary, marked the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther posting 95 theses on the door of the church in Wittenberg.
Hannah Correlli, The Moment I Lost My Faith, 2017; mixed-media; photo by Amy Gray
One of the legacies of the Protestant Reformation that we found exemplified by the show is the disentanglement of visual imagery from religion in a process that is now known as secularization. Before the modern period, visual imagery was used by Christian (Roman Catholic) authorities to encourage visual piety. The goal of this practice was to support growth in the faith by binding people together in devotional behaviors with the imagery that venerated both the visual object and the community, making each special or what might be called “sacred.”2 After the Reformation and the rise of the nation-state, “art” as we now understand it came to be something in its own right, where the private citizen or the nation-state—not just the Catholic Church—became the patrons of the arts. Religion did not disappear in this context, but became relativized, a network of social institutions that vied for influence alongside other social, political, and cultural institutions. As David Morgan writes, “this secularization of art patronage did not mean the disappearance of religion . . . but supported a broad shift in which the arts came to be considered somehow religious in their own right.”3
Ironically, “art” as its own discreet and distinct reality led to its being experienced by visitors to museums and galleries, collectors, and art professionals as “special,” that is, “sacred.” Art now performs the same function for the secular context as devotional imagery did/does in the religious context: sacralization. The goals are different in each case, Morgan observes, since devotional imagery has the power to bring people together in a common faith while secular art has the power to bring a more random group of people together in a common taste. This taste binds people together in a selected community that has to do with concerns like “technical skill in the treatment of the medium, skill in the use of subject matter, artistic aims, and the relationship to the history of art.”4 Devotional imagery tends to have other goals where artistic quality may not be valued at all. What is valued is “the image’s content (subject matter and expression), its narrative, the interests of the viewer, and the engagement of the object as proxy of the saint to whom prayer and devotion are offered by means of the image.”5
The ReFORMation exhibition exists in between the secular context of “art” and the religious context of “devotional imagery.” It combines the work of young artists who are beginning an art practice, the work of adults in other careers who make art, and work by more experienced artists who have a record of showing their work in many contexts. All the participants share an interest in Christian practice that either promotes their religious tradition, uses Christian references to subvert Christianity, or even challenges it to look to its Roman Catholic or Jewish roots.
Whatever the purpose, each of the artworks in ReFORMation was created during a complex time in history when galleries and museums, churches, private devotional shrines, and even art studios host a process of sacralization. If art is no longer tied to any one religion nor to any religion at all, but functions as sacred to those who value it as examples of cultural taste, places like the Dadian Gallery at the Wesley Theological Seminary function as a hybrid space. It can serve both to sacralize the objects within it as devotional Christian imagery and to sacralize the images or objects as contemporary examples of artistic taste. It is, therefore, potentially both a religious space and a secular one. The mixing of these categories in the functioning of a religious art gallery that is also a fine art gallery seems to us the most salient legacy of the Protestant Reformation that this show demonstrates.
The final legacy we would mention has to do with our religious backgrounds. Kiki is a Roman Catholic and Patrick is a Roman Catholic who also identifies as a member of Sufism Reoriented.6 We are also professional artists who create work for both religious and secular contexts. The possibility of non-Protestant curators, one of whom claims multiple belongings,7 developing an exhibition on the Protestant Reformation seems directly related to the legacy of the Reformation itself. The pluralism of our country and the potential options for religious or spiritual expression make this seemingly strange circumstance not only plausible, but inevitable. Our willingness and enjoyment in celebrating and even participating in the art and culture of religions outside the one we were born into comes from a feeling that God’s sacred presence is acting within each and all. Though it resonates with a different meaning now, we feel as Luther: “Here we stand; we can do no other. God help us.”
Ironically, “art” as its own discreet and distinct reality led to its being experienced by visitors to museums and galleries, collectors, and art professionals as “special,” that is, “sacred.” Art now performs the same function for the secular context as devotional imagery did/does in the religious context: sacralization. The goals are different in each case, Morgan observes, since devotional imagery has the power to bring people together in a common faith while secular art has the power to bring a more random group of people together in a common taste. This taste binds people together in a selected community that has to do with concerns like “technical skill in the treatment of the medium, skill in the use of subject matter, artistic aims, and the relationship to the history of art.”4 Devotional imagery tends to have other goals where artistic quality may not be valued at all. What is valued is “the image’s content (subject matter and expression), its narrative, the interests of the viewer, and the engagement of the object as proxy of the saint to whom prayer and devotion are offered by means of the image.”5
The ReFORMation exhibition exists in between the secular context of “art” and the religious context of “devotional imagery.” It combines the work of young artists who are beginning an art practice, the work of adults in other careers who make art, and work by more experienced artists who have a record of showing their work in many contexts. All the participants share an interest in Christian practice that either promotes their religious tradition, uses Christian references to subvert Christianity, or even challenges it to look to its Roman Catholic or Jewish roots.
Whatever the purpose, each of the artworks in ReFORMation was created during a complex time in history when galleries and museums, churches, private devotional shrines, and even art studios host a process of sacralization. If art is no longer tied to any one religion nor to any religion at all, but functions as sacred to those who value it as examples of cultural taste, places like the Dadian Gallery at the Wesley Theological Seminary function as a hybrid space. It can serve both to sacralize the objects within it as devotional Christian imagery and to sacralize the images or objects as contemporary examples of artistic taste. It is, therefore, potentially both a religious space and a secular one. The mixing of these categories in the functioning of a religious art gallery that is also a fine art gallery seems to us the most salient legacy of the Protestant Reformation that this show demonstrates.
The final legacy we would mention has to do with our religious backgrounds. Kiki is a Roman Catholic and Patrick is a Roman Catholic who also identifies as a member of Sufism Reoriented.6 We are also professional artists who create work for both religious and secular contexts. The possibility of non-Protestant curators, one of whom claims multiple belongings,7 developing an exhibition on the Protestant Reformation seems directly related to the legacy of the Reformation itself. The pluralism of our country and the potential options for religious or spiritual expression make this seemingly strange circumstance not only plausible, but inevitable. Our willingness and enjoyment in celebrating and even participating in the art and culture of religions outside the one we were born into comes from a feeling that God’s sacred presence is acting within each and all. Though it resonates with a different meaning now, we feel as Luther: “Here we stand; we can do no other. God help us.”
NOTES
- Jennifer Awes-Freeman, “The Reformation at 500: Protestant Theology in Art and Material Culture,” in ARTS: The Arts in Religious and Theological Studies, 28/2 (2017), 78-81.
- From a sociological perspective, David Morgan argues that something becomes sacred when one “accentuates” it and in this making special, a community is formed around that object in a process he calls “affiliation.” See David Morgan, “Defining the Sacred in Fine Art and Devotional Imagery,” in Religion, 47/4 (2017), 641.
- Ibid., 642.
- Ibid., 648.
- Ibid., 649.
- See http://www.sufismreoriented.org for more information.
- Multiple religious belonging (MRB) is contested. See Steve Bruce, “Multiple Religious Belonging: Conceptual Advance or Secularization Denial?,” in Open Theology, 3/1 (October 2017): 603–612. https://www.degruyter.com/downloadpdf/j/opth.2017.3.issue-1/opth-2017-0047/opth-2017-0047.pdf (accessed February 21, 2018). The work of Francis Clooney, S.J., is a helpful guide in this area for Catholics. See especially his essay “Neither Here nor There: Crossing Boundaries, Becoming Insiders, Remaining Catholic,” in Identity and the Politics of Scholarship in the Study of Religion, ed. José Ignacio Cabezón and Sheila Greeve Davaney (New York: Routledge, 2004), 99–111.