Posts Tagged ‘ art ’

The Sacred Made Real: Mormonism, Iconography and the Passion of Christ

February 9, 2010

A few weeks ago I attended an exhibition entitled ‘The Sacred made Real’ at the National Gallery in London. The collection was focussed on Spanish hyper-realism (painting and sculpture) between 1600-1700. Some of the more famous artists included in this collection were: Velazquez, Zurburan and de Mena. The intent of these artists was to provide life-like depictions of the suffering of Christ in order to invoke feelings of sympathy and awe in the observers. These artists wanted to create a form of spiritual devotion through the simulated presence of the Passion. I was surprised at my own response.

Anish Kapoor on Spirituality

November 30, 2009

By Aaron R. aka Rico

On the BBC, there is a great series of Art documentaries entitled ‘Imagine’. Alan Yentob, a Television Executive, presents them and in the most recent, as of 18th Nov 2009, Yentob interviews and discusses the work of Anish Kapoor. People will recognise his sculptures without necessarily remembering his name, perhaps the height of fame for an artist. Having recently finished reading Givens’ ‘A People of Paradox’ I have been considering the relationship between Art and Spirituality and during this documentary Kapoor made some interesting comments which resonated with me.

Mormon Art – the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

March 5, 2009

By Hawkgrrrl

From the misguided and ill-conceived to the hurl-worthy, why is there so much bad Mormon Art? Do Mormons have worse artistic taste than non-Mormons? Or just on par? You be the judge. I’ve included various works of art below, all by Mormon artists. Some I like and some I don’t. See what you think.

The Symbolic Image of Christ

February 1, 2009

By Arthur

Much has been said in church magazines and the Bloggernacle about the image of Joseph Smith. Do we know what Joseph Smith really looked like? Are our statues and paintings truly representative of him? This is not the point of my post here, though. I recently had a conversation with my fiancee about Rastafarianism, mentioning that Rastas believe that Jesus Christ was black. I admitted that, though I personally don’t see much evidence for that, I did concede that Jesus probably looked very different than what most Mormons envision.

Twilight and “The Great Mormon Novel”

November 24, 2008

By Hawkgrrrl

Many consider The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene to be the quintessential Great Catholic Novel: a book written about faith and doubt with great courage. So far, no one has written what one would call “The Great Mormon Novel.”

Michelangelo and Mormonism

June 29, 2008

By KC Kern

Michelangelo, one of most prominent figures of the Renaissance’s A-List, is famous for his sculptures and his frescoes, nearly all of which depicted religious themes. The ceiling and walls of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican are possibly his most well known and celebrated works (perhaps rivaled only by The David.) Commissioned by and under the close supervision of Pope Julius II, Michelangelo was essentially acting as an agent of the Catholic Church. What I find most interesting though, is that when we carefully look at his art, we find depictions and representations of things that are *not* part...

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