Manhattan's Medieval-Art Museum Gets Wired and Adds Contemporary Works to Its Exhibits

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
By Jennifer Maloney

Catharina Choi uses an iPod touch with guided audio tour in the Fuentidueña Chapel of the Cloisters, which is developing new digital content.

NEW YORK---Set on a hill overlooking the Hudson River in northern Manhattan, the Cloisters museum and gardens were designed to give visitors the impression they are stepping back in time, wandering through what feels like an old-world monastery. But as America's only medieval-art museum approaches its 75th anniversary this spring, its curators are stepping gingerly into the modern world. This year, the Cloisters will for the first time present a contemporary-art installation. The museum, a branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is developing new digital content for visitors to view on iPods. [link]

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Move Over Galleries: Artists Sign With Agents

THE ART NEWSPAPER
By Cristina Ruiz

The British artist Stuart Semple has signed a contract for worldwide representation with the fashion agency Next Management, a move that highlights again how the traditional artist-gallery relationship is changing. Several artists, including Damien Hirst and Keith Tyson, have agents or managers who provide financial advice and handle their business dealings with galleries, but Semple says his collaboration with Next Management will more closely resemble relationships in the music industry, where managers act as a buffer between their acts and the outside world, helping to promote their work and negotiate their projects.  [link]

Early pioneers of this type of collaboration are the California music managers Pat Magnarella and Roger Klein, who have represented the US rock band Green Day for more than 12 years, helping them to sell 75 million albums. Around four years ago, the pair started to sign visual artists. They now work with half a dozen, including the street art couple Miss Bugs, the British painter Charming Baker, the graffiti artist D*Face, New York-based Logan Hicks, and Chris Levine, whose portrait of the Queen is on the £100 note issued in Jersey to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee. “I’m not interested in getting the art world to know about my artists; I’m interested in getting the world to know about them,” Magnarella told The Art Newspaper in 2009, explaining how cross-promotional projects could help to raise awareness of the artists on his roster.

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"Temptation" (2005) by Peter Howson for LENT

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By Tahlib

"Temptation" (2005) by Peter Howson

Each Easter season, mostly by accident, I pick one artist to help focus my spiritual energies. This year, thanks to the assistance of gallerist Matthew Flowers, I've choosen Peter Howson. A few weeks ago, I asked Flowers which American museums have Howson's In their collections? I am already familiar with a few of his collectors such as Madonna but my chances to see his works there seemed limited, so I hoped for a Midwest connection. He graciously responded, "Howson works can be found at the Met and MOMA in NY. http://peterhowson.net for more collections." Well, it's not the short drive I had hoped for to Chicago, Detroit, Saint Louis or Indianapolis, but I'm looking forward to visting his works in MOMA and the Met one day soon--after Easter.

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Christ on the Cross: A Violent Image as an Act of Commiseration

LOS ANGELES TIMES
By Christopher Knight, Los Angeles Times Art Critic

Isenheim Altarpiece (1512-1516)by Matthias Grünewald

FRANCE---No image I know in the history of Western painting is more brutal than the crucifixion scene in the Isenheim Altarpiece. Its violence would make Quentin Tarantino blush. When German Renaissance artist Matthias Grünewald first set brush to limewood panel to paint the mammoth altarpiece around 1512, however, his intention was not to gross out viewers. As a painting made for a hospital, though, establishing a powerful identification with the hideous suffering and death of Christ was essential to the artist's task. Grünewald gave it all he had. [link]

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'Virgin and Child With Saint Anne' Sees The Light at The Getty

THE LOS ANGELES TIMES
By Suzanne Muchnic

 The Louvre last year juxtaposed UCLA’s “Virgin and Child With Saint Anne,” center, with Da Vinci’s original, in the background at left. ( J. Paul Getty Museum / February 6, 2013 )

CALIFORNIA---"The Virgin and Child With Saint Anne," a highly prized painting by Leonardo da Vinci in the collection of the Louvre, is having a big year. And now a different version of the painting is on view at the J. Paul Getty Museum. Featured in the Paris exhibition and made in Leonardo's workshop, though not by the master himself, the luminous work will be shown with the Getty's Italian Renaissance paintings for an indefinite period — in return for analysis and treatment carried out in the museum's conservation lab. [link]

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Rev. Kittredge Cherry's Top 10 LGBT Religious Art Stories of 2012

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By Tahlib

“They Shelter in a Cave” by José Benlliure y Gil, 1926 (Wikimedia Commons)

I am a big fan of list-making, and this list is certainly one that will get peoples attention--religious, gay and artistic all in one. The following is Rev. Kittredge Cherry's Top 10 "LGBT spiritual arts story for 2012," from her Gay Christian blog, "Jesus in Love."

1. Gay Passion of Christ, 24 paintings by Douglas Blanchard
2. “Marriage Made in Heaven” by cartoonist Mr. Fish of ClownCrack.com, also known as Dwayne Booth.
3. Saints Sergius and Bacchus: Male couple martyred in ancient Rome 
4. Gay centurion: Jesus heals a soldier’s boyfriend in the Bible
5. Jemima Wilkinson: Queer preacher reborn in 1776 as “Publick Universal Friend”
6. "Corpus Christi,” a play about a gay Jesus by Terrence McNally
7. "Adam & Steve, and the Bananna Tree" by Tony De Carlo 
8. Ash Wednesday: A day to recall queers executed for sodomy
9. Joan of Arc: Cross-dressing warrior-saint
10. Francis of Assisi’s queer side revealed by historical evidence

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Self-Appointed Hindu Spokesman Demands Censorship in Massachusetts

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By Tahlib

“Ganapati the Warrior” a nontraditional painting of the Hindu diety Ganesha

He's at it again! Since 2008, I've been reading over and over about Rajan Zed's outrage at Artists and Art Museums across the USA. Zed is President of Universal Society of Hinduism based in Nevada, an anti-defamation league of sorts. I honor Zed's religious tradition, but not his artist censorship campaigns. It seems that each month, he makes a new artistic-censorship pronouncement that "Hindus are offended," but the only Hindu speaking is extremist Rajan Zed. This week he's angry about a painting of the Hindu deity Ganesha at the Peabody Essex Museum in Massachusetts.

Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada today, said that “Ganapati the Warrior” painting in “Midnight to the Boom: Painting in India after Independence” exhibition was quite disrespectful as Hindu devotees world over were not used to this kind of depiction of Lord Ganesha, a highly revered deity worshipped by Hindus. [link]

I am baffled by those who exert all their energies in anger and outrage, rather than celebrating the diversity of ways of seeing and knowing the divine. India's leading artists, including the most influential, M.F. Husain, Tyeb Mehta, and Nasreen Mohamedi -- have all faced challenges from people like Zed who don't value individualized representations of faith, but I say that's their problem. The exhibition, "Midnight to the Boom: Painting in India after Independence" will be on view at the PEM though April 21, 2013.

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Our Academy Awards As Contemporary Religious Art

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By Tahlib

"Argo" winner of "Best Picture"

Last night, while "Argo" walked away with the "Best Picture" Oscar, the real winner was those who believe that movies are an artform that can help us to understand faith.  "Les Miserables," "Lincoln," and "Django Unchained" are all reflections on Christianity; "Life of Pi" is a window into Hinduism; "Beasts of the Southern Wild" explores the power of myth-making; "The Master" invites a closer look at Scientology; and obviously both "Argo" and "Zero Dark Thirty" are ways of looking at Islam. Even "Silver Linings Playbook" which I did see and "Amour," which I did not see offer new ways of seeing the quest for truth and love, which at its essence is religion. During an evening without any stand-out references to God or organized religion, the movies of 2013 introduced American audiences to an interfaith experience they'd never enjoyed before, and that's why believers are the real winners.

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Dolce & Gabbana’s Latest Looks Take Inspiration From Byzantine Religious Art And Classic Couture

THE WASHINGTON POST

By Associated Press

Dolce & Gabbana women's Fall-Winter 2013-14
collection unveiled in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 24, 2013. 

ITALY — “La Dolce Vita” was the name of the game at Dolce & Gabbana, where the fun-loving designing duo recalled the sacred and profane of mundane Italian life, as exposed in director Federico Fellini’s 1960 movie. The winter collection shown Sunday drew inspiration from Byzantine religious art and classic couture. Nino Rota’s slightly disturbing music composed for his friend’s movies provided a soundtrack for the show. [link]

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5 Reasons to Kill Christian Music

PATHEOS
By Marc

As humans endowed with free will, intellect, and the burning desire for transcendence, we should stop making Christian music. Here’s 5 of 100 reasons why:

1. Writing a “Christian” song reduces Christianity to a modifying adjective. 
2. Music is already Christian. 
3. “If you label me you negate me.” 
4. As a label, Christianity becomes an excuse for mediocrity.
5. “Christian” music isn’t Christian. 

Be Christian. Write Music. [link]

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Buddhists, Reconstructing Sacred Tibetan Murals, Wield Their Brushes in Nepal

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Edward Wong

A local woman worked on a historic mural at Thubchen Monastery in Lo Manthang, Nepal.

NEPAL---Dozens of painters sat atop scaffolding that soared toward the roof of an ancient monastery. With a swipe of their brushes, colors appeared that gave life to the Buddha. Gold for the skin. Black for the eyes. Orange for the robes. They worked by dim portable electric lights. Dusty statues of Tibetan Buddhist deities gazed on. From openings in the roof, a few shafts of sunlight fell through the 35 wooden pillars in the main chamber of the enormous Thubchen Monastery, the same edifice that had awed Michel Peissel, the explorer of Tibet, when he visited a half-century ago. Financed by the American Himalayan Foundation, the project is aimed at restoring to a vibrant state the artwork of two of the three main monasteries and temples in Lo Manthang, the walled capital of the once-forbidden kingdom of Mustang. [link]

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Questioning Your Faith? Tattoo Robot Will Randomly Assign You A Religion

GEEK
By Ryan Whitwam

Auto Ink is not just a robot, and it’s not just art. It’s an automated sculpture designed to tattoo human skin. This is definitely not the kind of thing you’re likely to come across at the to local tattoo parlor, largely because the user of the Auto Ink can’t choose what tattoo to get. As designed by artist Chris Eckert, the Auto Ink tattoos a randomly selected religious icon on the person’s forearm. The device is actually a three axis cartesian robot, meaning that each of its three motors are at right angles to each other. He also points out, perhaps with a smirk, that the religious designs are assigned randomly, or divinely inspired depending on your beliefs. [link]

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RELIGIOUS ART | NEWS OF WEEK

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By TAHLIB

Grow in your appreciation of Hinduism by exploring Islamic Art. That's the impact of an audio-video produced by the Metropolitan Museum of Art featuring curator Navina Haidar. The video entitled, "Open-Minded," examines a 16th century painting of Hindu deity: Lord Krishna lifting a mountain to shield villagers from a storm. It is just one of the museum's 100 amazing videos which will be released this year. Each features the voice of a curator reflecting on the meaning behind a single work from the museum's collection. That is why “Krishna Holds Up Mount Govardhan to Shelter the Villagers of Braj” (above) is my NEWS OF WEEK.

In other Religious Art news from across the USA, and around the world:

• Buddhism in Art: Salt Lake City hosts Buddhist Arts Festival [More News]
• Christianity in Art: Kehinde Wiley's new works at the Phoenix Art Museum [More News]
• Hinduism in Art: Two million women gather to honor the Goddess Parvati [More News]
• Islam in Art: BYU-Idaho gallery features art of the Sufi-Islamic tradition [More News]
• Judaism in Art: Jewish Museum in Vienna criticized for withholding Nazi loot [More News]

Are your friends in the A&O family yet? If not, why not invite them today! We are believers, and also skeptics too united in seeking deeper human understanding through Religious Art. Some join by making the $100 commitment to become a member of the governing A&O Society; others join as smaller donors supporting the A&O Scholarship & Exhibition Prize; and still more as member-subscribers of this RELIGIOUS ART | NEWS OF WEEK. Please invite a friend to join the journey. It's for Believers and Skeptics too.

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Kehinde Wiley's Dutch Religious Art at Phoenix Art Museum

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By Tahlib

"After Memling Portrait of Saint Benedict" (2013)by Kehinde Wiley

During the Fall of 2008, when it was just me and a few friends deciding which contemporary work we considered the Religious Art of the Year, the painting of "Dead Christ in a Tomb" by Kehinde Wiley was an obvious choice for a group of friends seeking new ways of looking at religion, sexuality, and race. In his newest exhibition, "Kehinde Wiley: Memling" at the Phoenix Art Museum, he continues charging forward creating unique windows into the world of religion through the lens of men-of-color. His new series of  eight portraits take their poses and contexts from the works by the 15th century Flemish master Hans Memling (below), whose lens for faith was from a time when Christianity was exclusively white Europeans.

Phoenix Art Museum: "Kehinde Wiley: Memling," (Ends June 20), 1625 N. Central Avenue Phoenix, AZ. (602) 257-1222 or phxart.org

Saint Benedict, 1487 Giclee Print by Hans Memling

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Holy-day Art for Purim | Art by Shoshannah Brombacher

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS 

Goldblum by Shoshannah Brombacher

Purim 2013 begins at sunset on Saturday, February 23, and ends on Sunday, February 24.

Purim Mask by Shoshannah Brombacher

Seudah by Shoshannah Brombacher

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Female Russian Artist Finds a Career as Papal Portraitist

RELIGIOUS NEWS SERVICE

Tsarkova poses in front of the official portrait of Pope Benedict XVI she painted in 2007

VATICAN CITY---As the popes’ official painter, Natalia Tsarkova says she tries to capture both the physical reality and the spiritual essence of her subjects. But the Russian-born artist confessed she was “shocked” just like everyone else when Pope Benedict XVI, who posed twice for her, announced his resignation on Feb. 11. Since the late 1990s, this Orthodox Christian artist has been the official portraitist of the popes, with her paintings now hanging in Vatican palaces, Roman churches and museums around the world. [link]

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The AP Stylebook's Latest Change: A Big Win For Gay Marriage

THE WEEK
By Harold Maass

After tripping into a bitter debate over gay marriage, The Associated Press is changing the way it refers to men and women in same-sex marriages. Now the AP says its updated online Stylebook will say: "Regardless of sexual orientation, husband or wife is acceptable in all references to individuals in any legally recognized marriage. Spouse or partner may be used if requested." [link]

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German Museum to Return Nazi-Looted Stern Art

CANADIAN JEWISH NEWS

GERMANY---On March 5 in Berlin, Concordia University will reclaim a painting that belonged to the late German Jewish art dealer Max Stern before the Nazis forced him to sell off the holdings of his Dusseldorf gallery in 1937. This is the 10th artwork recovered since the Concordia-led Max Stern Art Restitution Project was launched 10 years ago. The only information being released at this time is that the painting is from a German museum. The Restitution Project, directed through Concordia’s office of the president, works in close collaboration with the New York state-based Holocaust Claims Processing Office, as well as the Art Loss Register, Interpol, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other institutions and governments agencies worldwide. The first painting was restituted in 2006. [link]

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Review: Kehinde Wiley's Portraiture at San Francisco's Contemporary Jewish Museum

7X7 NEWS | SF
By Alex Bigman

CALIFORNIA---Kehinde Wiley's latest batch of epic portraits, now at the Contemporary Jewish Museum, ostensibly gives exposure to Israel's lesser-represented brown-skinned population–Ethiopian Jews, Rastafarians, Arabs and others of non-European descent. They're striking, but something about them feels amiss. The artist (or rather his studio assistants in New York and Beijing, who take care of the more mechanical aspects of the works) also wraps his subjects in colorful, ornate patterns sourced from their local culture – in this case motifs found on Torah covers, prayer shawls, traditional marriage contracts, and the like – and places them in equally grandiose frames. [link]

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France to Return Stolen Nazi Art to Heirs of Jewish Owners

THE JEWISH VOICE
By Elad Benari

“Saint Francis” (1709-1769) by Salvator Francesco Fontebasso

FRANCE---France will return seven paintings from the 17th and 18th centuries to the heirs of two Jewish families whose artworks were stolen during World War II, the French culture ministry told AFP on Thursday, February 14. Six paintings by Italian and German artists will be returned to Thomas Selldorff, the octogenarian grandson of Austrian textile magnate Richard Neumann, who was forced to flee his country in 1938. His grandson is based in the United States. The works include “The Allegory of Venice” by Gaspare Diziani (1689-1767), “Saint Francis” by Salvator Francesco Fontebasso (1709-1769) and Venetian painter Alessandro Longhi’s “Portrait of Bartolomeo Ferracina.” [link]

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Rice Student's National Efforts Earn Scathing Rebuttal From Head of Creationist Museum

HOUSTON PRESS | BLOG
By Casey Michel

TEXAS---It's easy to see that Zack Kopplin, a 19-year-old student at Rice University, has fast become one of the leading faces of the anti-creationist movement. He's appeared on numerous national interviews, sharing his opposition to publicly funding creationist academies. He has latched onto outspoken evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins's website. He has just been awarded a $10,000 prize as the "Troublemaker of the Year" [YouTube]. But there seems no greater signal of Kopplin's efforts and efficacy -- detailed in this week's Press cover story -- than a recent anti-Kopplin post from Ken Ham, the director of Kentucky's Creation Museum. Though the two have never spoken, Ham deemed it necessary to counter Kopplin's anti-creationist efforts by lobbing both charges and epithets toward the 19-year-old. [link]

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New York’s Metropolitan Museum Showcases Hindu Lord Krishna

EURASIA REVIEW

"Krishna Holds Up Mount Govardhan to Shelter the Villagers of Braj"

NEW YORK---The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met) in New York is displaying authoritative commentary on 16th century painting of Hindu Lord Krishna holding Mount Goverdhan, including an audio-visual essay and interactive feature. This watercolor, “Krishna Holds Up Mount Govardhan to Shelter the Villagers of Braj”, is a folio from a Harivamsa (1590–95). Met’s presentation lets the viewer take a closer look at the dense cast of characters in the painting by selecting hotspots. Curator is Navina Haidar. [link]

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BYU-Idaho Displays Art of Sufi Islam

EAST IDAHO NEWS
Posted by Tim

IDAHO---BYU-Idaho is hosting a new art exhibit showcasing Sufi Islamic art. History professor David Peck says many Americans still view Islam negatively because of extremism in the Middle East, but art is a healthy way to connect the Western World with the World of Islam. The exhibit is open to the public for free in the Spori Art Gallery through March 7. [link]

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Vienna Jewish Museum Chided Over Nazi Loot

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Patrick Cohen

Replying to criticism, Danielle Spera of the Jewish Museum of Vienna,
said, “Our situation is not comparable to any other museum in Austria.”

AUSTRIA---When the Jewish Museum of Vienna was founded in 1988 it was entrusted with safeguarding the art, books and Judaica that survived the Nazis’ attempt to exterminate their owners. But now, 25 years later, the museum has acknowledged it may be in possession of hundreds of items that were looted during the war and not returned to the families who lost them. A screening of its collection has so far revealed 490 objects and more than 980 books that curators suspect might have been taken from Jews, including a dozen paintings by the artist Jehudo Epstein. There is hardly a public collection in the world that has not been condemned for dragging its feet on the issue of returning valuables plundered by the Germans. [link]

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Swedish Artist to Continue Painting Prophet Mohammed Even After Death Threats

THE RAW STORY
By Agence France-Presse

SWEDEN---A Swedish artist [Lars Vilks] who received death threats after depicting the Prophet Mohammed as a dog said Wednesday he would display new paintings of the prophet at an exhibition in the immigrant-heavy city of Malmoe later this year. The artist has faced numerous death threats since his drawing of the Muslim prophet with the body of a dog was first published by Swedish regional daily Nerikes Allehanda in 2007, illustrating an editorial on the importance of freedom of expression. The new paintings of Mohammed would show the prophet — still with a dog’s body — in famous works by artists including Claude Monet, Peter Paul Rubens and Anders Zorn, Vilks said. [link]

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Vanderbilt University Art Exhibit Explores Spirituality In The Human Face

VANDERBILT NEWS
By Ann Marie Deer Owens

TENNESSEE---Vanderbilt University’s Religion in the Arts and Contemporary Culture Program will host an art exhibition titled "god: HEAD" from Feb. 21 to April 26 at the Divinity School. The exhibition will focus on how artists are able to capture human qualities beyond the physical when they draw, paint or sculpt the human face, according to Dave Perkins, associate director of Religion in the Arts and Contemporary Culture, a program housed in Vanderbilt Divinity School. The exhibit will raise also the question of whether the viewer plays a larger role in adding spiritual qualities to the artist’s work. Featured artists include Jimmy Abegg, Kit Reuther, Buddy Jackson, Samuel Dunson, Todd Greene, Thaxton Waters, Shane Dowling, Jonathan Richter, Jeff Bertrand, DL Taylor, Jason Lott and Timothy Tyler. [link]

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Russian President Says Disputed Jewish Papers Should Remain in Russia

THE ART NEWSPAPER
By Sophia Kishkovsky

RUSSIA---While visiting Moscow’s Jewish Museum Tuesday, 19 January, the Russian president Vladimir Putin suggested that the disputed Schneerson collection of books and manuscripts be transferred to the centre, instead of turning it over to the Brooklyn-based Jewish group Chabad, as ordered by a US court. "The Schneerson library doesn't belong to any specific Jewish community. It belongs to the Russian state," Putin said, according the Russian press. Sending the collection to the Brooklyn group would open a “Pandora’s box” of restitution claims, Putin added. “Right now, in my view, we are absolutely not ready for this. It is impossible,” Putin said. [link]

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Collector Searches for Jewish Aesthetic in Art

PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE
By Mary Thomas

"Bearded Man"by Philip Held. Courtesy of American Jewish Museum.

PENNSYLVANIA---"Lunch Hour" is among 32 works by 25 artists in the exhibition "The Eye of the Collector: Images of the New World from the Sigmund Balka Collection," which speaks to the experience of Jewish immigrants. But it also speaks to all who have dealt, or are dealing, with acculturation, whether in early 20th-century America, or now. These, and other of the more than 200 works in his collection, are promised by Mr. Balka to New York's Hebrew Union College Museum. They are a rich repository of Jewish experience; and, like all powerful art, they reach beyond the particular to the whole. [link]

 American Jewish Museum: "The Eye" (Ends March 28), 5738 Darlington Road, Squirrel Hill. Information: 412-521-8011, ext. 105, or jccpgh.org/page/ajm. 

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Salt Lake City Festival Features Art Inspired by Buddhism

FOX13 | SALT LAKE CITY

"Center" by Utah artist Jennifer Michelle Long. Image source: Kickstarter

UTAH — People packed the Utah Buddhist Arts Festival Sunday evening at the University of Utah; the event featured forms of visual expression inspired by Buddhism. The idea for the festival started with a student named Kagan Breitenbach, who is now the event coordinator. “The biggest reason for this is to promote spiritual diversity while allowing artists an opportunity to display their art,” He said. [link]

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Southern Baptists Urge Boy Scouts To Keep Ban On Gay Scouts

FOX NEWS 
By Associated Pres

TENNESSEE---The nation's largest Protestant group is calling on members of the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America to uphold a ban on gay leaders and Scouts when it votes in May. The Southern Baptist Convention's executive committee passed the resolution Tuesday. It also calls on like-minded corporate leaders to support the Scouts financially. And it expresses "dismay and disappointment" at any Scout leaders who may have lobbied to remove the ban. [link]

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Ark Encounter Surpasses $12 Million Milestone for Campaign

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By Tahlib

Kentucky's Creation Museum team and their commercial partners have raised $12,216,716 of their $24.5 million goal to build the Ark Encounter. It's an amazing feat for a group of believers in northern Kentucky to build a a theme park built around the symbolism of Noah's Ark. A few years ago, a group of northern Kentucky capitalists and creationists led by Australian religious leader Ken Ham asked:

"When Noah built the Ark, it stood as a symbol of salvation. No doubt Noah preached that only those who went through the Ark’s door would be saved from coming judgment.What if we built the Ark (out of wood) today? Imagine the impact it could have on the world. What a powerful outreach to teach the world about God’s Word and the message of salvation."

Yesterday, a group of my friends joked about "fearing" the Creation Museum, a successful bible-based museum near Cincinnati. I countered that I'd been to the museum and while I too approached it with some skepticism, that I agreed with the positive 2007 review by Edward Rothstein in The New York Times:

Whether you are willing to grant the premises of this museum almost becomes irrelevant as you are drawn into its mixture of spectacle and narrative. Its 60,000 square feet of exhibits are often stunningly designed by Patrick Marsh, who, like the entire museum staff, declares adherence to the ministry’s views; he evidently also knows the lure of secular sensations, since he designed the “Jaws” and “King Kong” attractions at Universal Studios in Florida. For the skeptic the wonder is at a strange universe shaped by elaborate arguments, strong convictions and intermittent invocations of scientific principle. For the believer, it seems, this museum provides a kind of relief: Finally the world is being shown as it really is, without the distortions of secularism and natural selection.

I'm glad they are making such great progress. I am excited that museum professionals are working on religious-based initiatives, and I am thrilled that artists and craftsmen have found jobs here in the Midwest.

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Paintings of Stations Spur ‘Reflection and Meditation’

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
By JoAnne Viviano

Sister Ruth Caspar, with two of the Stations of the Cross
as painted by French Dominican friar and artist Marie-Alain Couturier

OHIO---Exiled in the United States during World War II, French Dominican friar and artist Marie-Alain Couturier took comfort in the hospitality of the Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine de’Ricci. Secluded in a small house among the trees at a retreat center in Elkins Park, Pa., he wrote of the "exquisite kindness” of the sisters and spent part of his hours painting a distinctive set of Stations of the Cross that reveal his influence in the modern sacred art movement of his time. The oil paintings, depicting the stages of Jesus’ final sufferings, death and burial, spent the past decades hanging in a chapel at the retreat center, making their way to central Ohio this year after the de’Ricci sisters joined the Columbus-based Dominican Sisters of Peace. They’ll remain on display at the sisters’ Martin de Porres Center through March 22. [link]

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RELIGIOUS ART | NEWS OF WEEK

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By TAHLIB

FORTY DAYS of Lent began this week, and so did the chance to begin seeing the world in a very new way. The Vatican's collection of works from Africa, Oceania, and the Americas is now on display at the Fine Art Museums of San Francisco and it celebrates multiple paths to spirituality including Tu and Tupo and Aztec traditions. That's why "Objects of Belief from the Vatican: Art of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas" is my NEWS OF WEEK.

In other Religious Art news from across the USA, and around the world:

• Buddhism in Art: Company launches line of Buddhism-inspired jewelery. [More News]
• Christianity in Art: The Pope resigns as head of Roman Catholic Church. [More News]
• Hinduism in Art: Anirudh Sainath's nude paintings of deities are censored. [More News]
• Islam in Art: National Endowment for Humanities funds books on Muslims. [More News]
• Judaism in Art: Charles Krafft views Holocaust as a new world religion. [More News]

Are your friends in the A&O family yet? If not, why not invite them today! We are believers, and also skeptics too united in seeking deeper human understanding through Religious Art. Some join by making the $100 commitment to become a member of the governing A&O Society; others join as smaller donors supporting the A&O Scholarship & Exhibition Prize; and still more as member-subscribers of this RELIGIOUS ART | NEWS OF WEEK. Please invite a friend to join the journey. It's for Believers and Skeptics too.

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Collecting Precious Buddha Stands Test of Time

VIETNAM BRIDGE

Thich Tu Nghiem, a Buddhist monk with his collection of Buddha statues

VIETNAM---Thich Tu Nghiem, a Buddhist monk at Pho Da Pagoda in the central city of Da Nang, has collected over 200 religious statues on his travels around the region. Over the past 10 years, the collection has outgrown the 20sq.m room at the pagoda, which is filled to the brim with ancient works such as a 700-year-old copper casting of the Goddess of Mercy and a colossal sandstone statue from the 11th-century Champa Kingdom, where it originally guarded a temple. "I try to pick up Buddha statues whenever I go for religious indoctrinations or study abroad. Because monks worship Buddha, searching for these statues is my way of paying respect to the deity," Nghiem said. For the 55-year-old monk, the search has also been a personal journey. Each statue in the collection conjures up a specific memory. [link]

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Vatican Exhibition Celebrates Multiple Paths to Spirituality at The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By Tahlib

(L) Tu, god figure, Gambier Islands, Mangareva Island, collected 1834–1836. Wood.
(M) Eketea, god figure, Gambier Islands, Mangareva Island, collected 1834–1836. Wood.
(R) Quetzalcoatl figure, “The Plumed Serpent,” Mexico, Aztec, Late Postclassic
(AD 1350–1521). Stone. Photos © Vatican Museums.
All objects are in the collection of the Vatican Ethnological Museum.

CALIFORNIA---Now on display at the The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco are 39 rarely seen works from Africa, Oceania, and the Americas that celebrates the multiple paths to spirituality of  indigenous religious cultures. The presentation will enable visitors to learn about the local and global significance of the objects and their journeys without the imposition of a single dominant cultural storyline. These works are from the rarely seen holdings of the Vatican Ethnological Missionary Museum. This very special exhibition—the first time that a U.S. exhibition will focus on the Vatican’s collection of ethnographic art—investigates varying approaches, perspectives, and cultural practices surrounding diverse religious beliefs.

de Young Museum: "Objects of Belief from the Vatican: Art of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas," (Ends September 8, 2013), Golden Gate Park, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, San Francisco, CA. deyoungmuseum.org, 415-750-3600

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"Sleeping Eros" for Valentines at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By Tahlib

NEW YORK---Love has taken over at the Metropolitan Museum of Art this winter featuting Eros, the Greek god of love. In "Sleeping Eros", January 29–June 23, 2012, the museum presents the results of a recent study of the Metropolitan’s bronze statue, utilizing scientific and technical analyses as well as art-historical research, which supports its identification as a Hellenistic bronze but one that was restored in antiquity, likely during the Roman Imperial period. The Greek god of love, was capable of overpowering the minds of all gods and mortals, and the most innovative and influential representation of Eros during the Hellenistic and the Roman periods was of Eros sleeping. What better place to spend Valentines Day? Happy Valentine's Day A&O!

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White Nationalist Charles Krafft's Views Holocaust As New Religion

THE STRANGER
By Jen Craves

"Hitler Idaho" was purchased by a Jewish collector,
now dead, who later gave it to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

WASHINGTON---The question is hard to get your head around: If Charles Krafft is a Holocaust denier, what does that say about his revered artwork? How should collectors and curators—or anyone who sees his work— reassess his art in light of what he's been saying lately? Krafft, an elder of Seattle art, is a provocateur. He makes ceramics out of human cremains, perfume bottles with swastika stoppers, wedding cakes frosted with Third Reich insignias. In 2003, Krafft made a ceramic teapot in the shape of a bust of Hitler, with eerie holes for eyes. A Jewish collector named Sandy Besser, now dead, bought the Hitler teapot and added it to his overtly politically themed collection, which he later donated to FAMSF, where it was exhibited in 2007. What does it mean that when Krafft made this portrait of a demonized Hitler, he was actually beginning to spread the word that the demonization of Hitler has been greatly exaggerated? Another question: Will the museum get rid of the Krafft? [link]

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Backed By Lawyer Father, Artist to Sue State, Gallery

THE HINDU

“If art keeps receiving such blows and if artists keep 
backing down, there will be no art left in this country.”

~ ANIRUDAH KRISHNAMANI 

INDIA---Anirudh Sainath Krishnamani, the digital artist who was forced to take down three of his paintings from an exhibition at the Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath owing to pressure from a Bharatiya Janata Party leader, is now contemplating legal action against the State government and the art gallery. Taking cognisance of an oral complaint by Bharatiya Janata Party State media coordinator A.L. Shivakumar about the paintings — depicting Kali, Mohini and Shiva-Sati in the nude — the city police ensured that the parishath withdrew the paintings on Monday. Speaking to The Hindu a day after his son’s paintings were pulled down, M.N. Krishnamani, president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, said, “This action of the police is completely against the fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution. I will file cases against the State government and the gallery.” [link]

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Pope Says Exit Is for ‘Good of the Church’

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Eisabetta Povoledo and Alan CowellL

Pope Benedict XVI arrived to lead a general audience on Wednesday at the Vatican.

VATICAN CITY---Pope Benedict XVI presided over Ash Wednesday services, his final public Mass, at St. Peter’s Basilica, thanking the faithful for their support during his nearly eight-year pontificate, which will end on Feb. 28 when he becomes the first pope to resign in almost 600 years. The congregants burst into a deafening standing ovation that lasted for minutes and continued as Benedict left the basilica, standing on a wheeled platform, smiling and waving at the people lining the nave of the cavernous Baroque church. In his homily, Benedict called for the end of rivalries in the church. Christians are called to bear witness to faith, to reveal the “face of the church,” which is at times “disfigured,” he said. “I am thinking in particular of the sins against the unity of the church, of the divisions in the body of the church,” he said. “Overcoming individualism and rivalry is a humble and precious sign for those who have distanced themselves from the faith or who are indifferent.” [link]

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Review: "Die Harder" (AGAIN?)

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By Ernest Disney-Britton

HOLLYWOOD---After the abysmal failure of "Hansel & Gretal: Witch Hunters," we returned to rather enjoy "Die Harder." It wasn't great but it was fun. (A&O Rating: ★★)

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40 Days: What Are You Giving Up for Lent 2013? - Lenten Sacrifices 2013

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By Ernest @DisneyBritton

"Jesus Tempted in the Wilderness" (1886- 1894) by James Tissot. 
Original work in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum of Art, NYC.

"Every year, it's harder," said a friend about making his sacrifice for Lent. I responded, "That's the point." The 40 days of Lent shouldn't be easy because it's for spiritual growth, and spiritual growth isn't easy (Actually 46 days). We "give-up" something that is an excessive attachment, and we can celebrate our success on Easter by "breaking-fast". Your attachment might be sweets, drinking, shopping, TV viewing, Internet surfing, etc., and by choosing something difficult, it's also a reminder to call-on-God for help. We do this for 40-days so we can emulate the journey of Jesus during his 40-days of Fasting in the desert. It is also a period to increase our giving, or shifting our spending priorities from excess to helping others. Each year, I ask my relatives and friends, "What are you giving up for Lent?" I invite you to add your response too.

My 2013 sacrifice to God and self:

1. Instead of enjoying the Sci-Fi movies, TV shows, and books that I'm addicted to, I will read sacred scripture linked to art everyday from a different faith, and write a reflection here about it.  
2. Instead of eating foods with sugar, including bread, I will exercise every day (7 days a week) for my energy burst. 
3. Instead of my daily Starbucks coffee, I will make a daily gift of that amount to a project on indyarts.org/power2give.

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Notice to Centre, State Home Minister for Nude Hindu Paintings

THE ECONOMIC TIMES

INDIA---Karnataka High Court today ordered issue of notice to the Union of India, state Chief Secretary, Home Minister and three others on a PIL in connection with the recent exhibition of nude paintings of some Hindu gods and goddesses in the art gallery of Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath here. When the PIL came up for hearing before a division bench headed by acting Chief Justice K Sreedhar Rao, the court ordered issue of notice to the six and adjourned the petition for filing of objections by the government. On February five, the arts institution was made to remove the said paintings from its gallery, pursuant to the threat of protests from public and request by police. [link]

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Jewish Museum of NYC Broadens Its Identity

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Allan Kozinn

NEW YORK---Coming to the museum [Jewish Museum NYC] after a dozen years as director of the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia, following five at the helm of Artists Space, the SoHo organization devoted to the work of emerging artists, Ms. Gould, 56, was seen by some in the art world as likely to transform the museum into a haven for modern works, as it was briefly in the 1960s when it presented young Pop Art and Minimalist pioneers. That prospect worried those who regard the museum’s Judaica collection as its principal focus, and who were wondering whether Ms. Gould — raised in an interfaith home, with a Jewish father and a Roman Catholic mother — had the background to deal with these materials. In an interview — her first extended discussion of her job since she took over in November 2011 — Ms. Gould described her upbringing as “culturally Jewish,” but added that many aspects of Judaism were new to her. She did not know until she took the job, for example, that because Judaism is matrilineal from a religious perspective, she is not considered Jewish at all. [link]

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Zen Groups Distressed by Accusations Against Teacher

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Mark Oppenheimer and Iam Lovett

CALIFORNIA---Since arriving in Los Angeles from Japan in 1962, the Buddhist teacher Joshu Sasaki, who is 105 years old, has taught thousands of Americans at his two Zen centers in the area and one in New Mexico. He has influenced thousands more enlightenment seekers through a chain of some 30 affiliated Zen centers from the Puget Sound to Princeton to Berlin. Mr. Sasaki has also, according to an investigation by an independent council of Buddhist leaders, released in January, groped and sexually harassed female students for decades, taking advantage of their loyalty to a famously charismatic roshi, or master. [link]

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The Art of Zen: Paspaley Launch Buddhism-Inspired Jewellery

ART INFO | BLOUIN
By Nicholas Forrest

Zen beauty of the pearl transformed in jewelery line

AUSTRALIA---Renowned Australian pearl jewellery brand Paspaley has launched a new Buddhism-inspired collection of just in time for Chinese New Year. Each piece of the “Enlightened by Paspaley” series features a magnificent patented diamond cut in sculptural facets to portray the beloved Chinese Buddha, Budai, sitting atop a magnificent white Australian South Sea Pearl. Core to the appeal of “Enlightened by Paspaley” is the powerful, positive appeal of the Buddhist beliefs about life as a gateway to true happiness and contentment; tenets embraced and celebrated by western as well as eastern cultures. [link]

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Pope Benedict's Legacy: Purify His Church

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
By Robert Marquand

May 28 2006: Pope Benedict XVI stands in front of the 
death wall at the former Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz in Oswiecim

VATICAN CITY---A shy but brilliant scholar whose consistent vision has been to reinstitute the grand authority held by the Vatican in the Middle Ages, Benedict has, often single-handedly, redirected his church away from the liberal experiments and sometimes amateurish enthusiasms of the Vatican II period of the 1960s, which conservatives saw as a dangerous diversion. He has also, over years, instituted doctrines, individuals, and orders consistent with his theological view of the Catholic Church as the true and only authentic one. Benedict's chief occupation as pope has been, observers say, to purify his church.  [link]

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Millions Bathe at a Hindu Religious Restival (Video: 0:46)

REUTERS | INDIA



INDIA--- Thousands of ascetics and devotees gathered at the banks of the holy Ganges river on Sunday (February 10) to wash away their sins at the Maha Kumbh Mela festival in northern India. Scores descended into the river in the early morning hours braving the cold to take the "Shahi Snan" or royal bath to commemorate the sun and the moon entering the house of Capricorn and the day believed to be the anniversary of the creation of the universe according to the Hindu calendar. The especially auspicious holy dip is held every 12 years and millions of pilgrims stream to Allahabad and the point where the Ganges and Yamuna rivers are said to meet a mythical third river. Local authorities here are expecting close to 300 million pilgrims and ascetics who would go into the river in batches. To cope with the flow of people, authorities in Uttar Pradesh have installed 35,000 toilets, laid 550 kilometres (340 miles) of water pipes and 155 kilometres (95 miles) of temporary roads at the riverbank site.[link]

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Tourism Promotion Efforts Should Include Religious Art

THE DAILY NEWS | ALBION
By Tom Rivers

The “Christ the Consoler” stained-glass window was made
by the famed Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company. (Tom Rivers/Daily News)

NEW YORK---The three windows were installed in 1894 inside the Pullman Memorial Universalist Church. They are early works of the famed Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company in New York City. Tiffany is the Michelangelo of stained glass, a world-renowned brand. Yet, few people know about these windows in Albion. They aren’t trumpeted in tourism brochures or noted on Albion or Orleans County websites. Ecclesiastical art represents a “gray area,” said Wayne Hale, the county’s tourism director. He doesn’t think he can use state “I Love New York” tourism dollars to promote such overt religious messages. “There is a market for heritage and art.” [link]

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Kentucky Arts Council Grant Applications Open to Visual, Craft and Media Artists

THE GLEANER

KENTUCKY---Applications are open for the Al Smith Individual Artist Fellowship and the Emerging Artist Award programs for individual artists from the Kentucky Arts Council. Visual, craft and media artists are eligible to apply for the current cycle. The Al Smith Individual Artist Fellowship program supports Kentucky artists engaged in creating artwork of high quality and recognizes creative excellence among professional Kentucky artists. Fellowships are unrestricted $7,500 awards. The Emerging Artist Award is a $1,000 unrestricted award to early career, professional Kentucky artists who demonstrate excellence and creativity in their work. The deadline to apply for both awards is March 15. [link]

For more information about the Al Smith Individual Artist Fellowship or the Emerging Artist Award, contact Tamara Coffey, individual artist program director, at tamara.coffey@ky.gov or 502-564-3757, ext. 479.

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Harvard Divinity School Given $10m Gift for Arts

THE BOSTON GLOBE
By Lisa Wangsness

MASSACHUSETTS---Harvard Divinity School has received a $10 million donation from Susan Shallcross Swartz, a landscape painter, and her husband James R. Swartz, founding partner of the venture capital firm Accel Partners. The gift, which Dean David N. Hempton called “an astonishing act of generosity,” is one of the largest in the history of the divinity school, whose graduates often become academics, clergy, or nonprofit workers, earning far less than alumni of other Harvard graduate programs. Hempton said a small advisory board will help decide exactly how to spend the money, but it will probably reflect Susan Swartz’s interests in the intersection of Christian studies with the arts, social justice, environmental issues, and service. [link]

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