J. Gordon Anderson - Contemporary Art

For anyone interested, this is the place to go to buy traditional art supplies on the web. It is where I get all of my pigments, gessos, gold leaf, and more.

I am commenting on my old blog once again. It is just plain easier to comment on Anglican/theological topics on that blog and art/cultural related topics on this one.

Many people think that contemporary and traditional art and architecture cannot be successfully mixed. They think that a church, for example, has to be either completely contemporary (e.g. the Matisse Chapel ), or completely traditional (e.g. St. Clement's ). But that is really not the case. There are many prominent examples of churches that mix both styles, such as the National Cathedral , and Metz Cathedral (Metz, France). In both of these, very modern looking stained glass looks right at home in the midst of the soaring Gothic arches and beautiful carved wood. I had the great privilege of seeing the Marc Chagall windows in Metz firsthand several years back while working in Europe. They fit in with the rest of the building and its art beautifully. Therefore, before writing off the use of contemporary visual artistic forms in church, take a look around you, and see if there are not already modernistic elements in use that you are quite comfortable with and used to, and that loo...

The Italian bishops' conference has recently adopted a new lectionary that is new, not because the readings are different from before, but because it is illustrated using the work of contemporary artists. Some people do not like the work. There is an article about it here. A well respected art historian, Fr. Timothy Verdon, defends the new lectionary (note: he was appointed by Ratzinger several years ago to choose the images for the book), and some other guy - Pietro De Marco - attacks them. It is well worth reading. I can appreciate any art that is done well: renaissance to postmodern. Unfortunately other people are not that way. De Marco is one of these men, and he makes a number of assumptions about modern and postmodern art that just do not, in my opinion, hold water. He thinks that "modern" artists have "abandoned their foundation in reality in favor of emotion and mere ornamentation". But baroque art is supremely emotional, and utterly fantastic and unrea...

I just found about this thing called the " Manga Bible ". For those of you who do not know, Manga is the Japanese word for comic book - so this is a comic book bible. It has quite a following among a certain set of people. Manga uses a type of illustration called anime , which is a very slick looking and stylized. The guy who made this bible (which use the NIV version) is an English artist/designer who is also working on a degree in theology. The bible received rave reviews from none other than ++Rowan Williams (but don't let that stop you from checking it out). They have a few different versions of the bible: a Manga Bible Raw, and a Manga Bible Extreme. Maybe they will develop a manga Book of Common Prayer next! I think this is a great idea, and while anime is not my favorite style of art by any stretch of the imagination, this is, artistically and conceptually, miles above the " Precious Moments " bibles and associated products.

Here is a video of Jackson Pollock painting and giving some commentary on his art and method. Particularly interesting is his statement that a painting has a life of its own.

I have just begun work on a new series: stations of the cross in large oil paintings (more on that later). Out of curiosity, though, I did a search on the internet and found this guy - David O'Connell (1898 - 1976) - who did a very nice version of them for some English church. I have no idea how large they are, but they are quite gorgeous. The site says they are "not everyone's cup of tea". That's probably because most people know nothing about fine art (they don't even really look at it), or how to appreciate an image that is not "immediate", or visually easy to understand (i.e. art fundamentalists). Anyway, this man's work is quite compelling.