Confronting Secular Creativity with the Imagery of God — A Christian Artist Exhibition Project
Have you ever been to an art gallery? Artists, sometimes from different parts of the world, are given the opportunity to voice their common ground. What if Christians in the local church utilized their creativity to do the same with the Word of God? The idea of organizing a Christian art exhibition comes to mind. However, the walls of modern day art galleries rarely incorporate biblical themes. Though museums revere Christian artwork of the past, such as Michelangelo’s The Creation of Adam and Leonardo Da Vinci’s The Last Supper, the Protestant Church was responsible for the its significant decline over the past few centuries. As a result, secular creativity would come to dominate the arts and dethrone the artistic religious reverence once cultivated. The imagery of God had become second rate.
The Offensive Message of Christ
Reintroducing Christ to the a secular art community will not come without its challenges. Today’s controversial society tends to associate the Bible’s message with hate speech, and so presenting art that depicts scripture may cause problems for curators.
“Many galleries blatantly refuse to show artists who are openly Christian, though interestingly, adherents of other faiths — or some generic spirituality — are often welcomed.”
William A. Dyrness, Author of Visual Faith
The unspoken discrimination, unfortunately, prevents the message of Christ from moving forward in these environments. If Christian artists desire to share the gospel through their work, they must be ready to face an adamant opposition towards the gospel.
True Beauty
Christian art does have a preconceived notion of being outdated, and therefore will be undervalued and overlooked. However, I am a firm believer that beauty is in the eye of the Creator. When an artwork is considered beautiful by the sinner’s nature, beauty becomes dependent on the corrupted affections of the viewer and not the original author. Christian artists should not let this dictate the direction of their artwork. Absolute beauty is necessary if Christian art is to make any impact in the art community.
If one is “determined to have a true appreciation of divine beauty, he must be willing to cultivate and refine his tastes to appreciate the demonstrably admirable — what rightly reflects the ultimate Admirable.” — Aniol Scott, Author of Worship In Song
Javier Gutierrez, Shakespearean Sonnet “The Parable of the Net”
Here at the bottom where I lie in wait,
Dwells a conglomerate of blind species.
Afar drags a net disrupting Estates.
Once you are caught, there are no escapees.
Alas, trapped inside, am I the last one?
Inside with all types, all types are inside.
The net has reached all. The net’s job is done.
Hoisted back up where the net is untied.
Why the left side? I belong on the right!
This just aint fair. There was not enough time!
Colossal mistake, I fought the wrong fight.
I believed in more than only one vine.
The road that seems right will lead you amiss
You, too, can be cast into the abyss.
The Believer’s Art Exhibition
This is my basis for coordinating a believer’s art exhibition for the local church. Christian art has a beautiful opportunity to cross cultural barriers and communicate the Divine through inspired imagery. The art community has done an exceptional job at promoting secular creativity, but a large percentage of the Protestant church remains deficient in Christian art. I believe an art exhibit entirely dedicated to the creative minds represented in our congregations can encourage Christian artists to come out of hiding and perfect their craft. Though there are numerous options for the artist to build and showcase their talent, the church is responsible for guiding Christian artists by providing a biblical foundation for the arts.
“The church can help in this pursuit by serving as a community of encouragement that affirms the calling of artist and nurtures the artistic aspect of every human soul.” — Philip G. Ryken, Author of Art For God’s Sake
The Project
Westlawn Baptist Church is my current place of ministry, and for our art exhibition, I decided to challenge our artists to depict the parables of Christ. A total of ten artists present themselves for this task and were given one month of preparation to brainstorm and convey the moral lesson of their parable. Their ages ranged from 9 years old to 73. It is obvious here that God’s gift of creativity does not discriminate.
During our first meeting, I had the artists fill out a basic information form where they could share with me their strengths and weaknesses as artists. Once everyone chose their parable and medium, I gave them two weeks to begin their project. We then had a midpoint working session that was mandatory of every artist to attend. During this session I was able to sit down with each artist and ask them a few questions about their composition. Some had trouble getting started. This is not surprising, since meditating on the parables would cause the artists to seriously consider the intentions of Christ and study further. Not only was this midpoint working session to follow up with the artists’ work in progress, but also to encourage a sense of art community in our church. They were all filled with anticipation to see how each work of art would be completed.
Our Worship Exhibition took place on October 27, 2018. About 40 guests arrived to be met with nine visual artworks. I then welcomed everyone explained the purpose of this exhibition. I also touched on the significant use of parables Christ had spoke to his followers. To add an interactive element to our Christian art gallery, I left the artworks nameless and set up their corresponding parable passages along a few centered tables. This allowed for viewers to actively engage in the artworks before them and match them with scripture. After 30 minutes, I had two writers present their poems to the guests and one songwriter present his piece. Needless to say, they were all met with a substantial applause. During this time, I attached each parable to their corresponding artwork. For another ten minutes or so, the guests had the opportunity to revisit each piece to determine whether their assumption was right. After much discussion, each artist took the mic to explain their piece and the moral lesson behind their parable.
The Takeaway
The response by the church has led me consider further experimentation and expansion. I believe the theme The Parables of Christ was a great topic to encourage our believing artists to create biblically inspired imagery. I’d like to take the themes a step further though and eventually communicate doctrines. This would then challenge the artist to dive deeper than what the surface provides and begin the work conceptually instead of compositionally. Here are a few themes for future Christian art exhibitions: The Doctrine of Human depravity, Old Testament Stories, the Creatures of Revelations, the Gospel, the Miracles of Christ, the Fall of Man, the Trinity, Biblical Architecture, the Sins of Israel, the Final 24 Hours of Jesus, the Letters of Paul and Signs of Christ’s Return. So long as believing artists derive artwork from the Word of God, the possibilities will be endless to confront secular creativity. And perhaps, maybe one day the protestant Church will have it’s own art movement.
