Chapters in Books & Exhibition Catalogs by Daniel A Siedell
Theology, Modernity, and the Visual Arts, 2024
Do you understand me, Asher Lev? This is not a toy. This is not a child scrawling on a wall. This... more Do you understand me, Asher Lev? This is not a toy. This is not a child scrawling on a wall. This is a tradition; it is a religion, Asher Lev. You are entering a religion called painting.-Chaim Potok, My Name is Asher Lev 1 M ODERN ART WAS driven by a par tic u lar kind of faith. It was an aggressive faith, a risky faith, which could, at any time, become doubt. In addition, it seemed to be a faith that required doubt. Such theological language might seem surprising since modern artistic practice has had an ambivalent relation to religion, especially the Christian Church. But modern artistic practices developed an apparatus that might best be described as a secular theology, with creeds, doctrines, hagiographies, rituals, confessions, and, yes, a kind of faith. Sociologist Sarah Thornton writes, 'con temporary art has become a kind of alternative religion for atheists', adding that it 'demands leaps of faith, but [.. .] rewards the believer with a sense of consequence'. 2 This kind of religious behaviour that Thornton observes is in part a remnant of a 'theology' that drove modernist painting for nearly a century, from its emergence in Paris in the 1880s through the 1960s: a theology that had at its core a kind of 'faith' that has often either been overlooked completely by theorists, art historians, and critics, or pop u lar ized into an 'art as religion' discourse that has flowed through the visual arts since the early nineteenth century. 3
Religion and Contemporary Art: A Curious Accord, 2023
James Elkins' little book, On the Strange Place of Religion in Contemporary Art, has provoked str... more James Elkins' little book, On the Strange Place of Religion in Contemporary Art, has provoked strong responses from religious believers on the relationships between artistic practice and Christian faith in contemporary culture since it appeared in 2004. Based in part on his personal interactions with art students at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Elkins concluded that the art world: …can accept a wide range of 'religious' art by people who hate religion, by people who are deeply uncertain about it, by the disgruntled and the disaffected and the skeptical, but there is no place for artists who express straightforward , ordinary religious faith. (115) The response from artists and art writers of religious faith to Elkins' claim that there is "no place" in the contemporary art world mainstream for artists of "straight-forward, ordinary religious faith" was swift and vociferous. And, as this collection of essays reveals, there continues to generate responses nearly twenty years later. But Elkins makes a crucial assumption that has gone largely overlooked among those artists and art writers who profess Christian faith. That assumption, which seems to be shared by his interlocutors, is that there exists something called "straight-forward, ordinary religious faith." 1 But eighteen years later, as religious fundamentalism and extremism have become an increasingly urgent problem in the public sphere, from racial justice to planetary catastrophe, Elkins' presumption about faith needs revisiting. But moreover, my religious faith as a lived practice has evolved considerably since the publication of his book. This paper charts this course, a course itself that not only pushes against Elkins' thesis but its critical reception among artists and critics of faith. It also offers a different way to explore
Do you understand me, Asher Lev? This is not a toy. This is not a child scrawling on a wall. This... more Do you understand me, Asher Lev? This is not a toy. This is not a child scrawling on a wall. This is a tradition; it is a religion, Asher Lev. You are entering a religion called painting.-Chaim Potok, My Name is Asher Lev 1 M ODERN ART WAS driven by a par tic u lar kind of faith. It was an aggressive faith, a risky faith, which could, at any time, become doubt. In addition, it seemed to be a faith that required doubt. Such theological language might seem surprising since modern artistic practice has had an ambivalent relation to religion, especially the Christian Church. But modern artistic practices developed an apparatus that might best be described as a secular theology, with creeds, doctrines, hagiographies, rituals, confessions, and, yes, a kind of faith. Sociologist Sarah Thornton writes, 'con temporary art has become a kind of alternative religion for atheists', adding that it 'demands leaps of faith, but [.. .] rewards the believer with a sense of consequence'. 2 This kind of religious behaviour that Thornton observes is in part a remnant of a 'theology' that drove modernist painting for nearly a century, from its emergence in Paris in the 1880s through the 1960s: a theology that had at its core a kind of 'faith' that has often either been overlooked completely by theorists, art historians, and critics, or pop u lar ized into an 'art as religion' discourse that has flowed through the visual arts since the early nineteenth century. 3
In thinking all things become solitary and slow. -Martin Heidegger, 1947 Enrique Martínez Celaya ... more In thinking all things become solitary and slow. -Martin Heidegger, 1947 Enrique Martínez Celaya has navigated a steady and singular course through the storms that have thrashed the art world since he made the decision to leave laser physics for art in 1990. This course has for twenty-three years produced meticulously arranged exhibitions that consist of paintings, writings, and sculpture, as well as photographs and even videos that reveal a distinctive and daring faith in art.
have collaborated on a book that is a breath of fresh air for me, a specialist in the history of ... more have collaborated on a book that is a breath of fresh air for me, a specialist in the history of modern art who, as an evangelical, has often struggled to justify my vocation, not only to others but also to myself. Their book offers an alternative historical narrative interpretative framework to Dutch art historian H. R. Rookmaaker's Modern Art and the Death of a Culture, which, with its story of cultural demise and nihilism, has exerted a strong and problematic influence on evangelicals who want to care about culture and its artifacts. Anderson and Dyrness, on the other hand, show through an analysis of several key episodes in the history of modern art that religion, spirituality, and Christianity are not only not banished but play an important role in the history and development of modern artistic practice. In contrast to the art of the Renaissance, Baroque, and the academic tradition, in which artists represented Christian subjects and themes, modern artistic practice itself becomes a religious practice requiring faith and belief. Even an atheist like Gustave Courbet, condemned by Rookmaaker because of his "realism," was in fact an artist whose commitment to the importance of painting can be described as faith.
Talks by Daniel A Siedell
Lecture delivered as Visiting Researcher, Sustainable Heritage Research Forum at Uppsala-Gotland campus May 2024
Presented at the Arts and the Sacred Seminar co-hosted by the Courtauld Institute/King's College
The artist's Tenth Street will not deteriorate; it will be extinguished. It will be swallowed in ... more The artist's Tenth Street will not deteriorate; it will be extinguished. It will be swallowed in the yawn of a steam shovel. Its future is-an excavation.
Books by Daniel A Siedell
Today, to claim any significance or meaning, even if only to ourselves, is to flirt with ridicule.
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Chapters in Books & Exhibition Catalogs by Daniel A Siedell
Talks by Daniel A Siedell
Books by Daniel A Siedell