“Religion and Contemporary Art:
A Curious Accord”

Editors: Ronald R. Bernier +
Rachel Hostetter Smith
Routledge Press | 2023

This important volume and FSA Inspiration articulates the artistic and academic landscape of the two decades since James Elkins’ seminal essay On the Strange Place of Religion and Contemporary Art (2004). The volume’s editors Bernier and Smith, map a series of formative contributions from curators, scholars, fairs, and exhibitions that have percolated over the last twenty years into a burgeoning and prolific discourse. This collection of essays demonstrates that the scholarly and institutional conversations relating to the nexus of contemporary art and religion are, in fact, not so strange – but rather, fresh and innovative. Ranging from publications to exhibitions, this volume is a testament to the institutional programs, non-profit organizations, and museums that have engaged the rigor of interdisciplinary work, proposing academic and curatorial methodologies that represent a more integrated and expansive mode of thinking and creating.

The book is divided into three parts: Theoretical and Interpretive Frameworks (I); Artistic Strategies (II); and Case Studies of Artists and Artworks (III). Part I reimagines the hermeneutical approach to interpretation and strategies for institutional and curatorial engagement; Part II explores unifying themes and iconography overlapping religious and artistic spheres; Part III contains close reads of individual artists making exemplary work in this emerging field.

 

This publication is indebted to a College Arts Association (CAA) panel facilitated by Association of Scholars of Christianity in the History of Art (ASCHA) in 2017.  

This publication is indebted to a College Arts Association (CAA) panel facilitated by Association of Scholars of Christianity in the History of Art (ASCHA) in 2017. Entitled “A Strange Place Still?,” the conference posed Elkins’ question “of whether it was even achievable ‘to adjust the existing discourse enough to make it possible to address both secular theorists and religionists who would normally consider themselves outside the artworld.’” Many of the essays in this collection were presented in earlier iterations as a part of the conference panel and discussion from which this volume emerged.

Not to be missed is the editors’ cogent introduction to the landscape of the current scholarly conversation of contemporary art and religion, the significant texts and contributions leading up to this volume, and a clear guide to the way this volume is structured. Some important essays in this publication include FSA Visionary Jonathan Anderson’s proposal for a comprehensive theological hermeneutic in the academic field of religion and contemporary art. As he traces the methodological approaches of historical, critical, transcendental – he suggests a path forward for the theological (“The New Visibility of Religion in Contemporary Art: Four Interpretive Horizons”). Following from his essay, FSA Visionary and art historian Linda Stratford considers the difficulty of multidisciplinary interpretation for scholars seeking to write about intersections of art and religion, in particularly fruitful ways (“Exploring Theological Dimensions of the Work of Art”). FSA Visionary Eleanor Heartney evaluates four contemporary artists from differing religious traditions that wrestle with and engage themes of paradise and utopia stemming from their spiritual backgrounds (“Back to the Garden: Utopia and Paradise in the work of Jim Shaw, Liza Lou, Shirin Neshat, and Shoja Azari”).

How might performance art function as a contemporary icon? FSA’s Foundation Manager Julie Hamilton considers theological mystics and saints as early practitioners of performance art, and situates the work of Lia Chavez as an extension of spiritual practice (“Performativity and the Flesh: The Economy of the Icon in Lia Chavez’s ‘Light Body'”). Lastly, The closing round table discussion between Diane Apostolos-Cappadona, James Elkins, Ben Quash, and S. Brent Rodriguez-Plate considers the significant contributions of this volume to scholarship in contemporary art and religion, and the road that lies ahead.

 

Book Chapters + Authors 

Introduction 

Ronald R. Bernier and Rachel Hostetter Smith

Part I: Theoretical and Interpretive Frameworks

  1. The New Visibility of Religion in Contemporary Art: Four Interpretive Horizons 

Jonathan A. Anderson

  1. Exploring Theological Dimensions of the Work of Art

Linda Stratford

  1. Translating Religion: Contemporary Art Through a Postsecular Lens

Lieke Wijnia

  1. The Question of Criticism: What to Do with Our Revelations?

Jeffrey L. Kosky

  1. Curating Faith: Art, Religion, and the Curatorial 

Daniel A. Siedell

  1. A Loving Regard: Contemporary Art and Expanding the Archive 

Elissa Yukiko Weichbrodt

  1. Exhibition as Pilgrimage: Visual Strategies for Interfaith Dialogue 

Aaron Rosen

Part II: Artistic Strategies 

  1. Iconic: Contemporary Portraiture and Sacred Personhood

Katie Kresser

  1. Relic-ing Now: Reliquary Strategies of Materiality and Memory in Contemporary Art 

Cynthia Hahn

  1. Contemporary Art as Pilgrimage Site: Ambrosio’s As Far as the Eye Can Travel Zine

Kathryn Barush

  1. Rogue Priests: Ritual, Sacrament, and Witness in Contemporary Art

Rachel Hostetter Smith

  1. Walking Naked and Barefoot: When Ancient Jewish Prophets Meet Avant-Garde Performance Artists

Wayne L. Roosa

  1. Revisiting “Art in the Dark”: Thomas McEvilley, Performance Art, and the End(s) of Shamanism

Karen Gonzalez Rice

  1. Infused with Light: Christian Traces in Multimedia Installation Art

Jorge Sebastián Lozano 

  1. Bill Viola, the Icon, and the Apophatic Sublime 

Ronald R. Bernier

Part III: Case Studies of Artists and Artworks

  1. The Lived Religion of Andy Warhol

Stephen Bush

  1. “A King Aesthetic?”: Tim Rollins and K.O.S. and the Ethos of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

James Romaine

  1. From the Wounds Grace: John August Swanson and the Theological Aesth/Ethics of Liberation

Cecilia González-Andrieu

  1. Cities of Light: Phillip K. Smith III and the Light & Space Movement

Matthew J. Milliner

  1. Performativity and the Flesh: The Economy of the Icon in Lia Chavez’s Light Body

Julie M. Hamilton

  1. Theaster Gates and the Good Use of Forgotten Things

Donato Loia

  1. On Preaching, Performance Art, and Television: Christian Jankowski’s The Holy Artwork

Isabelle Loring Wallace

  1. Tools of the Apocalypse: Eschatology in Contemporary Jewish and Catholic Art

Ben Schachter

  1. Back to the Garden – Utopia and Paradise in the work of Jim Shaw, Liza Lou, Shirin Neshat, and Shoja Azari

Eleanor Heartney

  1. Deep Waters: Art and the Revival of Religion in Contemporary China 

Patricia Eichenbaum Karetzky

  1. Salvation in the Fallen World: On Meng Yan’s Recent Monumental Works

Changping Zha

  1. Chrysanne Stathacos and Charwei Tsai: The Mandala

Haema Sivanesa

  1. Performing Memory and Mourning: Diane Victor’s Martyred Women

Karen von Veh

  1. Weaving Land and Water: On the Poetics of Diasporic and Indigenous Resistance

Yohana Agra Junker

  1. Al Buraq: Explorations of Liminality in Contemporary Islamic Art

Sascha Crasnow 

Afterword: A Colloquy with Diane Apostolos-Cappadona, James Elkins, Ben Quash, and S. Brent Rodriguez-Plate.

Top left image: Yasmine K. Kasem, “Sweat Until I Am Soaked,” 2022.

READ MORE
READ LESS

Read

“Religion and Contemporary Art: A Curious Accord” | Routledge Press

Association of Scholars of Christianity in the History of Art | ASCHA