Sixty Artists for 60 Years of Pope Benedict's Priesthood

THE ART NEWSPAPER
By Anna Somers Cocks
Left to right: the German photographer Mattias Schaller, Pope Benedict XVI and Cardinal Ravasi, The photos are of Schaller's "Disportraits", real spaceman suits, with the light reflected in the visors showing the phases of the moon
VATICAN CITY - Gianfranco Ravasi, the dynamic president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, with a sophisticated understanding of contemporary art, persuaded 60 artists of various kinds to accept, among them El Anatsui, Mimmo Jodice, Jannis Kounellis, Matthias Schaller and Arnaldo Pomodoro. At the opening of the exhibition on 4 July, the Pope, who had already met 250 artists in the Sistine Chapel in November 2009, appealed for the artists present “not to divorce artistic creativity from the truth and from charity…but to make the beauty of your works stimulate a desire and need in those who see them to render their lives beautiful and truthful”. “The Splendour of Truth, the Beauty of Charity” (until 4 September) celebrates the 60th anniversary of Pope Benedict XVI's ordination. [link]

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