Disney-Britton

LOS ANGELES TIMES By Maria G. Valdez A devotee with a cross marked on her forehead takes part in the commemoration of Ash Wednesday outside a Roman Catholic church in Paranaque, Metro Manila in the Philippines. This year, Ash Wednesday falls on February 10, 2016. It marks the start of Lent, a 40-day liturgical period of prayer and fasting or abstinence. On that day we will see many people walk around the street with a cross marked on their forehead. But, what does that really mean? Why do most Christians leave the ashes on until the end of the day? Here are 6 fast facts to explain it better. [ link ]

Museum of Divine Statues in Cleveland Features Eclectic Mix of Christian Art

CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER By Patrick Cooley A depiction of St. Barbara inside the Museum of Divine Statues on Madison Avenue in Lakewood. OHIO---The former worship hall is filled with depictions of Jesus, the Virgin Mary and numerous other figures from the Bible and Christian history, most of which came from now closed churches in the Cleveland area. The Museum of Divine States — inside the former St. Hedwig Church on Madison Avenue — has been rescuing works of art in shuttered churches since 2011. [ link ]

Turban-Wearing Sikh American Actor Is Barred From Mexican Airplane

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Christine Hauser Waris Ahluwalia said Aeroméxico prevented him from boarding a flight to New York because he refused to remove his turban affiliated with his Sikh faith. Credit via Waris Ahluwalia MEXICO---An American actor and designer said he was barred from boarding a plane in Mexico on Monday for a flight home to New York because he refused to remove his turban during a security check. The actor, Waris Ahluwalia , who follows the Sikh religion and wears a turban , said he checked in at the Aeroméxico counter at Mexico City’s international airport about 5:30 a.m. and was given his first-class boarding pass with a code that he said meant he needed secondary security screening. [ link ]

Today is Fat Tuesday, or What the French Call "Mardi Gras"

ABOUT.COM Fat Tuesday is the traditional name for the day before Ash Wednesday , the first day of Lent . It is more commonly known as Mardi Gras , which is simply Fat Tuesday in French. It gets its name from the custom, in many Catholic countries, of marking the day with feasting before the fasting season of Lent begins. [ link ]

Battle to Save New York’s St. Vincent de Paul Ends in Rome

- February 08, 2016

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL By Melanie Grayce West St. Vincent de Paul, at 123 W 23rd St. in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, for years served the city’s French-speaking population. PHOTO: STEVE REMICH FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL NEW YORK---An effort to save St. Vincent de Paul in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood has ended with the refusal from a Vatican court to hear any further appeals from the Roman Catholic church’s former parishioners. The decision from the Apostolic Signatura, the Vatican’s highest court, was made late last month and affirms a decision from last year when the court declined to hear parishioners’ appeals at all. St. Vincent sits along a bustling stretch of West 23rd Street and once served as a home for French-speaking New Yorkers and immigrants. The interior was decorated with pieces imported from France, including Limoges items. The parish, however, was merged under one of the archdiocese’s major reorganizations in 2007. It held its final Mass years ago. [ li...

The Mark of Fasting on Muslims vs Christians

- February 08, 2016

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By Ernest Disney-Britton Installing Ron Mueck’s ‘Youth’ in Divine Bodies exhibition The next 40 days and nights of Lent will come and go again this year without a single mark on the lives of most Christians. Lent contrasts dramatically with the mark of Ramadan as experienced by Muslims. For 30 days, they are one world-community joined in fasting from dawn to dusk. Ramadan is central to their religious identity. The Ramadan fast makes them healthier both spiritually and physically. Muslims , Hindus , Buddhists and Jews all fast, but as Christians, we prefer feasting to fasting . As we approach Ash Wednesday and 40 days of Lent, we should all fear that we'll awaken again on Easter morning "without a single mark."

RELIGIOUS ART | NEWS OF WEEK

- February 07, 2016

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By Gregory A. Disney-Britton Detail of "The Battle between Carnival and Lent" (1559), by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. On Wednesday , Christians will choose between the tempter and the Christ as we begin our 40 day fast during Lent . Jesus never told us to fast, but we know He expects us to do so because He said, “when you fast…” and not "if" you fast ( Matthew 6:16-18 ). It's an annual choice that we make, and one captured in the 1559 painting " Carnival and Lent " (above). Jesus fasted for 40 days for spiritual growth, and before him so did Moses , Esther , and Daniel . For Lent 2016 , what will you choose?

5 Steps to Boost Your Creativity And Find Your Rhythm

CREATIVE LIVE By Casey Melnrick In his CreativeLive course Being Creative Under Pressure , Todd Henry, founder of Accidental Creative, a company that “helps creative people and teams generate brilliant ideas,” covers many aspects of being creative on-demand while working. Todd outlines five distinct factors that help boost your creativity and generate a rhythm in order to maintain and foster a more dynamic and active creative process. [ link ]

Grayson Perry Hold Your Beliefs Lightly (solo exhibition)

E-FLUX Grayson Perry, Hold Your Beliefs Lightly, 2011. Collection the artist. NETHERLANDS---The British artist Grayson Perry likes to present himself as a thorn in the side of the mainstream art world. Aesthetic questions of beauty and craftsmanship are played out keenly in relation to social issues concerning religion, identity, class and consumerism. In doing so, he uses a huge variety of techniques and materials, including tapestries, ceramics, cast iron sculptures, films, dresses and even a complete house. Bonnefantenmuseum , Avenue Ceramique 250 6221 BS Maastricht, The Netherlands [ link ]

Book Review: ‘Paradise Now: The Story of American Utopianism,’ by Chris Jennings

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Kirk Davis Swinehart By any measure, Ann Lee , the illiterate daughter of a Manchester blacksmith, led one of the most audacious and improbable lives of the 18th century. Irrepressible as ever, the ghost of Ann Lee hovers over every page of Chris Jennings’s uncommonly smart and beautifully written book “ Paradise Now .” But in this persuasive telling by Jennings, a writer living in Northern California, the Shakers ’ influence found its fullest expression in four other distinct communities started during the first half of the 19th century: New Harmony , the Fourierist Phalanxes , Icaria and Oneida . [ link ]

Art Review: Ai Weiwei: Circle of Animals at Sacramento’s Crocker Art Museum

THE SACRAMENTO BEE BY Victoria Dalkey The Monkey in Ai Weiwei's Chinese zodiac menagerie represents a creature traditionally viewed in Chinese culture as sensitive, empathetic, opportunistic, restless, confident, entertaining, funny and generous. Monkeys are said to be good planners, designers, stockbrokers and theologians. CALIFORNIA---The Chinese New Year celebration will usher in the Year of the Monkey on Monday, Feb. 8. Intelligent, inquisitive, competitive and fun-loving, the monkey is one of the most prized signs of the Chinese zodiac. A 10-foot-tall bronze evocation of the monkey by internationally famous Chinese artist Ai Weiwei is up in the Crocker Art Museum’s outdoor courtyard, along with the other 11 Chinese zodiac animals. Arranged in a semicircle, they tower over viewers, both children and adults, transfixed by the 1,600-pound heads rising up on columns that resemble spouts of water. [ link ]

Art Review: ‘Language of the Birds: Occult and Art’ at 80WSE

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Ken Johnson Paul Laffoley’s “Astrological Ouroboros” (1965), part of “Language of the Birds.” Credit Kent Fine Art, New York Today, many artists still subscribe to mystical traditions like astrology, ritual magic and kabbalah. “ Language of the Birds: Occult and Art ,” an artistically uneven but intellectually fascinating exhibition at the 80WSE gallery at New York University, presents works by more than 60 Modern and contemporary artists influenced by those practices. 80WSE 80 Washington Square East, Greenwich Village Through Feb. 13, 2016 [ link ]

Art Review: The Detailed, Rich and Mysterious Work of Jan van Eyc

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Jason Farago A detail from “The Last Judgment,” by Jan van Eyck and his workshop, an oil on canvas transferred from wood, made around 1440. The work is on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Credit Metropolitan Museum of Art A few months ago I made a long-imagined pilgrimage to Ghent, Belgium, to see at last one of the signal achievements in Western painting: Jan van Eyck’s altarpiece for St. Bavo’s Cathedral, painted in 1432. It left me at a loss for words, but I am hardly the first to be dumbfounded by van Eyck. For centuries, the crystalline exactitude of his paintings — so precise as to be almost nonhuman — has elicited less inspiration than speechless, helpless awe. “A New Look at a van Eyck Masterpiece” runs through April 24 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; 212-535-7710, metmuseum.org. [ link ]/>

Al Farrow's Ammunitions Made Into Religious Art Comes to Kentucky

COURIER JOURNAL By Elizabeth Kramer Artist Al Farrow's "Bombed Mosque"(2010) created using guns, gun parts, bullets, shell casings, lead pellets and steel and part of the exhibit "Wrath and Reverence" at 21c Museum Hotel. (Photo: Courtesy of Catherine Clark Gallery, San Francisco, and Forum Gallery, New York.) KENTUCKY---Artist Al Farrow , with a career spanning over 40 years, often creates work that mines ideas associated with different cultures. His current body of work in the exhibit “Wrath and Reverence,” is no exception. It contains replicas of religious architecture - churches, synagogues, mosques, a mausoleum, Jewish ritual objects and Christian reliquaries. Many of Farrow’s sculptures gleam. Upon closer to look, the source of that shimmer are clearly munitions — Uzis, bullets and shot that have been combined with bone, glass and steel. [ link ]

Datebook: The Wondrous Worlds of Islamic Art at Newark Museum

BLOUIN | ARTINFO By Nicholas Forrest Wondrous Worlds: Art & Islam through Time & Place; Newark Museum; February-August 2015; Decorated Wall Hanging; Egypt, early 20th century; Cotton; Newark Museum Purchase, 1929 29.1470 NEW JERSEY---For its winter 2016 feature exhibition, the Newark Museum in Newark, New Jersey is showcasing Islamic art, its richness, history, and diversity. Spanning more than 1,400 years, the exhibition will juxtapose ceramics dating from the 9th and 10th centuries with modern day calligraphy by Hassan Massoudy and contemporary works by Victor Ekpuk and Rachid Koraichi. [ link ]

Hindu heroes, savored through fantastical masks at the Met

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Holland Cotter Narasimha, Vishnu's Man-Lion Avatar, ca. 1700–1750. Southern India, Tamil Nadu, probably Thanjavur district. NEW YORK---It’s a short step from religious ritual to theater, and barely any distance at all in the case of certain popular Hindu dramas of southern India. Performed during seasonal festivals, they are epic in length — they go on for hours, often through the night — and fantastic in character, telling the stories of gods who have the adventure-filled lives of superheroes. The Met recently acquired five large 18th-century wooden masks created for a play about the god Vishnu who, in the guise of the lion-man called Narasimha, visited earth to defeat an evil king and restore order to the universe. [ link ] Metropolitan Museum of Art: “ Encountering Vishnu: The Lion Avatar in Indian Temple Drama ” (Ends June 5, 2016); 1000 Fifth Avenue (at 82nd Street), New York, NY; (212)535-7710; metmuseum.org

Who Should Pay for the Arts in America?

ATLANTIC MAGAZINE By Any Hortwitz At 50, the National Endowment for the Arts is still fighting to make the performing arts available to everyone, while the influence of wealthy donors increasingly tilts the balance. Half a century later, the ethos upon which the NEA was founded—inclusion and community—has been eroded by consistent political attack. As the NEA’s budget has been slashed, private donors and foundations have jumped in to fill the gap, but the institutions they support, and that receive the bulk of arts funding in this country, aren’t reaching the people the NEA was founded to help serve. The arts aren’t dead, but the system by which they are funded is increasingly becoming as unequal as America itself. [ link ]

David Bowie's Ashes to be Scattered as Buddhist Ritual

THE INDEPENDENT By Serina Sandhu Over five decades David Bowie sold more than 140 million records and amassed an estate worth $100m (£70m). The beneficiaries of this remarkable career were revealed as his wife, Iman, and his two children. Bowie, who died at the age of 69 on 10 January, also requested that his ashes be scattered on the Indonesian island of Bali in line with “Buddhist rituals”. His last wish comes as no surprise as the artist had been fascinated by the religion and even studied it in London. [ link ]

Collector and Painter: Philippine-born American Alfonso Yangco Ossorio

COCONUT | MANILA By Jasmine Agnes T. Cruz "Angry Christ" by Alfonso Ossorio PHILIPPINES---We all know Jackson Pollock as the American abstract expressionist painter who liked to energetically throw paint on the canvas instead of applying the paint using a brush. But did you know that Alfonso Yangco Ossorio , a Philippine-born American painter, was as one of his most generous patrons? Ossorio, born in Manila in 1916, was an abstract expressionist painter whose family owned Victorias Milling Company. As an artist, Mr. Ossorio was a member of the New York School generation and close to several of its members, including Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner and Clyfford Still," wrote Grace Glueck in a New York Times obituary.[ link ]

Obama at Mosque: Islam Is ‘Part of America’

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Gardener Harris WASHINGTON, DC---President Obama on Wednesday embraced Muslims in the United States as part of “one American family” and implicitly criticized the Republican presidential candidates in a warning to citizens to not be “bystanders to bigotry.” In a visit to the Islamic Society of Baltimore, his first to a mosque in the United States as president, Mr. Obama recited phrases from the Quran and praised American Muslims as a crucial part of America’s history and vital to the nation’s future. “We are one American family,” he said. “We will rise and fall together.” [ link ]

Can You Party During Carnival (Mardi Gras) And Still Be a Christian?

PATHEOS By Rev. Morgon Guton “Mardi Gras Bourbon Street 2015″ by Nick Solari, Wikimedia Commons C.C. LOUISIANA---It’s Mardi Gras season in New Orleans, which can be an awkward time for a campus minister. Many of the students I know will be drinking a lot during the next week. Some Christian students I know see it as necessary to their Christian discipleship to give up alcohol. I deeply respect that, but I’m not going to declare that a hard and fast rule because I’ve been told that other students have stopped going to church because they felt guilty about drinking. So instead, I thought I would offer some reflective questions to ponder as you think about the choices you make during Mardi Gras season or any other party. [ link ]

Preparing for Lent: The Battle between Carnival and Lent

PATRICK COMMERFORD The Battle between Carnival and Lent’ (1559), by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. The Courtesy of the collection of Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. NETHERLANDS---My choice of a work of art for meditation this morning, the second day of Lent, is "The Battle between Carnival and Lent" (1559) by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (ca 1525-1569). The painting depicts a popular, traditional festival in the Southern Netherlands in the mid-16th century. The painting presents a contrast between two sides of contemporary life, represented by the inn on the left, with a group of raucous drunkards nearby, and the church on the right, with a group of well-behaved children sitting nearby. This juxtaposition illustrates and contrasts the two sides of human nature: pleasure and religious chastity. [ link ]

Carnival Preparations in Brazil Continues Despite Spreading Zika Virus

LATIN ONE By Nens Bolilan Members of Vila Isabel samba school perform during its parade at 2014 Brazilian Carnival at Sapucai Sambadrome on March 03, 2014 in RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil. BRAZIL---Brazil has maintained a festive atmosphere as it prepares for Carnival , despite the threat of the Zika virus and government efforts to stop it from spreading. Daily Mail reported that round the clock fumigation is now being done in the country to kill Zika-carrying mosquitoes. But along with these measures are clear efforts from communities to live normal lives. [ link ]

Germans Eager to See Whose Parade a Carnival Float Will Rain On

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Alison Smale Jacques Tilly, a well-known float builder, with one of his designs on Monday in Düsseldorf, Germany. Politicians are popular targets at the Carnival parade. Credit Gordon Welters for The New York Times GERMANY--- Carnival here hardly shares the fame of the colorful, dancing celebrations in Rio de Janeiro , or of Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Outside Germany, it is something of a secret that the cities and towns in the Rhine river valley go wild, too. But for five days starting on Thursday, up to one million people will swill beer and take to the streets here, as well as in Cologne and Mainz. Using art to take aim at politicians and other powers that be is a tradition born of nearly two centuries of Carnival satire in the Rhineland of Germany. [ link ]

Bringing Tribal Hindu Art to Urban Viewers

THE HINDU One of the works on display at the exhibition titled “Aranyakas — The Enchanted Landscape”. INDIA---The Kanha Museum of Life and Art at the Singinawa Jungle Lodge in Kanha is a treasure trove of art from the indigenous cultures of Gonds, Bhils and the Baigas. The artworks reveal the free spirit of the forest and depict tribal beliefs about birds, animals and various forms of worship. Titled “Aranyakas — The Enchanted Landscape”, the exhibition was curated by art historian Alka Pande in association with Tulika Kedia, the director of Must Art Gallery. [ link ]

Muslim Conference in Africa Calls for Protection of Religious Minorities

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Aida Alami Yazidis from Sinjar Province in Iraq after their arrival on the Greek island of Lesbos from Turkey in November. Credit Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times MOROCCO---At a recent conference held by Muslim scholars to confront violence in the Islamic world, a representative of the Yazidi religious minority in Iraq and Syria said his people desperately needed protection from the Islamic State. The gathering here of about 300 muftis, theologians and scholars last month responded far more broadly by issuing the Marrakesh Declaration, which calls for Muslim countries to tolerate and protect religious minorities living within their borders — among them Christians, Jews, Hindus and Bahais as well as Yazidis and Sabians. [ link ]

For Jean Dubuffet, the Art Brut Founder, a Gallery Show

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Robin Pogrebin NEW YORK--- Jean Dubuffet is not necessarily the hottest artist around; in fact, his colorful oil painting “Cote Chipote” failed to sell at Christie’s in November, despite a relatively low estimate of $9 million to $12 million. But the artist and sculptor, who died in 1985, remains one of the most important postwar artists of the 20th century — often grouped with Giacometti and Bacon — and is perhaps best known for founding Art Brut , an early outsider art movement. Now the Acquavella Gallery has decided to devote both floors of its Upper East Side townhouse — as well as a hardcover catalog — to a monographic show on Dubuffet that will open April 15. [ link ]

Staring Back at the Sun: Video Art from Israel, 1970–2012

E-FLUX Roee Rosen, Confessions Coming Soon (still), 2007. Video, 8:40 minutes. NEW YORK---Artis is pleased to present the New York launch of "Staring Back at the Sun: Video Art from Israel, 1970–2012," an internationally traveling exhibition and program featuring 35 video works by a selection of influential artists from Israel. The two-day symposium at the New Museum includes lectures and roundtables by leading scholars that will contextualize the video works within historical, theoretical, and sociopolitical developments both within Israel and internationally. [ link ]

Knoxville's Arnstein Center Honors Artist Arnold Schwarzbart