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RADIO VATICAN ITALY---This year’s Christmas tree and Nativity scene in St. Peter’s Square will be inaugurated and lit up on December 9th and will highlight several issues such as care for the environment, the sick and migrants. A communique from the governing office of Vatican City said the 25 metre-high spruce tree for 2016 will come from the region of Trentino in northern Italy and when it’s cut down local school students will plant nearly 40 new spruce and larch seedlings in a nearby area to replace trees suffering from a parasite that had to be culled. [ More ]

GLOBAL NEW S By Morgan Lowrie Cupola of Saint-Michael the Archangel Guido Nincheri, Courtesy of Roger Boccini Nincheri. CANADA---Montreal’s mayor is again facing criticism over changing the name of a city park – this time from members of the Italian community fighting to preserve the legacy of renowned local artist. A park in the city’s Hochelaga-Maisonneuve district named after late Italian-Canadian artist Guido Nincheri is expected to be renamed after Quebec City next year, where it will display several statues the city is gifting to Montreal in honour of its 375th birthday. But some Montreal Italians feel the renaming shows a lack of respect to the artist once described as the “Michelangelo of Montreal,” whose stunning frescoes and stained glass works are displayed in churches across North America. [ link ]

RELIGION NEWS SERVICE By Philip Pullella ITALY---VATICAN CITY (Reuters) Pope Francis on Wednesday (Nov. 30) met Martin Scorsese after a special screening in Rome of the Oscar-winning director’s new film “ Silence ,” about Jesuit missionaries in 17th century Japan. For the-74-year-old Scorsese , who spent a year in a “minor seminary,” a high school for boys considering the priesthood, the meeting came almost thirty years after his film “The Last Temptation of Christ” outraged many conservative Christians. At the meeting in the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace, the pope told Scorsese that he too had read the 1966 novel on which the film was based, “ Silence ,” by the late Japanese writer Shusaku Endo , who was a convert to Catholicism, the Vatican said. [ link ]

BROADWAY WORLD Among the ways to understand any religion is through its art and cultural heritage. Religion, Art & Cultural Heritage , a CBS Interfaith Special, looks at its importance in understanding faith, identity and history. This special broadcast will air Sunday, Dec. 4 ( check local listings ) on the CBS Television Network. Following the Dec. 4 air date, this program may be viewed again at www.cbsnews.com/religion-and-culture . "Like" us on Facebook.com/CBSReligion and follow us on Twitter @CBSReligion . [ link ]

DAILY NATION By AFP Francois Boespflug, French historian of art and religion, poses in Paris on November 18, 2016 Jihadists from the Islamic State group have destroyed ancient sites and museum pieces in Syria and Iraq in the last two years but that is just the latest example of extremists attacking religious buildings or art. Historian Francois Boespflug, a French former Catholic priest, tells AFP about the roots of attacks against images that the perpetrators consider to be blasphemous or idol worship. "Most Christian extremists who act in this way claim they do so because of blasphemy. But this concept of blasphemy has been gradually removed from the criminal law of most European nations." [ link ]

XDAILY HERALD By Derrick Clements Steve Vistaunet's "Not Today" is featured in the 31st annual show UTAH---Looking up in the pews during Sunday worship, or walking through a temple, synagogue or mosque, worshipers are frequently exposed to art that expresses a religious or spiritual point of view. Often, the religious art that gets the widest audience is intended to assist in theological instruction or proselytizing. But a different objective guides the art in the 31st annual “Spiritual & Religious Art of Utah” show at the Springville Museum of Art . Throughout the exhibit, religious conviction and testimony jumps out of the varied pieces, but spiritual questions are as present as answers. [ link ]

ARTDAILY Joseph de Robera's Saint James the Lesser CALIFORNIA---The San Diego Museum of Art announced the acquisition of Saint James the Lesser (ca. 1632) by Jusepe de Ribera . This 17th-century work by the renowned Spanish Baroque master builds on the Museum’s prestigious collection of Spanish art. The painting is currently on display in the European galleries alongside other masterpieces in the collection by Francisco de Zurbarán , Bartolomé Esteban Murillo , and El Greco . Purchased by the Museum from Rafael Valls, LTD and Helena Mola, Ribera’s Saint James the Lesser joins the collection following the recent acquisitions of Sorolla’s By the Seashore , Zurbarán’s Saint Francis in Prayer in a Grotto , and Pedro de Mena’s San Diego de Alcalá , a Spanish baroque sculpture. [ link ]

BROADSHEET By Will cox "Life is a Complicated Business" (1967) by Corita Kent AUSTRALIA---“Religious art” isn’t a phrase that excites the casual gallery-goer. But the casual gallery-goer hasn’t seen Sister Corita Kent’s pioneering, psychedelic and kinetic screen prints. Corita wasn’t always obscure. For a few years in the ’60s and ’70s her work was part of the zeitgeist. Take a look at the back of the exhibition catalogue: it’s Corita on the Christmas 1967 cover of Newsweek magazine. Her work struck a chord in a cultural moment dominated by the Summer of Love, the hippy movement and pop art. But since then she’s faded into the background. Sister Corita’s Summer of Love is at the Ian Potter Museum of Art until March 26. [ link ]

THE DAILY PROGRESS By Kelsey Dallas Pieces of art glass are assembled into panels for “The Roots of Knowledge,” a 200-foot-long stained glass installation for Utah Valley University, at Holdman Studios in Lehi on Nov. 4, 2016. SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Stained glass windows are both permanent and ever-changing. They can't be easily moved from their frame or rearranged, but shifting sunbeams affect what each new admirer sees. "Stained glass brings light and color and story into a building at the same time," said Virginia Chieffo Raguin, an art history professor at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. "No other medium does that." The art form's unique characteristics have attracted artisans and architects for centuries, even as the demand fell for traditional houses of worship, where stained glass was first widely used, reported the Deseret News (http://bit.ly/2fVmmQA).[ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Graham Bowley and William K. Rashbaum The Swiss art dealer Yves Bouvier purchased Leonardo da Vinci's depiction of Christ for$80 million through Sotheby’s in 2013 and resold it within days to a Russian billionaire for $47.5 million more, according to court papers The joy must have been palpable in 2013 when three New York art traders arranged through Sotheby’s to sell a newly discovered painting by Leonardo da Vinci , the Renaissance master, for $80 million. One of them had purchased it at an estate sale for less than $10,000 eight years earlier, when most experts viewed it as only the work of Leonardo’s school. But the traders’ joy later soured, according to court papers, when they learned that the man who bought it, an important Swiss art dealer, had turned around and sold the painting within days to a Russian billionaire for $47.5 million more. The traders have told Sotheby’s they plan to sue, claiming fraud, to recover the millions they say they mis...

THE HINDU "Elephant" by Rajaendra Shyam. Acrylic on canvas, 43"x31" INDIA---“ Art for Concern ,” a fund-raising platform associated with promotion of upcoming Indian artists, is organising a two-day exhibition of traditional and folk art at the Hungarian Information and Cultural Centre, Janpath. The event will begin on December 2. The exhibition aims to give exposure to indigenous art forms and the folklore they depict by featuring four traditional artists — Manisha Jha, Rajendra Shyam , Kailash Chand Kumawat and Jijulal . [ link ]

HYPERALLERGIC By Allison Meier Finial in the shape of the “Hand of Fatima” (possibly from Hyderabad, India, late-18th to early-19th century), gold on a lac core with rubies, emeralds, diamonds, and pearls (courtesy Nasser D. Khalili Collection, London, © Nour Foundation, the Khalili Family Trust) OXFORD, UK---Although it has manifested in ways that are manifold, the human belief in the supernatural is something that’s shared across cultures. At a time when misconceptions of Islam have fueled anxiety, such as in the recent US presidential campaign, an exhibition at the University of Oxford is examining the religion through the lens of astrology, divination, and other occult practices to bring to light something that’s universal to our history. Power and Protection: Islamic Art and the Supernatural opened last month at Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology. [ link ]

CNN By Laurence King Ryan Matthew Cohn started collecting animal bones from the woods near his home as a child Whether it's comics and sneakers, or books and art, collecting is largely seen as a normal, if occasionally obsessive, pastime. But what can be said about those who collect all things macabre -- fetus skeletons, taxidermy mutant farm animals and say, the personal effects of jailed serial killers? " Morbid Curiosities: Collections of the Uncommon and Bizarre " gives a closer look at these more unconventional collections and the people behind them. Rather than writing them off as eccentric provocateurs or disturbed misfits, writer Paul Gambino gives insights into their motivations and personalities. What unites them in Gambino's eyes is a passion for history. [ link ]

ALGEMEINER By Jonathan Greenstein Image from gallery's exhibition's page on Facebook.com NEW YORK---[A] mixture of physical and emotional beauty is captured in the current exhibition, “ Passage to Israel ,” at the Anderson Contemporary Art Gallery . My wife and I attended, not only because we love Israel, but because we have long been fans of Jewish reggae rock star Matisyahu , who was partly the inspiration for the exhibit. Some of the 34 photographers whose works are on display and divided into the four categories of “land,” “light,” “life” and “soul” are better known than others. It was wonderful to see that they hailed from different races, religions, genders and regions — as did their pictures. 180 Maiden Ln, New York, New York; (917) 575-5972; andersoncontemporary.com. [ link ]

HYPERALLERGIC By John Yau Installation view of “Cecily Brown: Rehearsal” (2016), The Drawing Center, New York (photo by Martin Parsekian) NEW YORK---The erotic relationship between looking and doing, between returning and repeating, between caressing, rubbing and scratching, is the subject of this aptly named exhibition, Cecily Brown: Rehearsal , at The Drawing Center (October 7 – December 18, 2016), curated by Claire Gilman. Born in England in 1969 and relocating to America in 1995, Brown seems not to have been inflicted with Calvinist morality. What distinguishes Brown from many American artists (mostly men) who depict female nudes is her lack of self-hatred. [ link ]

ARTNET NEWS By Alyssa Buffenstein Donald Trump announced [on] November 23, his pick for education secretary—Betsy DeVos, a member of “Western Michigan Royalty,” according to the New York Times , whose family has pumped millions into arts initiatives. But DeVos is also a heavily-criticized advocate for school choice, charter schools, and voucher programs. The DeVoses founded the Michigan ArtPrize , the “most-attended public art event on the planet.” The international art competition awards $500,000 in prizes to artists and more than $270,000 in grants to, among others, venues, curators, public projects, and, interestingly, voter registration ($8,000) and education days ($44,000). [ link ]

WALLPAPER By Rosa Bertoli Barnaby Barford's "Hope" and "Glory" LONDON, UK--- David Gill Gallery in London presents a new body of work by British artist Barnaby Barford , including new ceramics pieces as well as the first showing of his drawings on paper. The exhibition includes a series of animal sculptures – marching in single file across the gallery floor – as well as seven large-scale Word Drawings ’, while a second room features animal heads mounted like trophies on mirrors, offering an ominous interpretation of the zoomorphic presence in the exhibition. [ link ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By  Ernest  &  Gregory Disney-Britton "Word of Life" (aka Touchdown Jesus) at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana. Football has never been a part of our Thanksgiving tradition, but it was this year because our son Kai came to visit us in Indianapolis. Through his eyes, this weekend, we watched football: Colts , Notre Dame , Ohio State , and we witnessed the solidarity and a near sacred purpose it created. Religious art used to do the same, and for believers like us, the University of Notre Dame makes prints of Millard Sheets's "Word of Life" (aka "Touchdown Jesus")  available online .

THE NEW YORK TIMES By A.O. Scott In “Moana,” the title character travels with Maui (voiced by Dwayne Johnson), a muscle-bound demigod. Credit Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures HOLLYWOOD---Moana is the daughter of a chief and will someday inherit her father’s position, but she’s furious when Maui, a tattooed, muscle-bound demigod, calls her a princess. Moana (MWAH-nah) is not only part of a dynastic line but also a girl off on an adventure in the company of a cute animal sidekick (a dimwitted chicken named HeeHee). So not just any princess, in other words: a Disney princess. She may be on a quest to save her island and restore ecological balance to the planet, but Moana (voiced by Auli’i Cravalho) is also upholding a brand. It is, as these things go, a pretty good brand. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Elisabetta Povoledo Jannis Kounellis “Dodecafonia” is on view at the deconsecrated church of Sant’Andrea de Scaphis, which the gallerist Gavin Brown converted into an exhibition space last year. Credit Gavin Brown's enterprise New York/Rome & Jannis Kounellis, photo Manolis Baboussi ROME — Sitting on a wonky chair inside the dim, deconsecrated church of Sant’Andrea de Scaphi s in Rome’s Trastevere neighborhood last month, the artist Jannis Kounellis pondered eight of his newest works and agreed that they were the product of an extremist. “Si!” he said with conviction, and perhaps a hint of amusement that at 80 years old, he still tries to express the same idiosyncratic spirit as his first works six decades ago. Certainly, the pieces — which were created for the solo exhibition “Dodecafonia,” on view in the church until Nov. 30 — feature many elements familiar to Mr. Kounellis’s art, like burlap, rope, wood and steel. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Paul Elie Ahead of Silence‘s trailer debut later this week, the film has received its first poster and a collection of new photos. /td> A.O. Scott, now a chief film critic for The New York Times , once wrote that Martin Scorsese approaches filmmaking as “a priestly avocation, a set of spiritual exercises embedded in technical problems.” So it was with “ Silence ,” a novel about “the necessity of belief fighting the voice of experience,” as Scorsese has put it. To get the Jesuits’ beliefs right, he engaged the Rev. James Martin , an author and editor at large of the Jesuit weekly America. Filmmaker and priest had several colloquies at Scorsese’s home, and Martin worked intensively with Garfield and Driver. Just as De Niro learned to box for “Raging Bull,” they familiarized themselves with the rites and disciplines of the Jesuit priesthood to bring authenticity to their performances. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Jane Perlez Zeng Fanzhi’s monumental work The Last Supper was inspired by the painting of the same title by the Italian Renaissance master Leonardo da Vinci. At the gallery opening of China’s hottest-selling artist,  Zeng Fanzhi , in Manhattan a year ago, Chinese billionaires mingled with the upper crust of New York’s art world. Here at home, an even larger banquet for 500 guests, including the granddaughter of Mao Zedong, celebrated Mr. Zeng’s 25-year painting career, at the September opening of the first retrospective in his own country. Chinese artists roared onto the international art scene about 10 years ago, but few have exhibited the staying power of  Mr. Zeng , and none have fetched $23.3 million for a painting at auction, the price paid for his version of “The Last Supper” in 2013. [ link ]

ART AGENDA ANilbar Güreş Denge / Balance, 2016 (Detay / Detail) 22,5 x 28,5 cm, 8,86 x 12,22 inches (Çerçevesiz / Unframed) Kumaş Üzerine Karışık Teknik / Mixed Media On Fabric Fotoğraf / Photo: Chroma Istanbul ISTANBUL---Rampa presents Double-headed Snake, a exhibition of works by Nilbar Güreş in Rampa's street level project room from November 25 through December 30, 2016. The walls of the project room are painted in a soft hue and the window to the street draped, partially obscuring the contents of the exhibition. It is at once solitary and public, revealed and concealed—much like the artist's works themselves. The title of the show is suggestive, metaphoric, and too, the name of Güreş' sculpture which rests on a rock within the space. The work is a knit snake, rainbow patterns denoting its two heads. This work, and the others, hold their own subversive and subtle stories, asking the viewer to come close, read clues, and decipher what is being being told. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Farah Nayeri “Sabra and Shatila Massacre” by Dia al-Azzawi evokes the killing of hundreds of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon in 1982. Credit Dia al-Azzawi, Tate Collection UNITED KINGDOM---“Dia al-Azzawi is not an illustrator, and he’s not a man who makes political posters. But his work is completely infused with events in the Middle East,” said Catherine David, the curator of the Doha exhibition, who is the deputy director of the Musée National d’Art Moderne at the Pompidou Center in Paris. Ms. David described the artist as an exceptional draftsman and print maker and “a painter with a genuine sense of rhythm.” “Placed in the context of 20th-century art, Dia al-Azzawi is not only a great Arab artist, but a great artist, full stop,” she said. [ link ]

CLAREMOUNT-COURIER By Sarah Torribio "Noah's Ark" by He Qi CALIFORNIA---Artist  He Qi   was drawn to faith and artistic expression at a time when both were considered heresy. He was attending middle school in Nanjing, China in 1966 when Chairman Mao launched his Cultural Revolution. Most recently he has been a professor-in-residence at Claremont School of Theology , a two-year post that will come to an end this February. Between now and then, you can visit the CST library to see giclée prints and original paintings by  Mr. Qi  as well as a couple of his works rendered in silk needlework by traditional Chinese artisans.  Mr. Qi’s  biblical scenes meld influences ranging from Chinese folk art to cubism to fauvism. [ link ]

BLOUIN | ARTINFO United States Artists (USA) announced today their list of 2016 fellows, including Shirin Neshat , Stanley Whitney , Miranda July , and Jacolby Satterwhite . Each of the 46 selected artists working in music, theater, visual art, dance, literature, and beyond will receive a no-strings-attached award of $50,000. This year the organization is also celebrating its 10th anniversary—with $22 million in grants given to 450 artists to date—and a new $20 million operational endowment from the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the James L. Knight Foundation, and others. [ link ]

T-MAGAZINE By Natasha Wolff A view of the mikvah at the former synagogue the artist Dana Barnes bought in 2013 to use as her studio and occasional living space. Credit Emiliano Granado Over 100 years ago, European Jews worshiped and bathed in the rooms of a building on New York City’s Forsyth Street that housed both a synagogue and a mikvah, a small, rainwater-filled pool considered a gateway to purity and holiness. Today Dana Barnes and her staff of artisans create handmade textiles of vivid hues and knotty textures next to the stone walls where that thousands-year-old ritual was once performed. It took Barnes some time to feel comfortable working here: “I wanted to make sure I wasn’t violating the space.” In the raw, unvarnished rooms, her handmade creations look as if they were conceived by the building itself. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Elizabeth Paton Nura Afia, 24, a Colorado native, first started watching online beauty tutorials in 2011 while breast-feeding her daughter. Credit Lacey Terrell/CoverGirl, via Associated Press Three weeks after naming the 17-year-old makeup artist James Charles its first cover boy, CoverGirl, one of the largest cosmetics companies in the United States, has announced another first: its debut CoverGirl in a hijab. Nura Afia , 24, a Colorado native. “When I first saw the email from CoverGirl earlier this year, I just couldn’t believe it,” said Ms. Afia , who has more than 215,000 subscribers to her YouTube channel and 13 million views of her video tutorials and who has previously teamed up with Revlon. “I actually took two or three days to reply because I thought it must be fake. “I felt it had to be some sort of joke given they had never had an observant Muslim campaign face before.” [ link ]

RELIGION NEWS SERVICE By G. Jeffrey MacDonald Second Adam ©Bruce, 2006; 125” x 155”; oil with gold and silver leaf on wood. Photo courtesy of Bruce Herman (http://www.bruceherman.com) On two walls in the sky-lit studio of artist Bruce Herman hangs a set of eight intimate portraits. But admirers of Herman’s work aren’t going to find it for sale in any gallery. That’s because this Christian artist has blazed an unconventional trail to success in the arts marketplace. In the process, he’s inspiring other religious artists who might have loads of talent but can’t break into the gallery scene. Most artists who enjoy commercial success rely on galleries to market their work, according to Anderson. Herman rarely shows in galleries and hasn’t been represented exclusively by one since the 1980s. But that doesn’t stop him from finding buyers for works priced anywhere from $2,000 to $80,000. [ link ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS Sacred Poem XXXIV, 5.5 x 5.5 in, gold leaf, thread, paper - Carole P. Kunstadt NEW YORK--- Wired Gallery presents "Patterns," curated by the artist Laura Gurton. The show includes artwork by Sydney Cash, Susan Spenser Crowe, Carole P. Kunstadt , Stephen Niccolls, Carol Struve & Vincent Pomilio. The exhibition includes pattern-based artwork created using oil paint, encaustic, resin, paper, gold leaf, digital and other media. The artist reception is on November 26, and the exhibition runs through April 2, 2017 at Wired Gallery, 11 Mohonk Road  High Falls, NY

MY JEWISH LEARNING By Barbara Rucket Fiber artist Barbara Rucket has designed mixed media wall pieces, mezuzot, a hamsa, a mizrach, and tzedakah boxes. GEORGIA---In 1981, I took a weaving course in Atlanta, Georgia. My first project was a tallit for my older son’s Bar Mitzvah. That was the beginning of my journey to create not just fiber art, but fiber art Judaica. In 1998, I co-founded Peach State Stitchers, the Atlanta chapter of the International Pomegranate Guild of Judaic Needlework (PGJN). This group drew me in to sewing and quilting. This has enabled be to take the linens I inherited from my mother and grandmother and use them in mixed media work. It is a connection to the past which I find very comforting. Every stitch links me to them.It’s a special Southern Jewish arts opportunity, and one in which I am glad to take part. To learn more about the convention, visit our website . [ link ]

OTTAWA CITIZEN By Peter Robb, arts reporter Morning Star (Detail), Alex Janvier, 1993 CANADA---Imagine you are an eagle, flying high over the land, what do you see? You probably won’t see what Alex Janvier sees; the swirling, merging colours of the elements that form the unique vision of the 81-year-old Denesuline Salteaux artist. His work, more than 150 pieces, is on display in a major retrospective at the National Gallery of Canada. Janvier, whose ceiling painting, Morning Star-Gambeh Then , has been a star attraction at the Museum of History since 1993, has a career that spans more than 65 years. He has been at the forefront of modern indigenous art throughout. The exhibition continues at the National Gallery of Canada to April 17, 2017. [ link ]

THE WASHINGTON POST By David A. Fahrenthold Painter Michael Israel, left, poses with Donald and Melania Trump in 2007 at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club. Trump spent $20,000 that belonged to the Donald J. Trump Foundation to buy a six-foot-tall portrait of himself painted by Israel. (Michael Israel) President-elect Donald Trump’s charitable foundation has admitted to the Internal Revenue Service that it violated a legal prohibition against “self-dealing,” which bars nonprofit leaders from using their charity’s money to help themselves, their businesses or their families. In three other cases, Trump’s foundation paid for items that Trump or his wife purchased at charity auctions. In another case from 2007, Trump’s wife, Melania, bid $20,000 on a six-foot-tall portrait of Trump painted by “speed painter” Michael Israel during a gala at Mar-a-Lago. And in 2014, Trump bid $10,000 to buy a four-foot painting of himself by artist Havi Schanz at another charity gala. [ link ]

ARTNET NEWS By Caroline Elbaor According to Westminster Abbey, the window will be known as “The Queen’s Window” and will be installed in the north transept of the Abbey, replacing one of the church’s few remaining clear windows. Beloved British pop artist David Hockney will design a stained-glass window in Westminster Abbey designed in honor of the Queen. The window will be unveiled in June of 2018 to coincide with the opening of the Queen’s Jubilee Gallery in the church. Situated in the abbey’s north transept, the window—which measures 6ft x 20ft—is being funded by two anonymous benefactors. It will be known as “The Queen’s window.” [ link ]

THE CREATOR'S PROJECT By Kara Weisenstein Coherency, Faig Ahmed, 2016. Image Courtesy of Faig Ahmed Studio UNITED KINGDOM---Intricately patterned rugs glitch and pixelate in the fascinating fibrous constellations of Faig Ahmed . When you first see's work, it's hard to understand what you're looking at. Ahmed's intricate artworks are actually entirely woven by hand. On November 17, Ahmed opened a new solo show at Sapar Contemporary in New York City. Source Code is an interrogation of consciousness and language, drawing on the traditions of woven textiles. The show dissects our ideas of symbolism and communication, translating ancient modes of literally weaving stories into tapestries with the ways we present ideas in the digital age. [ link ]

ARTNET NEWS Fabio D’Aroma, Thrice King (2016). Courtesy of BC Gallery. Thanksgiving—you either love it or you hate it. Some of us choose to spend it with our families, some with friends, some with strangers, and for others it’s just another day on the calendar. One thing we can all agree, whether you’re observant or not, is that food itself becomes a major player during the holiday season. In our continued effort to highlight up-and-coming artists you might not have heard of, we’ve gathered a list of some very appetizing still lifes for you to consider adding to your walls. There’s something to suit every taste, because sometimes traditional Thanksgiving fare isn’t enough. [ link ]

GUIDE LIVE Makoto Fujimura to speak on Wednesday, December 7 in Dallas, Texas TEXAS---Join Art House Dallas as we hear from internationally acclaimed visual artist Makoto Fujimura who will discuss the life of the artist and read from his newest book, Silence and Beauty , followed by a Q&A. Fujimura is Director of Fuller Seminary's Brehm Center and a presidential appointee to the National Council on the Arts. You will learn from his unique experiences of engaging culture through visual art and ways his faith has specifically informed his journey including how his recent book corresponds with Martin Scorsese's upcoming film, Silence . [ Tickets ]

THE CREATOR'S PROJECT By Catherine Chapman Installation Design Process (and the Working Class) by artist Catherine Borowski. Image: Aron Klein UNITED KINGDOM---For British artist Catherine Borowski , growing up on a North London council estate with a mother who had converted to Islam was not without its challenges. With Titled Design Process (and the Working Class) , however, life between two worlds has now been translated into an installation exploring her own identity. Borowski utilizes a minimalistic material-driven approach to construct a sculpture of 520 upright wood spindles, geometrical symmetry, and familiar materials that give nod to both Western and Islamic cultures, which became apparent to Borowski long after beginning the piece. [ link ]

HYPERALLERGIC By Christopher Green Jeffrey Gibson, “Come Alive! (I Feel Love)” (2016), acrylic felt, rawhide, wood, glass beads, stone arrowheads, steel wire, assorted beads, tin and copper jingles, artificial sinew, acrylic paint, druzy quartz crystal, steel and brass studs, 66 1/4 x 28 x 15 in, collection of the Newark Museum (photo courtesy of the artist website) NEW JERSEY---At the Newark Museum , Native American artworks are no longer displayed as mere cultural artifacts of the past. The museum’s impressive collection, formerly housed in a corner of the Main Building and far from the galleries for American, 20th-, and 21st-century art, has been rehung as Native Artists of North America . Enlivened with indigenous voice, its works have been temporally unmoored and allowed to speak across time and space. A newly commissioned sculpture by Jeffrey Gibso n (Choctaw/Cherokee) titled “Come Alive! (I Feel Love)” (2016) captures the laudable shift in the display of Native Americ...

UHND.COM “Word of Life” (aka Touchdown Jesus) at Notre Dame University INDIANA---In the early 60’s, Father Theodore Martin Hesburgh was committed to moving Notre Dame to the top echelon of American universities, not just best in class of the Catholic schools. So a decision was made to build the then largest on-campus college library in America. The South panel of the library tower was going to be its visual signature. The decision was to make a mural commemorating “Christ and the Saints of Learning.” Millard Sheets was the artist.... You could see it if you were walking on the Southeast portion of the campus. Once the ’64 football season started, with Ara’s first year and Heisman John Huarte throwing TD passes to Jack Snow, Touchdown Jesus was born. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Scott Reyburn A view of Christie’s in New York this month, with Willem de Kooning’s “Untitled XXV” at center rear. The work sold for $66.3 million against an estimate of $40 million. Credit Brian Harkin for The New York Times Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips’s latest biannual series of evening auctions of Impressionist, modern and contemporary art, which finished last Thursday, raised a total of $1.1 billion with fees. Despite concerns about a cooling global economy, “Brexit” and fallout from the election of Donald J. Trump, the total was 20 percent higher than the $893.2 million achieved at the equivalent series in May (excluding a $78.1 million themed sale at Christie’s). “I’m very happy, said a smiling François Odermatt, a collector based in Montreal, just before Phillips’s auction last Wednesday. “The more competition the better.” [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By David Brooks Over the past few days we’ve seen what happens when you assign someone a single identity. Now many Americans don’t recognize one another or their country. The line I heard most on election night was, “This is not my America.” We will have to construct a new national idea that binds and embraces all our particular identities. The good news, as my Times colleague April Lawson points out, is that there wasn’t mass violence last week. That’s a sign that for all the fear and anger of this season, there’s still mutual attachment among us, something to build on. But there has to be a rejection of single-identity thinking and a continual embrace of the reality that each of us is a mansion with many rooms. [ link ]

INDIANA WESLYAN UNIVERSITY INDIANA---Indiana Wesleyan University’s John Wesley Honors College (JWHC) is pleased to announce the 2016 Aldersgate Prize has been awarded to renowned bicultural artist Makoto Fujimura for his book, “ Silence and Beauty: Hidden Faith Born of Suffering ”.  Selected from nearly eighty nominations for this year’s prize, “Silence and Beauty” is a genre-transcending work that contemplates Japan’s earliest encounter with Christianity and the unique ways this legacy survived as a subtle, yet integral, part of the quiet beauty and generative ambiguity that pervades Japanese culture. Fujimura will accept the Aldersgate Prize on April 6, 2017 at the 2016 Celebration of Scholarship Luncheon at Indiana Wesleyan University. [ link ]

LOS ANGELES TIMES By Christopher Knight, Art Critic Albrecht Durer, "Portrait of Jakob Muffel (detail)," 1526, oil on panel transferred to canvas (LACMA CALIFORNIA---Martin Luther (1483-1536) had planned to become a humdrum lawyer, acceding to his father’s wishes. Instead, he broke Europe in two. To mark the transformative aftermath of the event, one of the most far-reaching in European history, several American museums are mounting exhibitions. Prominent among them is the Los Angeles County Museum of Art . The newly opened “Renaissance and Reformation: German Art in the Age of Dürer and Cranach” is a tightly organized, deeply absorbing overview of a subject extraordinary in its complexity. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Ross Douthat The 2016 campaign was a crisis for conservatism; its aftermath is a crisis for liberalism. The left, delivered unexpectedly to impotence, has no choice but to start arguing about how it lost its way. Much of post-1960s liberal politics... has been an experiment in cutting Western societies loose from those foundations, set to the tune of John Lennon’s “Imagine.” No heaven or religion, no countries or borders or parochial loyalties of any kind.... Unfortunately the values of “Imagine” are simply not sufficient to the needs of human life. People have a desire for solidarity that cosmopolitanism does not satisfy, immaterial interests that redistribution cannot meet, a yearning for the sacred that secularism cannot answer. So where religion atrophies, family weakens and patriotism ebbs, other forms of group identity inevitably assert themselves. [ link ]

THE HINDU By Riddhi Doshi Anila Quayyum Agha’s ‘Hidden Diamond’ INDIA---An ongoing group show in the city features the creative expressions of South Asian artists from all over the world. The ongoing intriguing group show titled Delicate Bond of Steel is a result of the unique exchange between Chatterjee & Lal in Mumbai and Aicon Gallery in New York. Another highlight is Lahore-born, Vienna-based artist Anila Quayyum Agha’s ‘Hidden Diamond’. A large stainless steel powder-coated cube casts a beautiful shadow all around the space. “In her work, the cube in black is reminiscent of many things — robust, opaque, masculine and the Kabbah (building at the centre of Islam’s most sacred mosque). It could also just be minimalist and modernist art,” says the co-curator. [ link ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS AOA new board member, Rev. Joshua Burkholder presents Alpha Omega Prize award to Philip Campbell today in Indianapolis. AOA members voted Campbell as Art of the Year for the work, "Rising From the Fire."  INDIANA---The Alpha & Omega Society for Contemporary Religious Arts announced today that Lutheran Pastors Caroline Lesmeister of First Lutheran Church in Indianapolis, and Pastor Joshua Burkholder , a leading clergy advocate for contemporary religious art, were named to its six-member board. The new board member, Rev. Burkholder presented the Alpha Omega Prize to Philip Campbell today. Other board members include Mick Ampy of Lilly Corporation and collector of Christian artifacts along with her wife Pastor Vivian Ampy of Life Journey Church. Founders Ernest and Gregory Disney-Britton will continue to serve as board co-chairs.

ARTNET NEWS By Henri Neuendorf Eli Broad, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Edythe Broad at The Broad Museum opening. Photo: Jerod Harris/Getty Images. Gwyneth Paltrow doesn’t just act like she’s into art, even though she will play Pablo Picasso’s muse Dora Maar alongside Antonio Banderas in the upcoming Picasso biopic 33 Días. The Hollywood actress is a self-confessed art aficionado and enthusiastic art collector. Before embarking on her career as an actress, she was an art history major at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Together with art consultant Mario Brito—who also advises celebs including hip hop mogul P. Diddy—Paltrow has assembled an eclectic collection. The actress has bought photographs by British artist and photographer Darren Almond . She recently told Elle Décor that the artist’s “arresting, large-scale artworks bring a sense of majesty to a room.” [ link ]

BE STILL & KNOW By Ernest Disney-Britton Detail of Lucas Cranach the Elder's "Martin Luther and Katharina von Bora," 1529. Last month I was in Minnesota, and I took a peek at the “ Martin Luther: Art and Reformation ” at the Minneapolis Art Institute featuring sixteen paintings from the Lucas Cranach the Elder’s studio. The exhibition is part of the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s “ Ninety-Five Theses on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences .” Lucas Cranach was a close friend of Martin Luther," who The Guardian newspaper described as having “more or less singlehandedly invented the visual vocabulary for Luther’s rebellion against the Catholic church.” The exhibition is rich with allegories supporting Luther’s belief in faith as the path to salvation, versus my Roman Catholic path of indulgences . [ More ]

THE GAURDIAN By Jonathon Jones A still from an Islamic State video showing the destruction of Nimrud. Photograph: Islamic State/EPA Another defeat for Isis, another ancient civilisation rescued from further acts of deliberate destruction. Nimrud, site of one of the great palaces of the Assyrian empire, has been taken by Iraqi forces after a fierce battle with Islamists. The liberation of its ruins follows the Assad regime’s recapture of what’s left of Palmyra earlier this year. Gradually, the vicious war that Isis has waged on antiquity is being rolled back. Damaged and denuded but still there, the ancient sites of the middle east are being reclaimed. rchaeologists will now be able to go and find out what is left of the great Northwest Palace of King Ashurnasirpal II (883-859 BC), one of the most splendid and spectacular creations of the ancient Assyrians. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Holland Cotter Visitors studying a folio from a large Quran dating to about 1400 in the exhibition “The Art of the Qur’an: Treasures From the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts,” at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in Washington. Credit Justin T. Gellerson for The New York Times WASHINGTON, DC---“The Art of the Qur’an: Treasures From the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts,” at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery here, is the first major United States display of handwritten copies of Islam’s holy text. It’s a glorious show, utterly, and like nothing I’ve ever seen, with more than 60 burnished and gilded books and folios, some as small as smartphones, others the size of carpets. Flying carpets, I should say. This is art of a beauty that takes us straight to heaven. And it reminds us of how much we don’t know — but, given a chance like this, will love to learn — about a religion and a culture lived by, and treasured by, a quarter of the world’s population. [ link ] ...

CHRISTIES Rembrandt Bugatti — brother of Ettore Bugatti, founder of the eponymous automobile company — was a brilliant sculptor of animals. Touched by the story of Bugatti’s premature death, the actor Alain Delon has amassed a superb collection of his work ‘This selection of 12 works by Rembrandt Bugatti belongs to the famous actor Alain Delon,’ explains specialist Pauline de Smedt, introducing a collection of bronze animals and female figures by the artist, to be offered at Christie’s Paris in the sale Centenaire Bugatti , on 22 November. [ link ]

LIONS ROAR By Sam Littlefair The fully restored Buddha in October, 2016. Photo courtesy of ISMEO Italian Archaeological Mission – ACT. PAKISTAN---Nine years after its face was destroyed by Taliban militants, the famous Jahanabad Buddha has been restored. In six trips, each lasting a month, an Italian-led team of restorationists has given the Buddha its face back. The sculpture, a massive cliff-face carving, was widely hailed as one of the most important important pieces of Buddhist art in the region, second only to Afghanistan’s giant Bamiyan Buddhas. Those statues, which stood at 115 and 174 feet tall were destroyed by the Taliban in 2001. Militants destroyed the Jahanabada Buddha in broad daylight in 2007 by drilling explosives into its face and shoulders. In 2012, the Italian Archeological Mission in Pakistan undertook the project of restoring the sculpture, located in Pakistan’s Swat Valley. [ link ]