Disney-Britton

THE BOSTON GLOBE By Cate McQuaid La soledad (Solitude), 1975, oil on canvas, 40 x 50", private collection MASSACHUSETTS---The Cuban painter Rafael Soriano, who died in 2015, was known for flat geometries until he came to the US, in 1962, where his work became luminous, ethereal, and rooted in contemplation. McMullen Museum of Art: " Rafael Soriano: The Artist as Mystic " (Jan. 30-June 4, 2017); Boston College, 2101 Commonwealth Ave., Boston; (617)552-8587; bc.edu/sites/artmuseum [ link ]

HINDU BUSINESSLINE By Georgiana Maddox "All the Flowers Are For Me" by Anila Quayyum Agha. Red Cut paper, encaustic medium, embroidery. Courtesy of artist's website INDIA--- India Art Fair puts Bangladesh and Nepal at centre stage again this year, alongside Sri Lankan works and indigenous works from across India. Opening in New Delhi’s NSCE grounds on February 2, the fair is curated by Neha Kirpal and Marco Fazzone, managing director of Design and Regional Art Fairs, MCH Group. The round-up this year looks like an interesting mix of technically potent indigenous works by local artists from across the country as well as highly conceptual art by international artists such as  Anila Quayyum Agha . Agha presents delicately patterned and layered installations titled ‘All the Flowers are for Me’. The work pays homage to the identity, beauty, and femininity of her mother and other mothers, obscured by the gravestone and the shroud. [ link ]

CHINA CHRISTIAN DAILY The Vatican Museums have launched a new YouTube channel and updated their website to offer high-resolution images of their masterpieces along with mobile-friendly information to the public. The Musei Vaticani YouTube channel shows a number of short visual tours of some of its collections and a range of promotional videos highlighting tours and services offered on-site, including signing guides for deaf people. Meanwhile, its website has been overhauled to be compatible with all electronic platforms and devices. Barbara Jatta, the museums' new director, said at a Vatican news conference yesterday that this was so it could reach into all the "remote corners of the earth". [ link ]

LA VOZ By Joshua Pilkington "Cristo Crucificado" (2015) by Carlos A. Rael COLORADO---For centuries art has often been connected to religion. Whether it’s art made to worship gods of the East or the West, many of the most famous pieces on display across the world are tied to religion or worship in some way. “Before artists like Michelangelo, Da Vinci and Raphael were commissioned to create pieces that mirrored the experiences of the new world of the 15th and 16th centuries, the art of religion really belonged to the people,” said historian Armahn Matis. Though ancient, religious art is most commonly tied to Europe, Asia and the then-burgeoning empires of the Middle East, artist Carlos Rael added that a form of ancient art in the American continent also bears close ties to religion. The art of the santero.  [ link ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By  Ernest  &  Gregory Disney-Britton "We The People Are Greater Than Fear" (2016) by Shepard Fairey It's a poster of a single figure, a woman wearing a Muslim hijab. " We the People: Are Greater than Fear " by Shepard Fairey was designed to disrupt  the rising tide of fear. He is the artist-activist who also created 2008's famous "HOPE" portrait of Barack Obama. Wearing blood red lipstick and staring directly at the viewer with defiant eyes, the young woman is wrapped in the American flag. Is she a Syrian-refugee stopped at the airport, a protesting Catholic nun, or maybe your sister ? "Hope" defined the former presidency and "FEAR" is defining the new one. Download "FEAR" and print it out for yourself or donate to the artist-activist movement and receive an unsigned lithograph .

THE HUFFINGTON POST By Gerry O., KIDS FIRST! Film Critic, Age 14 Movie poster There are many movies that focus on a dog’s world but not about what the dog is actually thinking. A Dog’s Purpose does the opposite, by focusing on the dog and a dog’s place in the world. This perfect story will make you laugh, cry and question the true purpose of life. The movie sets out to inspire the audience and does it by taking the main character through an emotional and long adventure filled with comedy, drama and even some romance. My favorite concept is how it’s told from the point of view and perspective of the dog. I love that you can hear the dog’s thoughts as he experiences several lives. [ link ]

VATICAN RADIO La scultura pistoiese per Lampedusa Pope Francis has again expressed his closeness and concern for migrants and refugees by blessing a sculpture to be placed in the port of the Sicilian Island of Lampedusa, the gateway to Europe for hundreds of thousands fleeing poverty and violence. Before stepping into the Paul VI Hall to lead the weekly General Audience on Wednesday, the Pope met Mauro Vaccai, the artist who has created the sculpture and blessed the work of art that celebrates the culture of welcome put into practice by the Lampedusa authorities and population. [ link ]

THE COLORADO INDEPENDENT By Marianne Goodland COLORADO---Even in redder-than-red Indiana, discriminating against someone because of their sexual orientation is frowned upon. Look at the outcry that came from business leaders and the Republican mayor of Indianapolis after then-Gov. Mike Pence signed a law in 2015 that legalized discrimination against the state’s LGBTQ community. Colorado will not be following Indiana’s example anytime soon. On Wednesday, the House State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee voted along party lines to reject the fifth attempt by Republicans to enact a law that would allow business owners to discriminate based on their religious beliefs. At the federal level, it’s known as the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. So far, at least 20 states have passed their own versions of it. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES Show Us Your Walls By Hilarie M. Sheets Glenn Ligon with a David Hammons work made by bouncing a grimy basketball on paper. Glenn Ligon , the New York artist, is best known for canvases stenciled with fragments of famous texts that explore the experience of being black, and some deliberately slide from legibility into abstraction. While he doesn’t exactly consider himself a collector, the walls of his TriBeCa apartment reflect a rich history of his artistic loves and influences. Giving a tour of the works, acquired through purchase or exchanges with friends, the 56-year-old artist was most excited about one of David Hammons’s basketball drawings, a delicate smokey abstraction made by bouncing a grimy basketball on a piece of paper. [ link ]

CHINA CHRISTIAN DAILY By Yi Yang Detail of hanging scroll, ink on silk CHINA---Recently, in a modern painting exhibition held by the Tianjin Art Museum, the works of the past Catholic painter  Chen Yuandu  was shown for the first time to the public.  Chen Yuandu  was hailed as the pioneer of the "localization" of Catholic art in modern China.  Chen Yuandu  (1902-1967) original name  Chen Xu , was well known as  Luke Chen  in history, which he was sacred named after his conversion to Catholicism. Formerly, he was teaching Chinese traditional paintings in Fu Jen Catholic University's Department of Art, pioneered the style of painting Saints with the Chinese traditional way which was highly appreciated and respected by the archbishop Cardinal Celso Costantini (widely named Gang Heng-yi in China). [ link ]

LOS ANGELES REVIEW OF BOOKS By S. Brent Plate Modern Art and the Life of a Culture: The Religious Impulses of Modernism (Studies in Theology and the Arts) Paperback – June 27, 2016 by Jonathan A. Anderson (Author), William A. Dyrness (Author) Critics and journalists rarely diverge from the secular gaze when it comes to using art and spirit in the same sentence. Apart from Holland Cotter’s usually astute observations in The New York Times , and a handful of others. In Modern Art and the Life of a Culture (2016), Jonathan A. Anderson and William A. Dyrness rewrite modernist history, but from a Protestant theological perspective. Dig around in religion, and we find art. Art historian Karen Gonzalez Rice’s Long Suffering: American Endurance Art as Prophetic Witness (2016) is an important addition to this growing bibliography. Perhaps now, with religious literacy an increasing necessity for civic life, perhaps ultimately, critics will start paying more attention. [ link ]

THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER By Thomas Hine Dancing Ganesh, c. 750, India PENNSYLVANIA---“But what did they change?” That was the unexpected question a friend asked me after seeing the completely revamped South Asian galleries at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which opened to the public last fall. Stone sculpture, most of it fragments from older temples, has long been at the heart of this collection, and it is well-represented here, as it should be. Visitors who know the collection will find their favorites. New lighting and labeling—along with a new installation of temple fragments against a large photograph of a temple wall—illuminate the sculpture as never before. And that is as it should be. It is, after all, a permanent collection, and a distinguished one at that. [ link ]

THE BUSINESS STANDARD GOLDEN AGE: Mathura Buddha is placed at the historic Durbar Hall A unique exhibition of photographs based on Buddhist heritage by art-historian Benoy K Behl will be exhibited at Rashtrapati Bhavan Museum from January 27. The photographs captured by Behl portray the birth and development of different Buddhist schools in India and their spread to several Asian countries. Behl has clicked pictures in the several Asian countries like Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, China, Tibet, Nepal and Bhutan which signifies the journey of Buddhist history and culture from the times of Gautam Buddha. [ link ]

TIMES OF ISREAL By Jessica Steinberg "The Encounter (Jesus and the Jew)" by Reuven Rubin (c. 1922) is one of several paintings in the exhibition by the famed Israeli artist and pioneer. ISRAEL---Jesus and the Jews have had something of a complicated relationship. In “ Behold The Man: Jesus in Israeli Art ,” a new exhibit at the Israel Museum, curator Amitai Mendelsohn examines that complex iconography up close, through the prism of Jewish and Israeli art. The exhibit features 150 works by some 40 artists, showing the evolving attitudes of Jewish, Zionist and Israeli artists toward Jesus. In order to tackle the many works dealing with Jesus, Mendelsohn divided the exhibit into sections, looking at Jesus deployed as a problematic figure in Jewish history, Jesus as the enemy, as a symbol of anti-Semitism, and as someone who had a “huge effect on Jewish existence,” he said. [ link ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS Over 40 works of art are presented in three segments: Translating the Bible (pages from historical bibles), Illuminating the Bible (diverse ways scribes and calligraphers have illuminated the biblical text) and Picturing the Bible (artworks in which the biblical text is an integral part of their creations). MINNESOTA---The public opening for the Cross View Christian Art Festival is February 19, and features the exhibit "Sola Scriptura: Biblical Text and Art." In honor of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, Bowden Collections has organized this exhibition that celebrates the remarkable treasure that God has given humanity—the gift of the Bible. In addition to the featured exhibit, the church sponsored festival features a juried exhibit of Christian art in a wide variety of media by regional artists. Get more information and download the Call for Entries brochure at www.crossview.net .  [ link ]

THE GUARDIAN By Jonathan Jones A detail from the central panel of The Garden of Earthly Delights. Photograph: Museo del Prado The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch is a triptych that can be folded open. When closed, it shows a monochrome painting of the creation of the world, with God looking down on a flat landscape sealed inside a giant bubble. The most hypnotic and perplexing scene, however, is the huge central panel, which depicts a dreamlike landscape of carnal bliss where people cavort naked, consume giant strawberries, explore pink flesh palaces and ride barebacked on fantastic creatures. A book of the Prado’s own Bosch quincentenary published this month by Thames and Hudson. [ link ]

SCROLL.IN By Devdutt Pattanaik Siva Temple, Prambanan, Central Java. Is it our discomfort with homosexuality that makes us believe that it cannot be part of the sacred? I ask this question because it reveals a culture’s relationship between the sacred and the sensual, as well as the politics of desire. The question needs to be seen from two angles: cultural (Why should a lesbian be represented?) and technical (How will a lesbian be represented?). Only Persian painters, patronized by royalty, defiantly painted epic heroes and heroines, venturing at times to depict the pure, virginal, translucent but sexually ambiguous angels and houris. This brings us to the technical question: how will a lesbian be represented? I will restrict myself to the Hindu temple here, for there are greater chances of finding her here than in other sacred Indian art. [ link ]

REUTERS Visitors look at an ancient copy of the Quran, Islam's holy book, written on parchment and dated to the Umayyad period, 8th century, during the re-opening of the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo EGYPT---Egypt's Museum of Islamic Art, home to one of the world's most important collections of Islamic artifacts, is welcoming visitors for the first time since it was damaged in a car bombing three years ago. First opened in 1903, the museum was closed in January 2014 after a bomb attack on the Cairo police directorate across the street severely damaged its facade and dozens of exhibits. Restoration experts were able to salvage all but 19 of the 179 damaged pieces and more than 4,400 exhibits are on display, including about 400 that are being shown for the first time, Egypt's Antiquities Ministry said. [ link ]

ARTNET NEWS Shepard Fairey releases ‘We the People’ series to protest President Trump In the weeks leading up to the inauguration, the art world organized its resistance. Art spaces around the country responded to the #J20 call to stop operations on January 20 to “combat the normalization of Trumpism.” Shepard Fairey designed a new series of hopeful posters for inauguration weekend that did not feature the image of the president this time around. The series was commissioned by non-profit organization the Amplifier Foundation . In a day of protest on Saturday, January 21, hundreds of thousands of women gathered in Washington, DC, to object to the agenda of President Donald Trump. [ link ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By  Ernest  &  Gregory Disney-Britton "The Alabama Window" by John Petts at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama was designated as a national monument last week by President Obama. In one of President Barack Hussein Obama's final acts, he officially designated the new Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument . Today's art news of the week is a stained glass window that was installed in 1965 in a historic black church on that site. Known as the " Wales Window for Alabama ," it shows a black Jesus, his chest thrust out and arms outstretched on a cross, the right-hand pushes away hatred, while the left offers forgiveness. A rainbow halo reflecting America's diversity frames his head. President Barack Obama It is a black figure created by a white artist in 1963 upon hearing the horrific news of a Ku Klux Klan bombing that killed four young black girls attending Sunday school. The ...

FORWARD By Eric A. Goldman Stills from “Moon in the 12th House,” at the New York Jewish Film Festival. NEW YORK---Throughout its history, the Jewish Museum always has classified work created by Jewish artists as Jewish. When it comes to Jewish cinema, however, I have grave misgivings about this interpretation. I love the  New York Jewish Film Festival ! We are blessed that each year — this is the 28th. The focus of a Jewish film festival should be on films that focus on Jewish subjects. If any one creative filmmaker is to be showcased, the fact that the artist might be Jewish is not sufficient reason for that choice. [ link ]

COLORADO PUBLIC RADIO By Stephanie Wolf Pamela DeTuncq / 40 Days and 40 Nights / installation, mixed media / 72 x 96 / $8,000. COLORADO---Religion and its influence is something artist Niza Knoll says she thinks about a lot. Born in Haifa, Israel, Knoll came to the United States with her family when she was still a child. She says she was the only Jewish student in her classes at that time and that made her feel excluded. This is a feeling she's held on too and, more recently, Knoll wondered how often other artists think about their faith. That's the premise of her juried art show " Holy Moly: Religious Commentary in Contemporary Art ." It's up at her gallery, Niza Knoll Gallery , in Denver's Arts District on Santa Fe through next Saturday, January 28. [ link ]

BLOUIN ART INFO Harish Kumar's love for capturing the spiritual harmony of man with God through portraying the stories around the Hindu mythology, symbolization of Hindu gods like Krishna, Ganesha, Hanuman and even Buddha. INDIA--- India Art Festival , an annual celebration of contemporary art in India, is taking place at Thyagaraj Stadium, New Delhi, from January 19 through January 22, 2017. In this four-day event, galleries and artists from rural and urban area are displaying various genres of artworks including paintings, sculptures, photographs, original prints, serigraphs and installations. Being the only multi-city art fair in India that hosts annual editions in Mumbai and New Delhi every year, IAF facilitates artists to create a network with the art galleries and help galleries to build a bond with art dealers, collectors and buyers. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES Show Us Your Walls By Robin Pogrebin Monty Blanchard and Leslie Tcheyan with their salon-style presentation of outsider and other art, at their TriBeCa home. Credit Tony Cenicola/The New York Times< /td> NEW YORK---Monty Blanchard, president of the American Folk Art Museum , and his companion of 10 years, Leslie Tcheyan, a jewelry designer, do have one blank spot left on a wall of their TriBeCa apartment — but just one. The rest of the soaring three-bedroom loft (including the bathrooms and kitchen) is filled with art, reflecting work by untrained and outsider artists. Their collection ranges from a tinfoil wolverine ($100) to a large Martín Ramírez train ($100,000). There are works by recognized masters (Bill Traylor, Thornton Dial , Achilles Rizzoli) and anonymous creators. [ link ]

INDIANAPOLIS RECORDER By Keshia McEntire @Keshiamc12 Spoken-word artist Devon Ginn, a Featured Artist for 2017 INDIANA---Enjoy a lively lineup of African-American musicians, storytellers, dancers and visual artists, and get to know the fresh faces of Indy’s art scene at Art & Soul 2017 . Ernest Disney-Britton, director of grant services and education partnerships with the Arts Council of Indianapolis, says this year’s celebration was partially inspired by the legacy of President Barack Obama. Sportscaster Michael Grady will serve as emcee for the kickoff celebration on Saturday, Jan. 28. The two-hour event will include a procession of African drumming by Griot Drum Ensemble and a jazz tribute to President Obama. [ link ]

QUEER SPIRIT | BLOG By Kittridge Cherry “Saint Sebastian” by Rick Herold Saint Sebastian has been called history’s first gay icon and the patron saint of gay men. His feast day is Jan. 20. It is an intriguing coincidence that Jan. 20 is also Inauguration Day for U.S. presidents. May Saint Sebastian, who was martyred by an oppressive emperor, pray for us as Donald Trump becomes president today on Jan. 20, 2017. Sebastian was an early Christian martyr killed in 288 on orders from the Roman emperor Diocletian. He is the subject of countless artworks that show him being shot with arrows. Little is known about his love life, so his long-standing popularity with gay men is mostly based on the way he looks.  [ link ]

THE GUARDIAN By Jonathon Jones "Salome" (1510) by Sebastiano del Piombo. UK National Gallery The names are not quite equal in fame. This spring the National Gallery is putting on an exhibition called " Michelangelo and Sebastiano ." You may have heard of Michelangelo . But who is Sebastiano , and why has he got a joint exhibition with one of the greatest artists who ever lived? Sebastiano’s art veers between sensuality and spirituality, the service of sex and God. The provocation of his early art still shines through in his painting Salome , also known as The Daughter of Herodias (1510). A young woman, very obviously painted from life, turns towards us from a window that is filled with a blue-hilled north Italian landscape. [ link ]

ART NEWS By Alex Greenberger One day ahead of President-elect Donald J. Trump’s inauguration comes news that members of his transition team have been preparing dramatic budget cuts that would eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. The Hill reports that doing so would be part of a general trend under the Trump administration, which is reportedly seeking to cut federal spending by about $10.5 trillion over the next ten years. Over the years, Trump has been unsupportive of the NEA. As President-elect, Trump has not made an official statement about his plans for the NEA. [ link ]

THE WASHINGTON POST By Sarah Pulliam President Obama, first lady Michelle Obama, Jill Biden and Vice President Biden attend a prayer service at the cathedral on Jan. 22, 2013.  WASHINGTON, DC---The Washington National Cathedral, which has long been a gathering spot for symbolic national events, has found itself in the middle of controversy over whether Christians who oppose Donald Trump’s rhetoric should participate in his inauguration. The 110-year-old cathedral, which is the second-largest cathedral in the country and was chartered by Congress, has hosted several interfaith prayer services since President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s first inauguration in 1933. During President Richard M. Nixon’s inauguration in 1973, the cathedral held a protest, drawing more than 10,000 people, according to the Harvard Crimson. [ link ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS Madonna at the Fountain, 1439. Jan van Eyck (Flemish, 1390–1441). Oil on panel; 19 x 12.5 cm. Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunst, Antwerp, inv. no. 411. OHIO---"Myth and Mystique" at the Cleveland Museum of Art presents, for the first time, the museum’s Gothic table fountain as the focus of a single exhibition. The table fountain will be displayed among a group of objects including luxury silver, hand-washing vessels, enamels, illuminated manuscripts and a major painting. One of those signature works is the international loan  of Jan van Eyck’s painting " Madonna at the Fountain " from the Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp, which also comprises part of the museum’s centennial loan program. Van Eyck is considered the most significant Northern Renaissance artist of the 15th century, and only about 25 surviving paintings can be confidently attributed to him.

HYPERALLERGIC By Allison Meier Stained glass window "Alabama Window" by artist John Petts in the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, funded by the people of Wales as an in memoriam after the 1963 bombing (Spring 1963) As he approached his last week as the US President, Barack Obama designated three national monuments that represent post-Civil War Reconstruction and Civil Rights heritage. Announced [last Friday] , just ahead of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, the new monuments include 19th-century architecture in Beaufort County, South Carolina; pivotal Civil Rights movement locales in Birmingham, Alabama; and places associated with the 1961 attack on the Freedom Riders in Anniston, Alabama. National monuments can be designated by the president through the Antiquities Act of 1906. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Nina Siegal “St. Jerome,” attributed to the circle of the 16th-century Italian artist Parmigianino, has been determined to be a modern fake, according to a complaint filed by Sotheby’s auction house in United States District Court in New York on Tuesday. Credit via Sotheby's NETHERLANDS---A painting attributed to the circle of the 16th-century Italian artist known as Parmigianino has been determined to be a modern fake, according to a complaint filed by Sotheby’s auction house in United States District Court in New York on Tuesday. The company filed the complaint against the collector Lionel de Saint Donat-Pourrières, who consigned the painting to Sotheby’s for a 2012 auction, where it sold to another collector for $842,500. This is the second painting that has been deemed a fake in what may be a widening old masters’ forgery case that could go back several years. [ link ]

ARTLYST By Revd Jonathan Evens Paul Nash Tate Britain UNITED KINGDOM---Christian Science does not explain the work of Paul Nash and Winifred Nicholson just as surely as their work does not illustrate Mary Baker Eddy’s Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. Yet Christian Science and religion more broadly is a factor in their work and one, which if overlooked or disregarded, diminishes our understanding of and appreciation for their actual achievements. Religion is a factor in the work of each of these artists; one which needs to be explored more than has often been the case in the past and which should be given substantive weight in understanding their work whilst also recognising that its significance does not exhaust the ways in which their work can be understood and appreciated.[ link ]

THE NATIONAL By Anna Seaman Jan 17 2017 - Image of a piece of Islamic art used by Art Experts Plus to promote their latest course. Courtesy Art Experts Plus DUBAI---Take a crash course in Islamic art with Art Experts Plus this weekend. It is a two-session course designed as a very brief introduction to the main aspects of historical Islamic art led by Dr Ulrike Khamis. The first session on Friday at Andakulova Gallery , will introduce students to the definition of Islamic Art before providing a brief overview of its development with regards to art and architecture. The course costs $370 and takes place on Friday and Saturday 20-21 January. Transportation from Dubai to Sharjah for the second day will be provided with no extra cost. [ link ]

CHRISTIE'S William Edmondson (1874-1951), Lion, c. 1937. Limestone and mortar, lion 22 in high, 37½ in long, 7 in wide; An essential introduction to the ‘Outsider’ taking the art world by storm, whose rare "Lion" is set to star in our 20 January sale. William Edmondson’s 1937 exhibition at the New York institution was historic, cementing his important place in the history of American art. It was overseen by MoMA’s first director, Alfred Barr, who commented: ‘Usually the naïve artist works in the easier medium of painting. Edmondson’s decision to start making sculpture is said to have followed a religious vision, in which God told him to take up tools and work on his behalf. In the press release for his 1937 MoMA exhibition, he described the resulting forms as ‘miracles’, and the ‘word [of] Jesus speaking his mind in my mind’.  [ link ]

CHRISTIES By Tim Schmelcher, International specialist Anonymous, 15th Century (German School), The Pietà. Woodcut with extensive hand-colouring, circa 1450. Sheet 403 x 275 mm. Sold for £223,000 on 3 July 2001 at Christie’s London Most early prints appear to have been images intended for private devotion, such as the Man of Sorrows, the Virgin or a saint, depicted in relatively simple outlines and meant to be hand-coloured. A good although slightly later example is The Pietà from mid 15th-century Germany (above), which was sold at Christie’s in 2001. It is still a matter of research and academic debate as to where the very first woodcuts in Europe were made, whether in Italy or north of the Alps. The term refers to any printed image, irrespective of the actual printing technique employed, which has been created during a period of over 600 years, from the beginning of printmaking in Europe to the end of the 18th century or early 19th century. [ link ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By  Ernest  &  Gregory Disney-Britton "Last Supper" (1999) by Adi Nes. 35-3/8 by 57-1/8 inch On this weekend, as Americans  honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. , a Jewish photographer also reminds us of the price of a dream. There is a foreshadowing of death in  Adi Nes' 1999 version of the " Last Supper ." Inspired by  Leonardo's  painting, the  Nes  version features 14 young Israeli soldiers who sit or stand behind a long, dinner table in a Jewish army barracks. They light each other's cigarettes, pour one another coffee, rest a hand on a brother's shoulder, or look off into space. It's a scene loaded with fraternal spirit. The color print remains on display in " Behold the Man: Jesus in Israeli Art " at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem through April 16, 2017.

THE HUFFINGTON POST By Zack Hunt The entire movie is an unflinching look at some of the most challenging and darkest parts of faith. The early 20th century French Catholic philosopher Jacques Maritain once wrote, “If you want to make a Christian work, then be Christian, and simply try to make a beautiful work, into which your heart will pass; do not try to ‘make Christian.’” As you are well aware, there is an entire genre of films known as “Christian movies” that has exploded in recent years as the ability to make a polished, Hollywood looking film (and the ability to turn a profit) has become easier. Enter Martin Scorsese. His is probably not the first name to come to mine when you think of someone to direct a film about faith, but that may be because he doesn’t shove his Catholic faith down your throat in every film he makes, even though he is so committed to that faith that at one point he considered joining the priesthood instead of becoming a director. [ link ]

THE BAPTIST STANDARD By DAVID VAN BIEMA "Silence," a new movie by Martin Scorsese, examines issues of faith as it tells the story of Jesuit priests in 17th century Japan. “Mako” Fujimura, a Japanese-American evangelical artists, served as special adviser for the film. (Paramount Pictures) HOLLYWOOD---Decades before Makoto “Mako” Fujimura became America’s most successful evangelical fine artist—and even longer before he advised Martin Scorsese on the director’s new movie, Silence—an unplanned turn down a darkened museum hall in Tokyo defined his artistic calling. During Japan’s 250-year persecution of its Christians, magistrates forced suspected believers to trample the images or face torture and death. At first Fujimura worried the film might be “a culture wars project.” But the script impressed him, and an hour-long meeting with Scorsese convinced him of the director’s intellectual enthusiasm as well as earnestness. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES Show Us Your Walls By Gia Kourlasbr Isaac Mizrahi in the den of his Greenwich Village apartment, where one wall is dominated by an abstract by Tomory Dodge. On the floor by his chair is a painting by Pamela Jorden, and to the right is a work by Benjamin Butler. Credit Tony Cenicola/The New York Times A brisk tour of the art in Isaac Mizrahi’s Greenwich Village apartment is intimate — like an introduction to this fashion designer’s 20 closest friends. Lining his walls are works by Jane Freilicher, Maureen Gallace, Alex Katz, Lisa Sanditz, Adrianne Lobel and Tomory Dodge — even Julia Sherman , his cousin’s grandmother, whose bold color choices and geometric patterns “drove me crazy,” said Mr. Mizrahi, the star of QVC’s home-shopping network, and “influenced me a lot.” "I’m a designer, I’m a writer, I’m a performer a little bit. I make shows. And so I look at these things longingly, thinking, if I were an artist, that’s something that might come out of me....

THE NEW YORK TIMES  By James Poniewozik HOLLYWOOD---HBO’s “ The Young Pope ,” beginning on Sunday and showing Sundays and Mondays, is a visually sublime but textually ridiculous horror tale in which the monster is the pontiff himself. This 10-episode series begins after the election as pope of Lenny Belardo ( Jude Law ), a fresh-faced, little-known American. The church establishment, led by the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Voiello ( Silvio Orlando ), hopes he will be “a telegenic puppet” and a bridge between church conservatives and liberals. Mr. Sorrentino composes shots as if painting religious art, and “The Young Pope” looks awesome in both the vernacular and spiritual senses. [ link ]

THE GUARDIAN By Jonathon Jones Grotesque … the Isenheim Altarpiece by Matthias Grünewald. Photograph: Heritage Images/Getty Images Glasgow University is giving theology students what the Daily Mail calls “trigger warnings” about potentially upsetting images of the crucifixion. One reason people before modern times wanted their crucifixions gory and their churches full of images of death was that mortality and its horrors haunted their real lives. But we in wealthy peaceful countries don’t usually see death on the street. We can turn our eyes away more easily from suffering. That is why we need art’s tormenting images of the crucifixion – to make us see what we would rather ignore. [ link ]

SWARAJYA By Vamsee Juluri "Hanuman Conversing" Chola period (880–1279). Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Hanuman, the “ monkey grammarian ” of Octavio Paz’s book by the same name, stands beautifully in the Asian Art Museum , San Francisco. When I picture Hanuman, it is often in depictions of his physical prowess and accomplishment, in flight usually, with the mountain on his palm. But then, we might ask the question that critics of colonialism and cultural appropriation have asked many times before. It is art, sure, but is it just art? The danger of the museum discourse is that it is not inaccurate. It is inadequate. Outside, in the museum bookstore, you see more of the same, the highly learned and credentialed academic books on Hinduism and South Asia, the same old coloniser’s gaze, now recast into a mercenary subaltern premise. [ link ]

THE ART NEWSPAPER By Jane Jakeman The horoscope of Iskandar ibn 'Umar Shaykh, Iran (1411), based on an astronomically accurate record of the heavens at the time of his birth, with astrological symbols added (Photo: courtesy of the Wellcome Library) This intelligent work, partly a brief catalogue of an exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (until 15 January), partly a trio of studies by leading scholars, tackles an area of Islamic culture that is rarely addressed: the relationship between formal religion and actual practices. " Power and Protection " is a slim volume, but a much-needed one, integrating courtly and demotic aspects of the manifestations of religious belief. It is an excellent source and starting point for anyone seeking to understand the Islamic world, especially its characteristically inseparable materiality and religiosity. [ link ]

KENT ONLINE By Angela Cole "Walking on the Water" (2006) by Maggi Hambling from the Methodist Modern Art Collect ion One of the UK’s most significant collections of modern Christian art is to go on display in its entirety. The Methodist Modern Art Collection will go on show at the Beaney House of Art and Knowledge in Canterbury from Saturday, January 14. "Picturing Faith" is a unique gathering of work which has toured the world since it was created more than 40 years ago, and has more than 40 works by the likes of acclaimed artists Graham Sutherland , Elisabeth Frink , Edward Burra and Patrick Heron . [ link ]

THE WASHINGTON POST By Kishwar Rizvi At prayer in the mosque, Damascus, Syria. April 27, 1908. Stereograph. (Library of Congress) Teaching Islamic art and architecture can feel like walking through a minefield. Long before “war on terror” was a common phrase, the sites I lecture on were contentious, the evisceration of cultural heritage already underway. In my first class, on Islam’s holiest site, the Kaaba in Mecca, I couldn’t avoid showing images of the sacred monument overshadowed by towering hotels. The hardest segment is on Iraq; some years I skip the Abbasids, as I am unable to talk about the historic city of Baghdad or the holy shrines in Najaf and Karbala, popular pilgrimage sites that have been targeted in sectarian wars, without tears in my eyes. [ link ]

THE GUARDIAN By Adrian Searle, Jonathan Jones, Oliver Wainwright and Sean O'Hagan

THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Touching the hem of God, by James C. Christensen UTAH--- James C. Christensen , a painter renowned for religious- and fantasy-based imagery, and a former art professor at Brigham Young University, died Sunday in Orem from the effects of cancer. He was 74. Christensen was born Sept. 26, 1942, and was raised in Culver City, Calif. He served a two-year mission to Uruguay for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, then attended the University of California at Los Angeles for a time before moving to Utah and graduating from BYU. He taught at the LDS Church-owned Provo school for 21 years, and had his work featured in shows throughout the West, as well as in publications such as Spectrum, American Illustration Annual and Japan's Outstanding American Illustrators. [ link ]

JEWISH PRESS By Saul Jay Singer Aan original print of Marc Chagall’s “The Wailing Wall,” which he has signed on the verso (not shown) “Marc Chagall Paris 1931-33 Le Mur des Pleurs.” The original painting hangs in the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. The Kotel Hamaaravi , or Western Wall, has been fundamental to Jewish consciousness since the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 A.D. It is not surprising, therefore, that it became a popular theme for artists, particularly in the 19th century, when many in the West, including notables such as U.S. Grant, Theodore Roosevelt, Herman Melville, and Mark Twain, traveled to see the Holy Land. Where other artists had found inspiration in the unusual landscapes and people of the North African region, Chagall, as a Jew, had an entirely different perspective: he was not searching for mere external stimuli but rather for an inner spirituality from the land of his ancestors. [ link ]

THE WASHINGTON POST Marc Chagall’s “Yellow Crucifixion” shows the suffering of Jewish Holocaust victims through the image of Jesus Christ as a Jew. (Avshalom Avital/The Israel Museum) ISRAEL---Jews have traditionally shunned Jesus and his gospel. And while the Holy Land might be his accepted birthplace, for Jews in the modern state of Israel there is often resistance to learning about or even acknowledging Christianity. The sculpture, titled “Christ Before the People’s Court,” would not be out of place in a church in Rome. The sculpture, created by Russian Jewish artist Mark Antokolsky in 1876, is part of a collection of more than 150 artworks by 40 Jewish and Israeli artists who have used Christian imagery to challenge long-held taboos in both communities. Israeli Museum: " Behold the Man: Jesus in Israeli Art " (Through April 16, 2017) [ link ]