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CHRISTIANITY TODAY By S.D. Kelly Image: Courtesy Hulu It’s no coincidence that The Handmaid’s Tale , the Hulu original series based on the Margaret Atwood book of the same name, is being released now, more than 30 years after the book’s publication. Capitalizing upon the parallels between its fictional American dystopia and the distress that many people feel at the current state of American politics, T he Handmaid’s Tale has been celebrated as a timely entry into the conversation about where we are headed as a nation. The villains of The Handmaid’s Tale are fundamentalist Christians who run a totalitarian theocratic republic—an echo of the Islamic Republic established in Iran. One thing The Handmaid’s Tale gets undeniably right, is this: We do bad stuff, and we need personal, unmediated divine intervention to do otherwise. [ More ]

CANADIAN JEWISH NEWS By Sara Horowitz Jorge Jaramillo FLICKR CANADA---When I first met the wonderful American Jewish poet Marge Piercy, she asked me about Shavuot and paper cutting. One way that Ashkenazi Jews beautified their homes for Shavuot was by creating and displaying paper cuttings. Called in Yiddish, shevuoslakh (or shavuosl) and royzalakh (or raizelach) – literally meaning little Shavuots and little roses – the paper cuttings were mounted on windows, so they would be visible both indoors and out. In Judaism, we call this hiddur mitzvah, the beautification of a commandment. [ More ]

ALETEIA By Daniel Esparza A church made of 100 layers and 2,000 columns of steel stands 10 meters high in Belgium. LIMBURG---For evident reasons, Belgian architects Pieterjan Gijs and Arnout Van Vaerenbergh named their project “reading between the lines.” This church, which is made of 100 layers and 2,000 columns of steel, stands 10 meters high in Haspengouw, in Belgium. It is part of a bigger project which aims to introduce contemporary art and architecture in different places around the Flemish area of Limburg in the next five years, according to the note published by Architectism.com. Even if the church is inspired by traditional models one finds all around Belgium, its materials and open structure make it a unique building. [ More ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS Early Ming figure of Caturbhuja Manjusri estimated at $1,031,638 Christie's Inc. will auction a very rare imperial gilt-bronze figure of the diety Caturbhuja from the period 1426-1435. The figure is intricately modeled seated in dhyanasana on a double-lotus base with four arms. The upper right hand is wielding a sword above his head, and the lower left hand holding a lotus stem supporting a book of the ‘Perfection of Wisdom’, Prajnaparamita Sutra, to one side of the shoulder. [ Bid ]

ALETEIA By Joanne McPortland The Godfather’s funeral? An Addams Family remake? No, just diplomatic protocol. We live in a world where few social conventions are firmly upheld. Nobody takes the request to RSVP seriously. Every day is casual Friday. When was the last time you worried about the proper placement of utensils or glassware for a dinner party? But we’re so unfamiliar with the very notion of conventions that when they do show up in our lives – as with yesterday’s social media blitz featuring the Trump family’s visit to the Vatican – we are startled and confused. Here’s the unfunny, unviral truth. The Ladies Trump were simply complying with a detailed and time-honored Vatican protocol for women in formal diplomatic circumstances. [ More ]

BACKSTAGE By Melinda Loewenstein Photo Source: by Michelle Pemberton NEW YORK---The simple question “Why are we friends?” provided the inspiration for the bizarre web series “Homebody” about two roommates – one human and one sock puppet. After starting his career in photography , director Jonathan Frey has been filming for nearly six years, but in January he decided it was time to use his skills and creativity for a personal project. The six episode series focuses on the two roommates “battling it out to why they are even friends,” Frey explains. The characters don’t really acknowledge that one is a puppet. [ More ]

STYLE WEEKLY A keynote address will be given by contemporary artist, Lalla Essaydi , whose work "often combines Islamic calligraphy with representations of the female form to address the complex realities of Arab female identity from the unique perspective of intimate, personal experience." RICHMOND, Va. ----In 2004, Richmond held its first major international conference on Islamic Art. Since then, the conference has been held in Qatar, Spain and Italy. Next fall, it will be returning to Richmond's Virginia Museum of Fine Arts on Nov. 2 through Nov. 4. “ Islamic Art: Past, Present and Future ” is sponsored by Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts , VCUarts Qatar and the Qatar Foundation. The Thursday through Saturday event will feature opening remarks by "her excellency Sheikha Al Mayassa Bint Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani," the chairperson of Qatar Museums, Doha Film Institute and Qatar Leadership, and a "proponent of the arts as a catalys...

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By  Gregory  &  Ernest Disney-Britton Roberto Cuoghi's "Imitation of Christ" (2017). Courtesy of the Venice Biennial Italian artist Roberto Cuoghi is fascinated by issues surrounding transformation, time, memory, identity, and death. His " Imitation of Christ " at the Venice Biennial, builds upon that aesthetic in a futuristic installation where statues of Christ on the Cross are sculpted from organic materials. These sacred effigies are stored in giant transparent igloos where mold and bacteria corrode the body of the Christ modifying its thickness and color. The work investigates the phases of creation, deterioration, death, and resurrection creating images that are not ever-identical but instead eternally different. Every copy of Coughi's Christs on the cross differs from the others forcing Christians to question what does it mean to be like Christ? [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Julfikar Ali Manik and Ellen Barry The statue personifying justice that was removed from outside the Supreme Court in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in the predawn hours on Friday. Credit Abir Abdullah/European Pressphoto Agency DHAKA, Bangladesh — Under pressure from Islamic hard-liners, the Bangladeshi authorities in the predawn hours on Friday swiftly and quietly removed a sculpture of a woman personifying justice from outside the country’s Supreme Court building. The statue had been the target of angry, swelling protests by Hefazat-e-Islam, a vast Islamic organization based in Chittagong, which argued that art depicting living beings was proscribed by Islam. The decision is a substantial victory for Hefazat, which has said that it hopes to eventually remove all public art representing humans or animals across Bangladesh. The organization has also called for an end to art classes that teach life drawing in public schools. [ More ]

POLYGON By Samit Sarkar @SamitSarkar The video game is scheduled for release sometime before April 2018, and the teaser indicated that a full announcement trailer is coming this Friday, May 26. MONTANA--- Far Cry 5 will tell the story of a militant Christian cult, if a piece of artwork released today by publisher Ubisoft is any indication. There’s a lot to analyze in the image, which you can view in full below. It features seven characters arrayed around a table à la Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper, with the central Christ figure wearing yellow-tinted hunting glasses and sitting in front of an open book. That brings us back to the religious elements of this artwork, which suggest that these individuals adhere to a perversion of Christianity. Next to the book, in front of the Jesus figure, you can see the elements of the Eucharist: a goblet of wine and a piece of bread. [ More ]

TUKO | THE HEART OF KENYA "The Creation Of Adam" by Harmonia Rosales CHICAGO---A famous painting by Michelangelo has been reinterpreted in quite a different way.  Instead of a white male God and man, the piece shows female black women. The artist says it make sense if all humans came out of Africa. A 33-year-old artist, Harmonia Rosales living in Chicago recreated her own interpretation of the famous Renaissance fresco from Rome’s Sistine Chapel, "The Creation Of Adam" –and it has created quite a stir. The original painting by Michelangelo shows a white male God, and a white male “first man”. [ More ]

LION'S ROAR By Lilly greenblatt I Just Wanna Be An Old Yogi by Moyo, 2015. Imported blue ink and imported color pencil on hemp paper from Nepal, on prison-issued art board. Despite the 5,000 miles between them, death row inmate “Moyo” and pen pal Maria Jain have come together to showcase his series of Buddha portraits in the exhibition “ Buddhas on Death Row .” American Buddhist artist, Moyo, studies the image of the Buddha using a multitude of mediums. Purposeful strokes of prison-issued watercolor paint, jewel-toned ink, colored pencil, and crayon all come together to manifest his unique vision of the Buddha — almost always depicted with a delicate smile. He does this from his cell in solitary confinement, smaller than the average parking space, where he has sat on death row for the last sixteen years. [ More ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES Show Us Your Walls By Laura Collins-Hughes Dave Malloy, the composer and performer, in his Brooklyn studio. He painted the blue acrylic that hangs above the whiteboard: “I keep this thing here as a reminder that you can make bad art and that’s just part of the process.” Credit Tony Cenicola/The New York Times NEW YORK---The composer and performer Dave Malloy isn’t the kind of New Yorker who can look at a room and instantly tell you its square footage. With an upright piano against one wall and a wooden thumb piano hanging from another, this unassuming space strung with festive mini-lights is where he writes. “The coolest thing about having a show on Broadway is that fans sometimes just make art for you,” said Mr. Malloy, a friendly bear of a man who this spring made his Broadway acting debut, filling in for Josh Groban in the role of Pierre, which Mr. Malloy originated Off Broadway. When I get stuck creatively as a composer, moving to a different art form is ...

TAYLOR & FRANCIS ONLINE Work by participating artist Nathan Voirol BERKELEY, CA---From January 31 through May 26, 2017, the Doug Adams Gallery of the Center for Arts & Religion (CARe) at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA organization an exhibition “Reverberating Echoes: Contemporary Art Inspired by Traditional Islamic Art”. The exhibition is part of the broader mission of CARe to explore the relationship between the arts and religious traditions. It examines the influence of tradition visual culture on contemporary practice. [More] [ More ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Holland Cotter Roberto Cuoghi’s “Imitazione di Cristo” (“Imitation of Christ”) at the Italian Pavilion of the 57th Venice Biennale. VENICE, Italy---Timing isn’t everything, but it’s a lot. If the bland, soft-power 2017 Venice Biennale, called “ Viva Arte Viva ,” had arrived two, or four, or six years ago, it might have passed muster, even made sense. But coming post-Brexit and post-Trump, it feels almost perversely out of sync with the political moment, and nowhere near strong enough to define a moment of its own. At the Arsenale, Zad Moultaka’s sound-and-light apocalypse in the Lebanon Pavilion, with a bomber fuselage at its center, is something to see, as is Roberto Cuoghi’s sexy sculptural mortuary at the Italian Pavilion, organized by Cecilia Alemani. [ More ]

ARTNET | NEWS By Henri Neuendorf Caravaggio The Denial of St Peter (1610). Photo: courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. NEW YORK---The Metropolitan Museum of Art has brought together the last two paintings that Caravaggio created in the final months of his life, in an exhibition that reflects the artist’s struggle to come to terms with his tumultuous personal saga. He eventually met a painful death—either by illness on a fatal shore, or murder—that is still shrouded in speculation. At the time of painting his final two masterworks— The Denial of Saint Peter and The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula , both from 1610—Caravaggio was in extremis. Reuniting the paintings for the first time since 2004, the show is a rare opportunity to see these dark scenes side-by-side. [ More ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS Shahzia Sikander "Portrait of the Artist Ayad Akhtar," 2016 (Image courtesy- Pace Editions)  SAN FRANCISCO---“Energy sparked by creativity is full of potential.” So begins Shahzia Sikander’s account describing the sense of exploration and excitement sparked by her recent collaboration with the Pulitzer prize-winning playwright, novelist and screenwriter Ayad Akhtar. Both Pakistani Americans, Sikander and Akhtar have incorporated their Muslim heritage into their separate practices in ways that challenge mainstream perceptions of American Muslim identity. The result of their original collaboration is on view in the  Asian Art Museum's "Portrait of the Artist," describing a mystical night journey of the Prophet Muhammad.

ARTDAILY Tzedakah Box in Art Nouveau Style Denmark, Copenhagen, MB Mogens Ballin, 1901 Pewter H. 11.5 cm × L. 7 cm × W. 5.5 cm ROM 999.119.40. TORONTO---The Royal Ontario Museum announced a new ROM Press publication featuring objects from the Dr. Fred Weinberg and Joy Cherry Weinberg Judaica Collection. The lavishly illustrated catalogue Judaica: The Dr. Fred Weinberg and Joy Cherry Weinberg Collection at the Royal Ontario Museum is written by ROM Curator Emeritus K. Corey Keeble. Presenting a compelling look into Jewish cultural life, the publication highlights important examples of European decorative arts, including ceramics, glass, metalwork, textiles, and works on paper, which are displayed in the Museum’s Dr. Fred Weinberg and Joy Cherry Weinberg Judaica Gallery. [ More ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Jim Dwyer A rendering of the proposed mosque in Bernards Township, N.J., which has been entangled in a protracted battle over parking spaces. Credit Karsten Moran for The New York Times BERNARD'S TOWNSHIP, NJ---This is the chronicle of how a founding principle of this country, the freedom to worship, crashed into a public bureaucracy in the venerable and prosperous New Jersey suburb of Bernards Township. More than five years ago, the Islamic Society of Basking Ridge sought permits to build a mosque big enough for 150 people on a four-acre parcel, where zoning permitted houses of worship. This week, there is still no mosque — but five years of hearings and litigation about the proposal are drawing to a close. The settlement would include the building permit long denied to the Islamic Society. [ More ]

THE STAR, KENYA By Grace Kerongo Soi explained his symbolic, not realistic, painting stands for the closeness of church leaders and politicians in Kenya, a highly religious country. NAIROBI---Controversial artist Michael Soi has gone ham on the National Museum of Kenya for commissioning work for the Museum Day, then turning it down, claiming it has "issues revolving around nudity". Soi told Word Is, "We presented our work to the museum three days ago and a few hours later we got a call to go to the museum. They told us they 'looked at the work and felt that the work was not appropriate for our audience.' We were literarly told to present either new work as an option because this would never go up in the gallery." The theme for the Museum day was "Speak The Unspeakable". Soi opted to address this issue by painting art pieces about contemporary religion. [ More ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Maya Salam Maan S. Khalsa after he was attacked in September. Credit The Sikh Coalition Two men were sentenced on Thursday to three years in prison for attacking a Sikh man in California last year, repeatedly punching him through his car window and cutting off his hair. The men, Chase B. Little and Colton T. Leblanc, both of Texas, each pleaded no contest to felony assault with a hate crime enhancement in the beating of Maan S. Khalsa, 41, in Richmond, Calif., near San Francisco, on Sept 25, 2016. Mr. Khalsa, an information technology specialist, was dressed in traditional Sikh garb, including a turban, while heading to a religious ceremony. [ More ]

FINANCIAL TIMES The Supper at Emmaus, c1530, by Titian © RMN-Grand Palais/Stéphane Maréchalle LONDON---Masterpieces from the “extraordinary” art collection of King Charles I, most of which was sold off after his execution and dispersed abroad, will be reunited for the first time in 350 years for an exhibition next year. An avid collector and artistic patron, the Stuart king assembled around 1,500 works and 500 sculptures over 20 years, including works by Van Dyck, Rubens, Titian , Holbein and Mantegna. But after he was beheaded in 1649, the Republican government sold off the bulk of his collection — some to Palace workmen whose bills had not been paid — and melted down pieces in gold and silver. [ link ]

ARTDAILY Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, Christ After the Flagellation, ca. 1670 (detail). Oil on canvas. Gift of Ellnora D. Krannert 1960-4-1. CHAMPAIGN, ILL.- Nancy Karrels relishes solving the mysteries behind the paintings and objects we see in art museums. Karrels – a doctoral student in art history at the University of Illinois who also has two law degrees – investigates the backgrounds and histories of objects to trace their path from creator through each owner. She has created an exhibition for Krannert Art Museum on provenance research and her efforts to document the history of ownership of several of the museum’s works. “ Provenance: A Forensic History of Art ” opened May 13 and runs through June 2018. [ More ]

ARTDAILY French art expert Stephane Pinta shows a radiography of the painting entitled "Judith cutting off the head of Holofernes", presented as being painted by Italian artist Caravaggio (1571-1610), while experts are still to determine its authenticity. The painting was found out in an attic of a house near Toulouse, southwestern France. PATRICK KOVARIK / AFP. Antoine Froidefond PARIS---An original Caravaggio or a master fake? This is the question that continues to befuddle art historians and experts about a painting discovered in a French attic three years ago. The 400-year-old canvas -- depicting the beheading of an Assyrian general, Holofernes, by Judith from the biblical Book of Judith -- was found in 2014 when the owners of a house near the southwestern city of Toulouse were investigating a leak in the ceiling. Discovered in remarkably good condition, the work was painted between 1600 and 1610, specialists believe, and could be worth as much as 120 million euros (...

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS Mural from the Tepantitla compound showing what has been identified as an aspect of the Great Goddess of Teotihuacan, from a reproduction in the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. SAN FRANCISCO---This September,  The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco will present "Teotihuacan: City of Water, City of Fire,"  an original exhibition exploring how artworks from the ancient city shape our understanding of Teotihuacan as an urban environment. One of the earliest, largest, and most important cities in the ancient Americas, Teotihuacan is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the most visited archaeological site in Mexico. The exhibition will feature recent, never-before-seen archaeological discoveries and other major loans from Mexican and US cultural institutions. Monumental and ritual objects from Teotihuacan’s three pyramids will be shown alongside mural paintings, ceramics, and stone sculptures from the city’s apartment compounds.

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By  Gregory  &  Ernest Disney-Britton Andy Warhol's "Last Supper" (1986); synthetic polymer and silkscreen ink on canvas 40 x 40 in. A crucifix hangs in my office, but when I have visitors, they comment on everything on the walls but the cross. In the art world, we feel free to bring feminism, sexual identity, race, economics, and even politics into our daily work, but not religion. All artists are revolutionaries who push the boundaries of what is accepted, so why is the art world afraid to cross this one line? Pop icon  Andy Warhol  is the most famous artist of the 20th century, and he kept his Christianity hidden throughout his career. He only crossed that line at the age of 58 when commissioned to do his monumental " Last Supper " series. A year later, he unexpectedly died. As Christians, we are the namesakes of a revolutionary whose weapons were teaching and healing, and artists are called to join that fight with our wo...

RELIGIONS NEWS SERVICE By G. Jeffrey MacDonald CHESTNUT HILL, Mass---Over the past decade, more than 85 Christian colleges and universities have added new degree programs in the arts, according to data from college associations. At least 10 have introduced new degrees specifically in visual arts since 2012. Some have also hired new visual arts faculty, expanded studios, added galleries or opened museums. Though offered at Christian colleges, many of the new classes aren’t necessarily producing art that’s explicitly Christian – or even religious. The idea is to give students, who might or might not be people of faith, a medium where they can explore whatever is meaningful to them. [ More ]

WND.COM By Marisa Martin Trump posing with her painting by Alex Da Corte (which he demanded she remove from her walls) The Trumps haven’t shriveled up in apologetic mortis. Ivanka continues her public love affair with art, and doesn’t care if some practitioners attempt to make it unrequited. Recently, she posed at the Hirshhorn, in Washington, D.C. It was the first stop for a traveling Yayoi Kusama exhibit of her “Infinity Mirrors.” Ivanka is attacked because she is a soft target, more than anything else. HAG acknowledged, “Our mission is to irritate Ivanka, her family” and the administration. They admit artists have “a privileged position,” fusing power with art to make itself “more attractive and more palatable and more beautiful.” They know this because they were fully engaged in doing so for the last president. They merely don’t like this one. [ More ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS Andy Warhol (1928-1987) "Last Supper" stamped with signature 'Andy Warhol' (on the overlap); synthetic polymer and silkscreen ink on canvas 40 x 40 in. (101.6 x 101.6 cm.) Painted in 1986. MILAN, Italy---This week at Christies, Inc., Andy Warhol's pink-hued “ Last Supper " from 1986 was sold to a telephone bidder for $18,727,500, according to Blouin ArtInfo . It concludes a month-long focus on Warhol's series of "The Last Supper" prints including an exhibition of “ Sixty Last Suppers ” from March 24 to May 18. Warhol's “The Last Supper,” inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece is widely considered his greatest work. The idea for the series came from the Italian gallerist Alexandre Iolas, who had recently opened a new gallery space opposite the Santa Maria delle Grazie, the church and Dominican convent in Milan where Leonardo painted the late 15th-century original. [ More ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES Show Us Your Walls By Hilarie Sheets Nancy Olnick and Giorgio Spanu at home in Garrison, N.Y., where they display Michelangelo Pistoletto’s Italian flag artwork made of rags. Credit Tony Cenicola/The New York Times GARRISON, NY---Nancy Olnick has long considered herself an Italophile. But this New Yorker never imagined Italy would become such a central part of her life until she met Giorgio Spanu, a native of Sardinia, in 1989. After collecting Pop art from the 1960s, Ms. Olnick shifted focus with Mr. Spanu to the Arte Povera movement , collecting the work of radical artists in Italy who shunned the commercial art market in the 1960s and explored unconventional, humble materials. On June 28, this husband-and-wife team, who now run an art program, will open Magazzino , a self-funded exhibition space available by appointment in Cold Spring, N.Y., rotating large-scale works from their 400-plus-piece collection that are too unwieldy for their home in nearby Garr...

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Mike Ives Hot air balloons flying over the temples of Bagan, Myanmar, in March. Credit Minzayar Oo for The New York Times BAGAN, Myanmar — The vendor watched as members of an increasingly rare species — tourists — walked through a dirt parking lot toward Pyathat Gyi Temple, one of more than 2,000 religious monuments here on a riverside plain in central Myanmar. Many of Bagan’s monuments were restored by Myanmar’s former military government in the 1990s, after a previous earthquake, in a way that international experts criticized as heavy-handed. Bagan’s monument complex is a crown jewel in a tourism sector that is worth hundreds of millions of dollars and has grown rapidly since Myanmar, a majority Buddhist country, began a rocky transition toward democracy in 2011. [ link ]

THE GUARDIAN Shemagh, beard and blingh LONDON, UK---In his series You Get Me?  Mahtab Hussain documents the rich variety of male, working-class, British Muslim identity. An exhibition of the work is at Autograph , London, until 1 July; a book, " You Get Me? ," will be published by Mack in June. Born in Scotland in 1981 and now based in London, Hussain is studying for a PhD in photography at Nottingham Trent university. He describes the series as ‘an intimate portrait on negotiating masculinity, self-esteem, social identity, and religion in a multicultural society faced with high unemployment, discrimination in the workplace, and racism’. [ More ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Vanessa Friedman Joel Arthur Rosenthal’s menorah is shaped like the limb of a blooming almond tree, with pink enamel flowers and a central bud glowing with a pavé mix of white and gold diamonds, blue and violet sapphires, and pink rubies. ROME, Italy---There are a number of things Joel Arthur Rosenthal , the reclusive Bronx-born, Paris-based “Fabergé of our times” more commonly known as JAR , who is also the only living jeweler to have a solo show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art , will not do. ...Mr. Rosenthal appeared in Rome at the opening of the first joint exhibition of the Jewish Museum of Rome and the Vatican. Titled “ Menorah: Worship, History, Legend ,” it includes 130 objects from the first century through … well, Mr. Rosenthal, who created his first piece of Judaica as well as the only piece of commissioned original art for the exhibition. [ More ]

ART AGENDA Adi Nes, Untitled (from "The Village"), 2008. Color photograph mounted on aluminum, ed. 4/10, 100 x 125 cm LOS ANGELES--- Praz-Delavallade  is honored to present the first exhibition with the gallery on the west coast of the renowned Israeli photographer  Adi Nes . For his fourth show at Praz-Delavallade, a selection of various series will be unveiled. Central themes in Adi Nes's photographs deal with the issues of Israeli identity and masculinity. His works wrestle with social and political questions revolving around gender, the center versus the periphery, Eastern versus Western cultures, ethnic issues, Judaism, local myths, militarism, humanism, and social justice. [ More ]

THE CINCINNATI ENQUIRER By Janelle Gelfand - A Royal Couple and Women of the Court Play Holi, circa 1760, Mughal period, Mughal/India, opaque watercolor, gold and silver on paper, Cincinnati Art Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Carl Bimel, Jr., 1986.1174 CINCINNATI---The Cincinnati Art Museum has received the largest single monetary gift in its history. Longtime supporters Carl and Alice Bimel left a bequest of $11.75 million to the museum to establish the Alice Bimel Endowment for Asian Art. During their lifetimes, the couple traveled extensively and collected South Asian art of all periods, and extended their interest to include Iran and Afghanistan. With the works that they have given to the museum, their total donation amounts to more than $14 million. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES "The Torment of Saint Anthony" (1487)  by  Michelangelo Buonarroti.   Tempera on panel 18 1/2 x 13 3/4 in. NEW YORK---The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced Monday that it is organizing the largest exhibition of Michelangelo works in its history, opening in November. The exhibition, titled “ Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer ,” will contain 150 drawings, three marble sculptures, his first known painting (“ The Torment of Saint Anthony ”), and other works, from collections all over the United States and Europe. The exhibition, organized by Carmen C. Bambach, is set to open Nov. 13 and will run through February 2018. [ More ]

THE LOS ANGELES TIMES By David Pagel “The Basilisk,” installation view, Nicodim Gallery, Los Angeles (Nicodim Gallery) LOS ANGELES, CA---Thirty years ago at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, curator Maurice Tuchman organized an exhibition that explored the intersection of art and spirituality. “The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting 1890-1985” brought together about 250 works by nearly 100 artists to reveal that spirituality comes in all shapes, stripes and sizes. At Nicodim Gallery in Boyle Heights, “The Basilisk” channels Tuchman’s desire to link modern art to timeless spirituality. The problem is that “ The Basilisk ” ignores fundamental differences between art and religion, sociology and aesthetics, ethnographic displays and art exhibitions. Lumping everything together takes visitors back to the heyday of irony, when glib cynicism ruled and cleverness was everything. [ More ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS Charis-Kairos (The Tears of Christ) by Makota Fujimura. 80x64", Mineral Pigments, Gold on Belgium Linen The artist Makoto Fujimura's "Charis (Grace) Kairos (Time)," takes the methods he developed for a Soliloquies series where he exhibited his large scale works with Modernist master Georges Rouault's paintings. "Taking Rouault's indelible images as a cue," said Fujimura, "I decided to start with a dark background, to illumine the darkness with prismatic colors." He painted The Four Holy Gospels , using water-based Nihonga materials (Japanese-style painting), with my focus on the tears of Christ (John 11) - tears shed for the atrocities of the past century and for our present darkness." Charis-Kairos (The Tears of Christ) is part of the "Four Holy Gospels" which will be in the inaugural exhibit at the new Museum of the Bible in Washington D.C. in November of 2017. [ Purchase ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By Lauren Markoe Elijah Muhammad’s 14-karat yellow gold ring with the Nation of Islam symbol was recently auctioned. Photo courtesy of Heritage Auctions, HA.com DALLAS, Texas---A diamond-encrusted gold ring worn by Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad sold for $5,250. His signature kofia, or hat, went for $32,500. But documents from the early years of the religious group, assigned a minimum bid of $250,000, were pulled from an auction last week after their ownership was challenged, the Dallas auction house overseeing the sale said Monday. The family of Burnsteen Sharrieff Muhammad, who served as secretary for Nation of Islam co-founder W.D. Fard, had guaranteed ownership of the ring, kofia and documents — 29 boxes of sermon notes and lesson plans from the first four decades of the religious group. [ More ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS Joe Light (1934-2005), Dawn, 1988. Enamel and spray paint on wood, 48 x 96 in. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, museum purchase, American Art Trust Fund, and gift of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation from the William S. Arnett Collection. Artwork:© Estate of Joe Light. Photo: Stephen Pitkin/Pitkin Studio, Rockford, IL / Art Resource, NY. SAN FRANCISCO (May 3, 2017) — The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco are proud to present Revelations: Art from the African American South, an original exhibition celebrating the historic acquisition of 62 works of art by 22 contemporary African American artists. Works include paintings, sculptures, drawings, and quilts by acclaimed artists such as Thornton Dial (1928-2016), Ralph Griffin (1925-1992), Bessie Harvey (1929-1994), Lonnie Holley (b. 1950), Joe Light (1934-2005), Ronald Lockett (1965-1998), Joe Minter (b. 1943), Jessie T. Pettway (b. 1929), Mary T. Smith (1904-1995), Mose Tolliver (1919-2006), Annie Mae Young (1928-2...

ARTDAILY This file photo taken on March 20, 2014 shows people looking at relics and reliquaries during an exhibition at the Museum of religious art in the Fourviere Basilica in Lyon, southeastern France. The museum in Lyon was robbed in the night from May 12 to 13, 2017 comprising its main piece in the collection, a crown of the Virgin decorated with almost 1,800 gems, according to the museum on May 13, 2017. PHILIPPE DESMAZES / AFP LYON, France---A 19th century crown, encrusted with almost 1,800 gem stones, has been stolen from a museum of religious art in central France, the museum authorities said Saturday. The thieves broke in overnight Friday and managed to overcome the "sophisticated security system" at the Museum of Fourviere in the city of Lyon, the museum said in a statement. They got away with the Crown of the Virgin, the centrepiece of the collection, which was created in 1899 with 1,791 precious stones and pearls gifted by well-to-do Lyonese families of the ...

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By Gregory & Ernest Disney-Britton Max Beckmann's "Bird's Hell" (1937). Oil on canvas, 47 1/4 x 63 1/4 in. For Expressionist painter  Max Beckmann , there were two worlds, one of spiritual life and the other of political life. In this week's Art of the Week, "Bird's Hell," now set for auction in June, the artist is asking the viewer to decide which is more important? It is a terrifying image of Nazism, reflecting even the clergy who joined Hitler and symbolized by a black-frocked, bespectacled bird just below the loudspeakers. Jon McNaughton , a painter, living in Utah, answers Beckmann's question by politicizing the spiritual and is now a favorite of GOP Republicans. Jesus however, was clear about two things — "Give back to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's." He avoided politics, and in Mark 12:17 he advises us to avoid it too.

VARIETY By Elizabeth Wagmeister In the 46 years since its debut, “Jesus Christ Superstar” has been revived many times, including Tony-nominated runs in 2000 and 2012. NBC has selected “Jesus Christ Superstar” as the next live musical to head to the network, Variety has learned. The show follows in the footsteps of NBC’s successful run of live musical events, including “Sound of Music Live,” “Peter Pan Live,” “The Wiz Live,” and most recently, “Hairspray Live.” All of NBC’s former live musicals have aired during December as a holiday special. In contract, “Jesus Christ Superstar Live!” will air on Easter Sunday next year, April 1, 2018. Based on the 1971 Broadway rock opera, “Jesus Christ Superstar Live!” will be executive produced by original creators Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, who will also provide music and lyrics for NBC’s show. [ More ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS "The Rama Epic: Hero, Heroine, Ally, Foe" (Hardcover) by Robert P. Goldman SAN FRANCISCO---The Asian Art Museum's "Rama Epic: Hero, Heroine, Ally, Foe," special exhibition that was on view from Oct. 21, 2016 – Jan. 15, 2017, was the recipient of three major museum industry awards this past week. The Association of Art Museum Curators & AAMC Foundation , recognized the catalog for The Rama Epic with the Award for Excellence. The American Alliance of Museums annual conference in St. Louis, the exhibition received the Special Achievement Award for Interpretation in the Excellence in Exhibition Competition. The museum collection is of more than 18,000 Asian art treasures from throughout Asia spanning 6,000 years of history.

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS "The Crucifixion" by Daniel Mitsui. Image courtesy of Art for God's Sake CHICAGO---Christian artist Daniel Mitsui is seeking support for his new project, Summula Pictoria , an iconographic summary of the Old and New Testaments. Over the next fourteen years, from Easter 2017 to Easter 2031, the artist plans to illustrate those events of the bible that are most prominent in Roman Catholic liturgy and patristic exegesis. In his May e-newsletter , he describes his goal for every image to be detailed and "thoroughly considered and significant." The final project will consist of 235 drawings. Additionally, Mitsui also launched a blog at danielmitsui.blogspot.com about Christian art principles and symbolism.

RELIGION NEWS SERVICE By Philip Pullella The caption written on the sash of the pope’s cassock reads “The Good Forgives the Evil.” ROME---A life-size mural depicting Pope Francis with a saintly halo kissing U.S. President Donald Trump sprouting devil’s horns appeared on a wall near the Vatican on Thursday, less than two weeks before they are due to meet. The mural, which was painted on paper and pasted on to the wall during the night, was the latest work by street artists depicting the pope to appear in Rome in recent months. It is signed “TVBoy,” who is believed to be Italian street artist Salvatore Benintende . In the past, the squad has erased a mural depicting the pope as a sneaky graffiti artist painting peace signs on walls and another showing him as the comic book hero Superman. [ More ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES Show Us Your Walls By Nicole Herrington Antonio Sergio Bessa sitting beneath three drawings by Raymond Pettibon, Jason Fox’s “Enhanced Focus” (2000) and a work (far right) by William N. Copley. Ivan Serpa’s drawing is at bottom left. Credit 2017 William N. Copley/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; Fred R. Conrad for The New York Times NEW YORK---Antonio Sergio Bessa doesn’t consider himself a big-time collector. Yet there’s a blue-chip quality to the art on the walls of the apartment he shares with his husband, Ed Yanisch, in the Sugar Hill area of Harlem. There are museum-caliber names in the mix, like Raymond Pettibon , Kay Rosen , Ivan Serpa and Peter Saul . His fascination with “the power of language” drew him to artists who use text in their works. He sees the Jason Fox painting “Enhanced Focus” (2000) as “a mix between Jesus and a delinquent,” with the pixilated blur evoking TV shows that need to disguise people. I’m very interested in how a [muse...

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS Rembrandt van Rijn, "Abraham Entertaining the Angels," 1646, oil on oak panel, 6 3/8 x 8 3/8 inches, private collection; image courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art In the summer of 2017, The Frick Collection will present Dutch master  Rembrandt van Rijn ’s "Abraham Entertaining the Angels" of 1646. Beginning in the late 1630s and increasingly through the 1640s, Rembrandt shifted away from the dynamic movement of his earlier work towards imagery characterized by stillness and calm. These are the defining qualities of "Abraham Entertaining the Angels," all within a panel measuring fewer than nine inches wide. Depictions of stories from the Old Testament were highly popular in the predominantly Calvinist society of the Dutch Republic with its prohibition against corporeal representations of God. [ More ]

THE WASHINGTON POST By Pat Padua Courtesy of the Freer and Sackler Galleries WASH., DC---If you miss the collections of Asian and Middle Eastern art at the Freer Gallery of Art, which has been closed for major renovations since January of 2016, things will get worse before they get better. The Smithsonian's Arthur M. Sackler Gallery will temporarily close on July 10 for the installation of new collection galleries. There's more to look forward to at the reopened Freer, whose new roster of special exhibits will include "Divine Felines: Cats of Ancient Egypt," originally organized by the Brooklyn Museum of Art. This exhibit will feature displays of cat coffins and representations of the cat goddess Bastet; and in the spirit of inclusiveness, there will be a few dog related pieces as well. Also opening is "Encountering the Buddha: Art and Practice Across Asia," which draws on the Freer's collection of Buddhist art. [ link ]