Louis Delsarte, a Muralist of the Black Experience, Dies at 75

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Steven Kurutz

Another detail from “Transitions.”Credit...Rob Wilson

Louis Delsarte, a noted artist who celebrated African-American history and culture through dreamlike paintings, drawings, prints and, above all, large-scale public murals, died on May 2 in Atlanta. He was 75. His wife, Jea Delsarte, confirmed the death, saying he had had a heart condition. Born and raised in Brooklyn, Mr. Delsarte created monumental murals throughout New York City. Among his best-known pieces is a 20-foot-long mosaic, “Transitions,” installed in 2001 inside the Church Avenue subway station in the East Flatbush section of Brooklyn. [More]

"To Heal the World": An Open Online Exhibition Coming From CARAVAN

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS

Let the Children Come Unto Me by Daniel Bonnell

In today’s world we are all intricately connected and interdependent; an inescapable reality highlighted by the current spread and impact of the Coronavirus around the globe. What happens in one part of the world affects others far away. ​Humanity has become besieged by many ailments that continue to drag us down; injustices, hatred, exploitation, inequality, conflict and abuse. The deadline for submissions was 16 May 2020. A panel of judges will select 25 artworks for exhibition, with 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Prizes awarded, plus an Honorable Mention. The exhibition will be showcased here on the CARAVAN website 15 June - 18 August, 2020. CARAVAN is recognized as a global leader in using the arts to build sustainable peace around the world.[More]

Which Biblical Scene is This? Take the Great British Art Quiz

THE GUARDIAN

"The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorah" (1852) by John Martin 

Which Biblical scene is this? The Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle sets today’s quiz, which enables you to look at the collections of galleries across the UK closed due to Covid-19 while answering a few fiendishly difficult questions This quiz is brought to you in collaboration with Art UK, the online home for the UK’s public art collections, showing art from more than 3,000 venues and by 45,000 artists. Each day, a different collection on Art UK will set the questions. Today, our questions are set by the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle upon Tyne, home to an impressive collection of art and sculpture. Its exhibition programme brings the biggest names in historic, modern and contemporary art to the the north-east [More]

How Pandemics End? How Will Covid-19 End?

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Gina Kolata

A Sicilian fresco from 1445. In the previous century, the Black Death killed at least a third of Europe’s population. Werner Forman/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

When will the Covid-19 pandemic end? And how? According to historians, pandemics typically have two types of endings: the medical, which occurs when the incidence and death rates plummet, and the social, when the epidemic of fear about the disease wanes. “When people ask, ‘When will this end?,’ they are asking about the social ending,” said Dr. Jeremy Greene, a historian of medicine at Johns Hopkins. In other words, an end can occur not because a disease has been vanquished but because people grow tired of panic mode and learn to live with a disease. The challenge, Dr. Brandt said, is that there will be no sudden victory. Trying to define the end of the epidemic “will be a long and difficult process.”[More]

Saudi Arabia's 'Um Haroun' Ignites Arab Debate on Jews and Israel

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Ben Hubbard

The actors Souad Ali, left, and Hayat al-Fahad, in a scene from “Um Haroun,” a popular Arabic TV drama airing over Ramadan. Al Fahad Establishment, via Reuters

BEIRUT, Lebanon — In a mud-walled village in the Persian Gulf, a Christian woman sheds tears of love for a Muslim merchant. But he is stuck in a miserable marriage to a woman who longs for another Muslim man. But she can’t have him, because he is crazy about the local rabbi’s daughter. These tangles of interreligious intrigue unspool in a new blockbuster television series that has set off heated debates across the Arab world about the region’s historical relationships with Jewish communities and the shifting stances of some of its current leaders toward Israel. The show’s creators and distributors insist it has no relation to contemporary Arab politics. [More]

Jan van Eyck’s Influence: How He Pioneered Oil Painting and Changed Art History

ARTNEWS
By Alex Greenberger

A recent Jan van Eyck survey in Belgium drew large crowds until it was unexpectedly closed early.

The influence of Northern Renaissance artist Jan van Eyck has been so outsized, it is almost impossible to discuss oil painting without considering his impact. “Talking about Van Eyck is talking about the most powerful painter in the western hemisphere,” the painter Luc Tuymans once told Even magazine. “It is not Leonardo da Vinci. It is nobody else but van Eyck.” Such a pronouncement may seem strange. The 15th-century painter died in 1441, likely in his early 50s, and he left behind just over 20 known oil paintings. [More]

Hieronymus Bosch: A Mysterious Master’s Early Life and Major Works

ARTNEWS
By Claire Selvin

Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights, 1490-1500, oil on oak panel.

The life and work of the Netherlandish artist Hieronymus Bosch, to whom 20 paintings have been definitively attributed, have long captivated audiences around the world. Considered one of the greatest artists of the Northern Renaissance, Bosch is known for creating restlessly imaginative works rich in religious symbolism, allegory, and fantastical elements depicted in bustling scenes across expansive compositions. If his crowded proto-Surrealist paintings have been acclaimed by many, his early life and the origins of his work are still less widely known. [More]

Seeing God in Art: The Christian Faith in 30 Images by Richard Harries

CHURCH TIMES
By Nicholas Cranfield

Seeing God in Art: The Christian faith in 30 Images by Richard Harries

This is a wonderfully enviable book. I wished that I had been commissioned to write it, as it made me realise just how leaden my own attempts are in trying to link the Revealed in art to the Lived in Christ. Challenged to choose just 30 images to tell the story, and to write no more than 900 words about each, Lord Harries has produced a profoundly theological and readable account of the Christian faith (Faith, 3 April). It is shot through with his note-perfect observations that made his contributions to Thought for the Day so vivid; Paul of Tarsus, characterised as a jihadist, “was not the kind of person you would invite in for a meal”. Indeed not; neither in Barnes nor in Blackheath, I heard myself say. [More]

Sin at London's National Gallery Available For Purchase Online Now

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS

Sin: The Art of Transgression | Joost Joustra | 9781857096651

The depiction of sin has been fundamental to European visual culture for hundreds of years, especially – but not only – in Christian art. Addressing the mutable and often ambiguous representation of sin, this book highlights its theological underpinnings, the cultural afterlife, and contradictory and controversial aspects from the fourteenth to the twenty-first century. Drawing on paintings from the National Gallery and elsewhere, including pictures by Cranach, Velázquez, and Hogarth, as well as modern and contemporary works by Andy Warhol, Tracey Emin, and Ron Mueck, this story of sin moves freely across countries and centuries. From paintings that explicitly explore theological ideas, such as the story of Adam and Eve and its aftermath, the seven deadly sins, and the Immaculate Conception, to moralizing or seductive depictions of ‘sinful’ everyday behavior, it blurs the boundaries between religious and secular art. [Purchase]

Opening up the Red Haring: Photo Series Documents Unframing of Rare Artwork

ARTDAILY

Large Keith Haring Acrylic/Gold Paint Marker on Red Plexi, 31.5"h, 39.5"w; 33"h, 41"w frame. Estimate: $550,000 - $750,000. Image courtesy of Palm Beach Modern Auctions.

WEST PALM BEACH, FLA.- Think back to the mid-'80s: you or somebody you know probably had a shirt from the Pop Shop emblazoned with Keith Haring's "radiant baby" across the chest. Haring's instantly recognizable symbols made him an icon of art and social awareness. He was on everything from the subways of New York City to the Berlin Wall and featured in galleries around the world. Keith Haring's 1983 painting will be up for auction on Saturday, May 2nd at Palm Beach Modern Auctions in West Palm Beach, FL as lot 176.  [More]

Photographer Ryan McGinley: 'I Was Taught to Believe in Satan. It Scared Me'

THE GUARDIAN
By Tom Seymour

El Camino, 2020. Photograph: Courtesy of Ryan McGinley

Before he shot Brad Pitt and Beyoncé, McGinley captured the ‘like-minded weirdos’ he met in New York’s wildest gay bars. As a rare retrospective opens, he talks about those days – and going to church with his mum. It might not seem to square with his reputation, but faith has played a huge part in Ryan McGinley’s work. He was taught religious art at school in New Jersey and remembers staring at The Creation of Adam, Michelangelo’s depiction of God giving life to the first man, in the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo’s worship of the human body is reflected in McGinley’s searing portraits of the “like-minded weirdos” he has met over two decades of life in Manhattan, which comprise the exhibition Pretty Free – originally due to be on show at London’s Marlborough Gallery this month, but now accessible online. [More]

The Art World's Favorite Easter and Eastertide Images

THE ART NEWSPAPER 

ARogier van der Weyden's The Descent from the Cross (around 1435)

This will probably be one of the strangest Easter periods that the world has ever experienced: in the UK, the peak of coronavirus (Covid-19) cases is expected to coincide with the Christian festival that is known as much for its chocolate eggs as its profound religious significance, celebrated in a glory of Western art historical images commemorating the Passion of Christ. The weather in some parts is expected to be lovely, but many will experience the Easter holiday in lockdown, away from their families and their own cherished mini traditions. There is immense suffering around the world, yet this is also a time for empathy and hope.[More]

Newly Acquired from Spain for Indianapolis: Sazillo's St. Francis

NEWFIELDS
By Kjell M. Wangensteen, PhD
Associate Curator of European Art

Francisco Salzillo y Alcaraz (Spanish, 1707-1783), Saint Francis of Assisi, about 1775, parcel-gilt and polychrome wood, silver, gold, silk, A-C) installed: 24-5/16 x 8-5/16 x 4-3/4 in. A) sculpture: 15 x 7-3/8 x 4-3/4 in. B) banner: 7 x 4 x 3/8 in. C) staff: 14-1/4 x 1-7/8 x 1/8 in., Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields. Anonymous Art Fund in memory of Louisa A. Vonnegut Peirce, James E. Roberts Fund by exchange, Gift of Miklos Sperling by exchange

To anyone seeking advice on buying a work of art, I would say this: never underestimate the importance of spending time in the presence of the object. A recent acquisition I made on behalf of Newfields is a case in point. On seeing it in person, I was convinced that it was a museum-quality object and a good fit for the IMA. One year later, I am pleased to have bought this sculpture, St Francis of Assisi, into our collection. In near-perfect condition, the 15-inch tall sculpture is almost certainly a work by Spanish sculptor Francisco Salzillo y Alcaraz (1707-1783). [More]

RELIGIOUS ART | NEWS OF WEEK -- Artist Patrick Dougher

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By Gregory & Ernest Disney-Britton

Patrick Dougher's “We are funding our own oppression” (Black Disaster Capitalism III)-Collage/Acrylic on paper- 10” x 10”

Before COVID-19 living on Zoom, we were already collecting faces. Not the awkward photos of Olan Mills, but impressionistic portraits that reveal an inner significance. We see it daily in the Heinrich Hofmann print in our Jesus Room, and we saw it this week in the portraits of self-taught artist Patrick Dougher. His Instagram is loaded with portraits, including recent collages of poised subjects masked with halos reflecting both their personal significance and the significance of this moment. Patrick Dougher's masked portraits are our collector tip of the week.

Divine Nature and Spiritual Activism in the Work of Self-Taught Artist Patrick Dougher

INSTAGRAM

“We Are Funding Our Own Oppression” (Black Disaster Capitalism III)-Collage/Acrylic on paper- 10” x 10”. Image courtesy of the artist's instagram

Born and raised in Brooklyn NY, Patrick Dougher is a self-taught Artist, Musician, Poet, Educator & Spiritual Activist. Patrick has played and recorded with Grammy award winners Sade, Chuck D (Public Enemy) and Dan Zanes as well as many other notables. He is the drummer on “Dub Side as the Moon” one of the best selling Reggae LP’s of all time. He has worked as a Teaching Artist in NYC public schools, as an Art Therapist working with HIV positive children and as the Director of community arts organizations. Through his art Patrick seeks to inspire and to celebrate the noble beauty and divine nature of people of African descent and to connect urban African American culture to its roots in sacred African art, spirituality and ritual. [More]

Salvador Dalí The Enigma of Faith Touring the US: North Dakota, Indiana, Oklahoma, Delaware

ARTLYST
By Revd Jonathan Evens

Purgatory Salvador Dalí, The Divine Comedy, Purgatory Dante Purified, 1960, wood engraving

Salvador Dalí was an enigma, perhaps never more so than in his engagement with religion. An exhibition currently touring the US demonstrates the divided and dualistic nature of that relationship. ‘Salvador Dalí’s Stairway to Heaven,’ features complete portfolios of Dalí’s illustrations for two of his most ambitious publishing projects—his artwork for memorable editions of Comte de Lautréamont’s ‘Les Chants de Maldoror’ and Dante’s ‘The Divine Comedy’. Each project comes from a different era in Dalí’s life. ‘Les Chants de Maldoror’, was an 1869 text rediscovered by the Surrealists in the 1930s. Dalí completed his 43 illustrations when he was still proudly identifying as a Surrealist. At the time, the subject matter – scenes of violence, perversion, and blasphemy – was ideal for Dalí. [More]

Catholic Art For Your Home Doesn’t Have to be Cheesy

AMERICA MAGAZINE
By Sarah NeitzX

From left, clockwise: “The Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy” by Jen Norton; “The Visitation” by James B. Janknegt; “Mary, Undoer of Knots” by Annie Vaeth; and a traditional painting of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (iPhoto).

About a year ago, I got married and moved in with my husband, and as we set up our apartment, one of the problems we faced was where to hang Creepy Jesus. If you grew up in a Catholic environment, you have seen Creepy Jesus before: the Sacred Heart of Jesus portrait, printed on cardboard with gold foil radiating from the head of a white man with improbably enormous eyes. My husband loves Creepy Jesus. This made me think of David Halle’s Inside Culture: Art and Class in the American Home (1993). Halle’s book made me realize that my objection to Creepy Jesus had little to do with the Sacred Heart of Jesus and a lot to do with class. Placing religious art throughout the home supports your faith commitments, reminding you that you belong to a community that transcends class. [More]

RELIGIOUS ART | NEWS OF WEEK - Titian

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By Gregory & Ernest Disney-Britton

Titian's ‘Pietà’ (1575–1576);  Oil on canvas; 153 in × 138 in; Location Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

In 1576, Renaissance master Titian died of the bubonic plague. One of his last paintings, Pietà, is on loan to the COVID-19 closed National Gallery in London. Week 5 of today's plague in Indiana ended with 545 deaths and 10,641 confirmed cases, and like London, we're shut down. However, there is good news too. Like millions of other Americans, we're eating healthier and we lost 20-lbs each. Like Titian, we're doing the things we can control. Collecting prints online is another act of control, and that's why Titian's Pietà is our art of the week.

The Forgotten French Tapestry With Lessons for Our Apocalyptic Times

THE GUARDIAN
By John Kampfner

And you thought you had a lot to deal with ... detail from the Apocalypse Tapestry, Angers, France. Photograph: Tuul and Bruno Morandi/Alamy Stock Photo

Hidden away in a chateau in Angers is the beautiful Apocalypse Tapestry, made after war and pestilence had killed millions in medieval Europe. It is, quite literally, a Revelation. Commissioned by Louis I, the Duke of Anjou, in the late 14th century, the 90 different scenes tell the story of the Book of Revelation, the Bible’s last gasp of horror, retribution and redemption. It hangs in the city of Angers, in a dimly lit modern gallery at the foot of the castle. The story of how it got there, and how it has survived, is almost as dramatic as the visions it depicts. Revelation was written by Saint John the Divine, who had been banished by the Romans to the Aegean island of Patmos (apparently after being plunged into boiling oil in Rome and suffering no injuries). It marks the final battle between good and evil: Satan as a dragon and Christ as a lamb. [More]

Roman Catholic and Puerto Rican Background Inspires work of Patrick McGrath Muñiz

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS

CREATIO (2019) Oil on canvas 46 x 64 innches. Private Collection.

Patrick McGrath Muñiz is an American artist from Puerto Rico, that works primarily with oil paintings on canvas and retablos. His work is inspired after Renaissance, Baroque and Latin American colonial paintings while addressing issues such as colonialism, consumerism and climate change. The artist has shown at the Museo de las Americas, Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico. Museo Convento de las Capuchinas in Antigua, Guatemala, Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum in Arizona, The Fort Worth Community Arts Center, The Bronx Museum of Art, The Spanish Colonial Arts Museum in Santa Fe, The Albuquerque Museum of Art in Albuquerque, NM, The Station Museum and The Jung Center in Houston, Texas, among others.