Venetian master Palma il Vecchio finally gets his own show

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Roderick Conway Morris

“Madonna and Child with Saints and Donor,” around 1515, shows how the relative stiffness of his earliest religious pictures had been replaced by an undulating compositional structure. Credit Thysssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid

ITALY---In their magisterial survey in 1871 of paintings of northern Italy, G.B. Cavalcaselle and J.A. Crowe declared that Palma il Vecchio shared with Giorgione and Titian “the honor of modernizing and regenerating Venetian art.” Palma il Vecchio at last joins their company in what is the first ever exhibition entirely devoted to his work, at the Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art in Bergamo. The show is curated by Giovanni C.F. Villa and contains 33 altarpieces, panels and canvases, representing about a third of his surviving autograph works, which are now scattered in museums and private collections. The show runs through June 21. [link]

Digitizing religious art is important, but there's no impact like being there

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Holland Cotter

THE PAINTER’S HAND Piero di Cosimo’s “Madonna and Child With Two Musician Angels” (circa 1504-1507), on view at the National Gallery of Art, and, left, details from the work. When you view it in person, you sense the artist’s motion, from thin highlights to the way he smooshed paint with his fingers. Credit Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Galleria di Palazzo Cini, Venice Cameraphoto Arte, Venice/Art Resource, New York, right, and National Gallery of Art

Once upon a time, our big museums were the “quiet cars” of a fast-track American culture industry. That model is pretty much a generational memory now. Today, millions of people stream through major museums, filling the air with a restless rustle and buzz. Accessibility is the first and last word on the lips of museum directors. A question is what, exactly, in an age of expanded digital access, are museum audiences seeing? A recent scientific study published in the journal Acta Psychologica suggests that people enjoy art more and remember it longer when they see it “live” in museums, as opposed to online. [link]

Monday's Madonna & Child by Dutch Artist René van Tol

WND | DIVERSIONS
By Marisa Martin

“Madonna,” by Dutch artist René van Tol

NETHERLANDS---Perhaps he’s not a household name yet, but Dutch artist Rene van Tol is a successful practicing artist who incorporates Bible themes into his work at times. His “Madonna” here is idiosyncratic and almost makes us uncomfortable. His Madonnas are tied into an endless series from history, a centuries-long variation on a theme. This humble attitude blocks him from claiming the idea for himself and connects him to the “religious realm of thought of our ancestors and to the Christian community of all times,” he explains. [link]

Modern Ireland in it's Artwork: ‘Decoration’ by Mainie Jellett (1923)

IRISH TIMES
By Riann Coulter, Fintan O'Toole

Detail from ‘Decoration’ which draws on traditional images of the madonna and child

IRELAND---In October 1923 the Irish Times reviewed an art exhibition mounted by the Society of Dublin Painters. The anonymous critic confessed to being puzzled by two paintings by Miss “Maimie” (sic) Jellett: “They are in squares, cubes, odd shapes and clashing colours . . . to me they presented an insoluble puzzle.” This reaction was emblematic of the turn towards conservatism in a culture longing for stability and settlement after years of violent upheaval. But it was also curiously misplaced, for "Decoration" is itself a modernist take on very old themes. The expression of spirituality through art was a vital aspect of Jellett’s modernist mission and "Decoration" draws on traditional images of the madonna and child. [link]

Art Review: ‘Warriors and Mothers: Epic Mbembe Art’ at the Metropolitan Museum

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Holland Cotter

A mother and child from the 17th or 18th century, one of 14 sculptures
made by the Mbembe that are being displayed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

NEW YORK---Now, more than 40 years on, the news finally hits New York with the arrival of “Warriors and Mothers: Epic Mbembe Art” at the Metropolitan Museum, one of the great sculpture shows of the season. They had been made by the Mbembe (m-BEM-beh) living in southeastern Nigeria, near the border of Cameroon. The religious tradition that had produced the work had been abandoned under colonialism. Tests revealed that some of the Mbembe pieces were from the 17th and 18th centuries, among the oldest wood carvings from Africa. [link]

Metropolitan Museum of Art: “Warriors and Mothers: Epic Mbembe Art” (Ends Sept. 7, 2015); 1000 Fifth Avenue (at 82nd Street), New York, NY; 212-535-7710, metmuseum.org.

RELIGIOUS ART | NEWS OF WEEK

THE ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By TAHLIB | Sunday Comments Only

The Bible verse John 19:27, "Behold your mother!" has inspired the most Christian art throughout history. "Madonna and Child" by Fra Filippo Lippi is one of those works now on view in Washington, DC. in the new exhibition "Picturing Mary: Woman, Mother, Idea." This exhibit at the National Museum of Women in the Arts is part of the museums ongoing examination of humanist themes related to women. The Christmas season timing makes "Madonna and Child" (above) my NEWS OF WEEK.

Flying Nuns of Africa

THE GUARDIAN

Surprise, 2010. Photograph: Maimouna Guerresi/M.I.A. Gallery

AFRICA---The 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair, named after the number of countries on the continent, shows off over 100 of the finest African artists. [link]

OP-ED: Does Art Need Religion?

BIG THINK
By Bob Duggan

Giovanni Bellini, The San Zaccaria Altarpiece (detail), 1505

Everyone knows there are two things you never bring up in conversation—politics and religion. Although it may be a fool’s errand to call for more religion in contemporary art given all the justifiably negative baggage surrounding religion and the very real possibility that complaints about contemporary art are pure short-sightedness only time can cure, it’s worth considering in light of Rank’s theories that, if art is about artists in search of immortality, maybe they can do it by extending their reach into the religious and going far beyond their mundane, earthly grasp. Or else what’s a heaven (or religion) for? [link]

Monday's Madonna & Child is "Birth of a baby" by Helen Zughaib

CORINNE MARTIN

"Birth of a baby" by Helen Zughaib

In spite of the subject matter of her work, Zughaib says she does not consider herself political. “My aim as an artist, especially after 9/11, is to further the dialogue between East and West. We must continue to try to bring people together in conversation with the hope of mutual understanding, acceptance and respect.” [link]

Monday's Madonna & Child (1975-76) is by Henry Moore

ARTDAILY

Henry Moore, Reclining Mother and Child 1975-76 (detail).

UNITED KINGDOM---After the huge success of the landmark 2007 Henry Moore exhibition at Kew Gardens, this September visitors will once again experience an iconic Moore sculpture within the natural landscape of the Gardens. This striking work explores the relationship between a small form and a large one; the mother and child, with the reclining female form suggesting the sinuous shapes of the rolling countryside in contrast to the angular abstracted child which sits upright, and tough in contrast to its tender mother. [link]

Monday's "Mamadonna & Child" is by Renée Cox

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS NEWS
By TAHLIB

"Yo Mamadonna and Child" (1994) by Renée Cox

Today's Madonna & Child is "Yo Mamadonna and Child" in wood detail by Renée Cox (b. 1960), a Jamaican-born photographer, activist and curator. Another of Cox's photographs "Yo Mama's Pieta" was this week's RELIGIOUS ART | NEWS OF WEEK honoring the family of recently slain Michael Brown. [Artist Bio]

Monday's Madonna & Child is by Simon Shawn Andrews

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS NEWS
By TAHLIB

"Madonna & Child With St. Anne and Other Saints" by Simon Shawn Andrews

Monday's Madonna and Child is by Canadian artist Simon Shawn Andrews, and includes "Saint Anne and Other Saints." "Every painting is in oil," writes Andrews on his website. "I try to use the highest quality oil brands I can afford. The painting substrates are usually 1/8 or 1/4inch thick prepared masonite or birch panel. Larger paintings are on cradled panel. I use different surface preparation depending on my mood and availability. I do not do commissions." [Purchase]

Monday's Madonna & Child is by Francesco d'Ubertino Verdi (1494 – 1557)

IT'S ABOUT TIME
By Barbara Wells Sarudy

Francesco d'Ubertino Verdi, called Bachiacca [also known a
s Francesco Ubertini, il Bacchiacca] (1494 – 1557) Mary and Child

In this blog, I try to begin each day with a painting of the Madonna & Child. It centers me; connects me to the past; & encourages me to post some of the religious paintings which were the core of early Western art. [link]

Monday's Madonna & Child is a 2014 special weekly feature for A&O. 

Monday's Madonna & Child is by Gay British Artist and Minister Richard Stott

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS NEWS
By Tahlib

“Untitled” by Richard Stott. Courtesy of Jesus in Love Blog

Monday's Madonna & Child is by Richard Stott. He painted the Madonna with rainbow robes in fall 2013 during a conference organized by Changing Attitude, an Anglican LGBTI group, accordingt to Kittridge Cherry's Jesus In Love Blog. In a reflection about the image on his blog, Stott writes: "The church had been festooned in rainbow flags and the way the fabric curved as it hung beguiled me. They echoed the folds of cloth on a statue of the Virgin Mary with her child at the opposite side of the church to me. So I brought them together and this image emerged. It was only at the end, when I stepped back to look at what I’d done that I began to reflect on the meaning of the picture. What started as a study of a very material and ordinary thing, the shadows in hanging fabric, became an image laden with significance…"

Monday's Madonna & Child by Catherine Opie

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS NEWS
By TAHLIB

Catherine Opie, Self Portrait/Nursing, 2004, C-print, 40x32in. Courtesy of the artist and Regen Projects.

NEW YORK---It's not your conventional "Madonna & Child" but why start your week out with conventional Christian art? The Leslie-Lohman Museum's "After Our Bodies Meet: From Resistance to Potentiality" explores queer feminist artists' responses to dominant notions about the body from the 1970s to the present day through August 3. Reflecting the ever-growing diversity of feminist art, this exhibition provides a cross-cultural examination of how artists represent the body to challenge past and present forms of oppression and to envision a queer future.

Monday's Madonna & Child is by Hannah Kunkle

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS NEWS
By TAHLIB

Kim as Mary, and baby North as Jesus

Graphic designer Hannah Kunkle shocked NYC, and much of the Christian world with her depictions of the celebrity-hunting Kim Kardashian as May of the Virgin mother of Jesus. Outside of the celebrity factor however, the image isn't half-bad and so it's Monday's Madonna & Child.

Indianapolis Episcopal Diocese Raises $425,000 From Auction of Rare Painting

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS NEWS
By TAHLIB

INDIANA---A religious artwork long held by the Indianapolis Museum of Art and returned last year to the Episcopal Diocese sold for $425,000 at Christie's Old Masters sale in NYC on June 4. The painting of the Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist was identified by Ginger Bievenour, vice chair of Alpha & Omega Project for Contemporary Religious Arts as a rare work by Francesco Botticini (Florence 1446/7-1498). "In his mature career," according to Christies, "Botticini enjoyed tremendous popularity as a painter of private devotional images, such as the present example, which treats a theme to which the artist returned on several occasions." The painting was gifted to the Diocese of Indianapolis in 1968, and the sale will benefit the mission's program.

Monday's Madonna & Child by Diego Rivera at the Detroit Institute of Arts

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS NEWS
By TAHLIB

Detail from the "Detroit Industry Murals" by Diego Rivera

This Monday's Madonna & Child outraged religious fundamentalists in Detroit in 1933. It is a small portion of the "Detroit Industry Murals" by Diego Rivera at the Detroit Institute of Arts unvieled. Many local church leaders saw the murals as promoting atheism, in part for his portrayal of the holy family in a scene known as the "vaccination." Father Charles Coughlin, a Roman Catholic priest even demanded the work be destroyed. Today,  Rivera is regarded as one of the most influential painters in Mexican history. According to Adherents.org, "Diego Rivera was a Converso, a member of an ethnic group comprised of Jews whose ancestors had been forced to convert to Catholicism. Diego Rivera was raised as a Catholic, but was aware of his Jewish heritage. As an adult, Rivera was a self-proclaimed atheist."

Monday's Madonna & Child: "The Family" by Marisol Escobar at El Museo del Barrio

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Holland Cotter

"The Family” (1969), a mixed-media work by Marisol Escobar that is
expected to be part of her career retrospective at El Museo del Barrio this fall.

LOS ANGELES----A little over a year ago, El Museo del Barrio, the oldest museum in the United States devoted to Latino art, had the equivalent of a nervous breakdown in public. A new director, Jorge Daniel Veneciano, took over in March. Mr. Veneciano admires the early version of El Museo. “I’m a student of democratic theory,” he said. “I believe museums are one of three fundamental democratic institutions: libraries, museums and schools, with museums in the middle, because, like libraries, they have collections, and like schools they have an educational function, to teach with those collections.” El Museo began in 1969 as a city-supported art initiative in a public school classroom on East 116th Street, at the center of the barrio, Spanish Harlem, at the time largely Puerto Rican. [link]

El Museo del Barrio, 1230 Fifth Avenue, at 104th Street, is open Wednesdays through Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; 212-831-7272, elmuseo.org. Its current exhibition, “Museum Start Kit: Open With Care,” runs through Sept. 6.

Monday's Madonna & Child is by Raphael via the Prado Museum

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS NEWS
By TAHLIB

"Holy Family with Saint John" (c. 1516) by Raphael 

Last month, one of the finest collections of Italian masterpieces ever to come to Australia were unveiled at the National Gallery of Victoria on May 16th. The collection includes Raphael's "Holy Family with Saint John or Madonna of the Rose" as today's Madonna & Child.