Uncommon Corporate Collection - Christian Art in Minneapolis

MINNEAPOLIS STAR-TRIBUNE
By Mary Abbee

"Christ Preaching" (1652), By Rembrandt

MINNESOTA - Common sense says that you need to head for a major museum to see important work by top artists such as Durer, Rembrandt or Picasso. Or you can go to the Minneapolis headquarters of Thrivent Financial, an insurance and investment advisory firm where 35 impressive pieces by many of the greatest names in European art are on now on view in a handsome gallery. Called "Faithful Impressions," the show features etchings, engravings, drawings and a few paintings on Christian themes spanning 500 years. An accompanying book, with insightful prose to match its beautiful design, is on sale at Thrivent's website. The collection was assembled over the past 30 years by the Rev. Richard Hillstrom, a now-retired Lutheran minister who acquired the art for Thrivent, formerly known as Lutheran Brotherhood. While the 800-piece collection is rooted in the Lutheran tradition, it embraces a multi-doctrinal spectrum of talent including Durer, Rembrandt, Lucas Cranach and their mostly Protestant northern European contemporaries, along with Guido Reni, Guercino, G.D. Tiepolo and other dominantly Catholic Italians of the 16th to 18th centuries. From the 19th century it features English mystic William Blake and French academician J.A.D. Ingres and his compatriot James Tissot, among others. Prints by early-20th-century German expressionists Franz Marc, Emile Nolde and Max Pechstein are included, along with a rare "Crucifixion" painted by American artist George Wesley Bellows. That all these talents produced "Christian" imagery is amazing, especially such a prominent hedonist as Picasso. [link]