RELIGIOUS ART | NEWS OF WEEK

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By TAHLIB

Believers wander, but not because we don't know where we are heading but because we've forgotten  "why we started out" in the first place. Religious art and sacred texts are full of wanderings where the destination remains out of reach until we can remember "why we started". A major retrospective of the work of R.B. Kitaj raises similar questions, and is now on display at London's Jewish Museum. Ohio-born Kitaj (1932-2007) was a painter whose work deals with themes of nostalgia, loss, and Jewish identity. He was a leader in the British figurative and pop arts movements of the 1960s and 70s, and he passionately expressed his religious identity as central to "why" he painted. That is why Kitaj's "The Jew, Etc" (above) of a restless man in a railroad car is my NEWS OF WEEK.

In other Religious Art news from across the USA, and around the world:

• Buddhism in Art: It's Asia Week in NYC, a week for collectors and dealers [More News]
• Christianity in Art: Images of Pope Francis as leader of the Christian world [More News]
• Hinduism in Art: The Milky Ocean as a visual idea of cosmic connections [More News]
• Islam in Art: The "Hands of Fatima" by Laila Shawa for Women's Month [More News]
• Judaism in Art: The Dead Sea Scrolls at the Cincinnati Museum Center [More News]

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