Day #38 - Art for Lent: Ron Mueck's "Youth" #Lent2016

ART + RELIGION
By Aaron Rosen

Ron Mueck's ‘Youth’ (c. 2009) is a boy with a look of incredulity reminiscent of Saint Thomas demanding to inspect the wounds of Christ. Mixed media, 25 5/8 x 11 x 6 1/4 in.

Many of Mueck's works have their roots in religious subjects, especially following his two-year period as artist-in-residence at the National Gallery in London, where he studied the iconography of the old masters. No disciples accompany this small, vulnerable Jesus, incarnated as a contemporary black adolescent. In fact, Jesus seems to examine himself, as if requiring confirmation of his own immortality, perhaps in the wake of a knife attack. [page 212]

"The Incredulity of Saint Thomas" by Caravaggio, c. 1601–1602. It is housed in the Sanssouci Palace, now a museum, in Potsdam, Berlin, Germany.

Lent is the annual Christian preparation for Easter. "Today's Art for Lent2016" features artworks that illustrate the Christian "Battle between Carnival and Lent."