Contemporary art dealers like everything, except religion
THE OBSERVER
By Daniel Grant
Plenty of artists say the problem isn’t the quality of their work but the gallery owner’s narrow-mindedness or something to that effect. Art that references religious beliefs—Christian beliefs in particular—are not altogether absent from big city art galleries, but those works tend to take an ironic or satiric or cynical stance toward biblical stories and organized religion in general. For instance, a recent exhibition at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art called “Turn the Page: The First 10 Years of Hi-Fructose,” included several paintings by Mark Ryden, including the 1997 Rosie’s Tea Party (a cartoony figure of a little girl in a Communion dress sawing into a ham that bears a Latin inscription that translates to “Mystical Body of Christ”). [link]
By Daniel Grant
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| Religious imagery is not welcome in every art venue. Getty Images |
