Something in the Stars? Art World Goes Spiritual

THE ART NEWSPAPER 

AA Bronson in front of "Anna and Mark, February 3, 2001, 2002", his portrait of his husband with their premature daughter when she was 10 days old. AA wears a hand-embroidered shirt by MJKVL.

Spirituality is on-trend. Tarot, the occult, astrology, meditation apps, crystals—as political turmoil surrounds us, interest in “new age spiritualism” is booming. And last week, the esoteric is in the ascendant at Frieze and in numerous exhibitions around London. The retreat from religion, particularly among the left-wing art world, is a driving factor behind this rise in spirituality. “Organised Christianity has proven itself largely morally bankrupt,” says the artist AA Bronson, who first became interested in shamanism and alternative belief systems at the age of seven. A work by Bronson’s collective General Idea is on show at Frieze London with Maureen Paley. [More]

A Satanic group is accusing Netflix of appropriating its goat-man sculpture in ‘The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina’

ARTNET NEWS
By Eileen Kinsella

The statue of Baphomet by artist Mark Porter. Image via MarkPorterworks.com

As far as legal battles go, this one is about as seasonal as they come. Just in time for Halloween, the co-founder and spokesman for the Satanic Temple, Lucien Greaves, is threatening legal action against Netflix for featuring a statue that appears nearly identical to one it commissioned in 2014 in its new series The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. Brooklyn-based artist Mark Porter depicted the goat-man deity Baphomet, the pagan idol that the Knights of Templar were accused of worshiping, sitting in a throne before two admiring children. The Satanic Temple commissioned the work as a response to a statue of the Ten Commandments erected on the site of the Oklahoma State Capitol in 2012, which the Temple says is a violation of the separation of church and state. [More]

Books: Belief is back: why the world is putting its faith in religion

THE GUARDIAN
By Neil MacGregor

‘There is no God,’ says Yuri Gagarin in this 1975 Soviet propaganda poster … The Road is Wider Without God/God Doesn’t Exist by Vladimir Menshikov Photograph: The State Museum of the History of Religion, St Petersburg, Russia

In the 1970s, most politicians in the US and western Europe, as in the USSR, broadly believed that scientific advance, material progress and growing prosperity would lead to the continuing retreat of faith from the public realm. All that has changed. Russia now defines itself loudly and proudly as Orthodox. Putin is ostentatiously devout. Even the KGB has its own church. The whole of the Middle East is caught up in murderous conflicts that are articulated and fought out in religious as much as economic terms. India, whose constitution enshrines the state’s equidistance from all religions, is convulsed by calls for the government to assert an explicitly Hindu identity, with grave consequences for the hundreds of millions of Indians who are Muslims, Christians or belong to other faiths. [More]

Atheists group issues reminder about freedoms to local schools

THE NEWS ENTERPRISE
By Katherine Knott

With the school year underway, the Kentucky branch of American Atheists has sent letters to public schools in Hardin, Jefferson and Fayette counties about religious issues. Johnny Pike, state director of the organization, said this is the first year the organization has sent such letters, and he wanted to raise awareness about common issues the association has seen. In the letter to school administrators, Pike said schools should keep school-events secular, which includes field trips. The organization particularly was concerned with field trips to Ark Encounter in Williamstown and Creation Museum in Petersburg. Additionally, he wrote school staff and employees shouldn’t lead or direct religious activities such as prayer, and said students do not have to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, citing Supreme Court decisions. [More]

Ellsworth Kelly, an atheist, has built a transcendent church for art in Texas

ARTNEWS
By

Ellsworth Kelly, Austin (2015). Interior view, facing south. ©Ellsworth Kelly Foundation. Photo courtesy of the Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin.

BLANTON, TX---Ellsworth Kelly died in 2015, but his final work was unveiled only this past weekend. It is also likely the most ambitious work the American artist ever made: a 2,700-square-foot building loosely modeled after a Romanesque church on the grounds of the Blanton Museum in Austin, Texas. “This is a game changer for this city and for Ellsworth Kelly, to have his most monumental work realized,” said Blanton director Simone Wicha. The museum raised $23 million for the project, which includes a $4 million endowment to conserve the work. The Blanton has been developing the project since 2012, but it has actually been in the works for decades. [More]

Elizabeth Dee Gallery Is Ready to Take On Harlem

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Robin Pogrebin

"GOD IS MAN MADE" (2015) by John Giorno. Screenprint and enamel linen. Inspired by his atheistic poem of same name, Giorno is a devoted Tibetan Buddhist

NEW YORK---It’s too soon to declare Chelsea over. Elizabeth Dee Gallery is among those establishing new turf. In January, Ms. Dee closed her gallery on West 20th Street after 15 years, in preparation for a move to Harlem, where she has significantly increased her space — to 12,000 square feet from about 2,500 — and where she has lived for the last four years. We caught up with Ms. Dee this week, just days before her new two-story space, on Fifth Avenue between 125th and 126th Streets — the original home of the Studio Museum in Harlem. The inaugural show, appropriately called “First Exhibition,” offers an introduction to the gallery by featuring several of Ms. Dee’s longtime artists, like Carl Ostendarp, Miranda Lichtenstein and John Giorno. [link]

Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran Breaks Traditions, One Penis at a Time

THE CREATORS PROJECT
By Isobel Beech

"Snake base" by Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran

AUSTRALIA---Only three years out of his Fine Arts degree, Sydney-based artist Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran has held eight solo shows, received numerous accolades, and has been part of countless group exhibitions. Nithiyendran’s work jumps out at you—warped and melty and often involving overt references to male anatomy. That is to say, covered in dicks. He finds phallus worship to be an engaging paradigm. “I’m also interested in the ways in which imagery and understandings of the phallus are presented in non-misogynistic forms,” Nithiyendran says, telling us that this is where his research into Hindu constructions of phallocentrism comes into play. While he has Hindu heritage, Nithiyendran is a confident atheist. [link]

Gay pride-themed "Festivus" poles have popped up across the U.S.

VOCATIV
By Allee Manning

While the religious right continues bemoaning the War on Christmas, atheist activist Chaz Stevens is poles apart in his seasonal mission. The Florida-based software designer and executive director of the two-man equal rights advocacy organization the Humanity Fund has launched a national campaign of “elite trolling”: erecting glittery, 6-foot-tall “rainbow gay pride”-decorated Festivus poles topped with disco balls at various city halls, public spaces, and capitol grounds across the country. One will even blare the iconically campy anthem “It’s Raining Men.” [link]

Teaching "Ignorance" is the latest trend of learning

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Jaimie Holmes

People tend to think of not knowing as something to be wiped out or overcome, as if ignorance were simply the absence of knowledge. But answers don’t merely resolve questions; they provoke new ones. The study of ignorance — or agnotology, a term popularized by Robert N. Proctor, a historian of science at Stanford — is in its infancy. In 2006, a Columbia University neuroscientist, Stuart J. Firestein, began teaching a course on scientific ignorance after realizing, to his horror, that many of his students might have believed that we understand nearly everything about the brain. Presenting ignorance as less extensive than it is, knowledge as more solid and more stable, and discovery as neater also leads students to misunderstand the interplay between answers and questions. [link]

John Giorno's Icon of Atheism at Elizabeth Dee Art Gallery

ARTNET | NEWS
By Blake Gopnik

Good poetry is often all about compression and concision – packing as much meaning as possible into the smallest space. You can tell that John Giorno has practiced as a notable poet, because the art he makes has that same density. Today's Daily Pic is on view in his solo show at Elizabeth Dee in New York, and I think it captures, in just four words, the essence of what we atheists believe about divinity – a truth that seems as self-evident to us as the Incarnation does to the Pope. Giorno's icon of atheism has the numinous perfection, and compression, of a Byzantine image of Christ. [link]

Jesus Christ the family man? Why the church won’t buy it

THE GUARDIAN
By Jonathon Jones

An artifact believed to have once contained the bones of Jesus’ brother James on display in Toronto, Canada. Photograph: Drew Cunningham/Getty Images

If only the great arguments between religion and doubt could be settled by scientific evidence. A story this week has it that solid evidence has emerged about the historical Jesus: the “tomb of Jesus” reportedly contains proof that Jesus was married, had a son – and was never resurrected. So that’s settled then. Religion sees only the evidence it wishes to see. This is very apparent in western art. Christian paintings are full of supposed evidence for the divinity of Christ. His real face is purportedly recorded in paintings that faithfully copy his uncannily preserved image. [link]

Art critic says he can worship religious art without believing in God

THE GUARDIAN
By Jonathon Jones

Agnus Dei (1635-40) by Francisco de Zurbarán. Photograph: Museo Nacional del Prado

Atheism has never come up with anything like the art of 17th-century painter Francisco de Zurbarán, who created a pure and intense religious visual language. I find his images uniquely appealing at Easter – even though I don’t believe in his, or any other, god. Mysticism is noble; so is religious art. I don’t want to deny the value of the great cultural achievements made in the name of religion – or the moral dimension of faith. Religion is a wonderful human achievement. It just happens to rest on implausible fictional accounts of the universe. It’s a nice story, and it created lovely art. Shame it’s all made up. [link]

More Threats After New Charlie Hebdo Cover Revealed

HUFFINGTON POST
By Martin Benedyk and Lori Hinnant

FRANCE---In an emotional act of defiance, Charlie Hebdo resurrected its irreverent and often provocative newspaper Tuesday, featuring a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad on the cover that drew immediate criticism and threats of more violence. The newspaper unapologetically skewered other religions as well, and bragged that Sunday's turnout of a million people at a march in Paris to condemn terrorism was larger "than for Mass." "For the past week, Charlie, an atheist newspaper, has achieved more miracles than all the saints and prophets combined," it said in the edition's lead editorial. [link]

In Seven States, Atheists Push to End Largely Forgotten Ban

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Laurie Goodstein

A bookkeeper named Roy Torcaso, who happened to be an atheist, refused to declare that he believed in God in order to serve as a notary public in Maryland. His case went all the way to the Supreme Court, and in 1961 the court ruled unanimously for Mr. Torcaso, saying states could not have a “religious test” for public office. But 53 years later, Maryland and six other states still have articles in their constitutions saying people who do not believe in God are not eligible to hold public office. [link]

Jake Gyllenhaal: In Deep With Video Artist Bill Viola

W MAGAZINE
By Lynn Hirschberg

PUBLISHING---No playing it safe for the Hollywood darling. Jake Gyllenhaal is plunging into uncharted territory—starting with this collaboration with the video artist Bill Viola. Viola is also interested in extremes: His medium is video, and he creates scenarios that have biblical undercurrents, usually involving fire or water. Viola, who is an enthusiastic man, explained his process to Gyllenhaal: The actor would lie down in a tank of warm water—which resembled a rectangular bathtub made of clear Plexiglas—and hold his breath in darkness as the lights slowly came up. There was a death-to-life feel to the idea, but Viola rejected the notion of his art having a narrative. [link]

Atheists Face Discrimination On A Shocking Level (INFOGRAPHIC)

THE HUFFINGTON POST
By Yasmine Hafiz

It's a sad, but well-known truth that many people around the world are persecuted for their religious beliefs. But many people are also suffering for their lack of religious belief, though their stories are not as often shared. The American Humanist Association created this infographic which shows some of the ways in which atheists are socially and legally discriminated against. [link]

A Nonbeliever, Curating Religious Art at NYC's Morgan Museum

ALJAZEERA AMERICA
By Judith H. Dobrzynski

NEW YORK---Roger S. Wieck is glowing like a doting father, though the cause is a tiny painting that sits in a glass vitrine in the center of a gallery at the Morgan Library & Museum. Occupying the left-hand page of a 2.75-by-2-inch prayer book made for Queen Claude of France (1499–1524), the painting portrays the Holy Trinity. His fervor is understandable. The 500-year-old prayer book is the centerpiece of Wieck’s new exhibition, “Miracles in Miniature: The Art of the Master of Claude de France.” At a time when society is increasingly secularized, when adherence to religion, at least in an organized form, is waning, it’s Wieck’s job, as the Morgan’s curator of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, to wax enthusiastic about religious art.  So it comes as a surprise, perhaps, to discover that Wieck himself does not believe in God. Though raised Catholic, he says he “became a nonbeliever gradually when I was in my 20s.” [link]

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."