Christian Imagery As Inspiration, Decor, More

THE ADVOCATE
BY Leila Pitchform-English

LOUISIANA---Visual communication through art in Christian churches dates almost to the church’s beginning. Often art was used in churches because most people couldn’t read, so religious stories were portrayed in pictures to make them memorable. In addition to education, the art serves to inspire, sometimes just from the beauty of the decorative objects. Often objects were designed to point the way toward God or to honor God. In Lafayette, a museum has gathered artifacts from the region to display. See the related story, “The art of faith.” [link]

Southern Baptists elect Black Preacher as their counter to U.S. Civil Rights leadership

CHICAGO TRIBUNE
By Rueters

LOUISIANA - The largest U.S. Protestant denomination chose its first black president on Tuesday, an historic election for the predominately white religious group as it seeks to better reflect the diversity of the country and its membership. Fred Luter, a New Orleans pastor and civic leader, ran unopposed for the top post in the 167-year-old Southern Baptist Convention, which counts a growing number of minorities among its 16 million members. The convention was founded in 1845 after Southern Baptists split from the First Baptist Church in America in the pre-Civil War days over slave ownership. [link]

Artist Marcus Brown creates religious sculptures for Louisiana church

TIME PICAYUNE
By Doug MacCash

Artist Marcus Brown with his sculpture of
St. Peter Claver in the Treme neighborhood.

LOUISIANA - Over the past few years, New Orleans-born artist Marcus Brown has established a reputation in the art community as a sort of mad scientist/performance artist who uses electronic technology to blend sight and sound into audacious abstractions. So it was a surprise to learn that Brown, 29, also has completed a trio of realistic marble sculptures of historic religious leaders for St. Peter Claver Catholic School in the Treme neighborhood. [link]

Holy Monstrance (Relic) from New Orleans to be Auctioned in NYC on Nov. 16

THE TIMES-PICAYUNE
By John Pope

The bejeweled altarpiece once seen at St. Alphonsus Church.

LOUISIANA - A bejeweled altarpiece from the 19th century that was at St. Alphonsus Church during the time of Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos is up for auction Nov. 16 in New York City and may never return to New Orleans. The piece, which is scheduled to be sold at Sotheby’s auction house, is a monstrance, a vessel shaped like a cross surrounded by a sunburst. At the center is a glass case, called a luna, in which the consecrated Host is exposed for the adoration of the faithful. The monstrance, which gets its name from the Latin word monstrare (to show), was made in France in 1857 by Jean Alexandre Chertier for the Irish Channel church, one of three built in the 180Os by the Redemptorists. [link]

Documentary on Hospice Care Provided by Death Row Inmates

AOA NEWS

LOUISINA - Serving Life documents an extraordinary hospice program where hardened criminals care for dying fellow inmates. Narrated and executive produced by Academy Award®-winner Forest Whitaker, the film takes viewers inside Louisiana's maximum security prison at Angola, where the average sentence is more than 90 years. This was the final project of AOA Advisory Council member, Lynn Harden before leaving NYC for a new assignment in Portland. It premieres on OWN tonight, Thursday, July 28 at 9/8c. [link]

Hindu Deities Coming to New Orleans Museum of Art

AOA NEWSLOUISIANA - On Friday, August 5, the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) will premiere The Elegant Image: Hindu, Buddhist and Jain Bronzes from the Indian Subcontinent in the Siddharth K. Bhansali Collection. The exhibition includes over 100 bronze sculptures of Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain deities, presenting a rich diversity of figures of the three major religions of ancient India. Hinduism is the oldest and third largest religion in the world with about one billion adherents, and American museums have recently begun to embrace Hindu art with a new vitality as exemplified in exciting exhibitions in Cleveland, New York City, Nashville, etc; as well as a controversey in Idaho. "The Elegant Image" will run from Aug. 5 to Oct. 23. [link]

Old Master Painting, "St. Joseph and the Infant Jesus" at Auction in New Orleans

ART DAILYLOUISIANA - A recently discovered and undocumented Old Master painting of "St. Joseph and the Infant Jesus" from the School of Bartolomé Esteban Murillo is coming to auction in New Orleans at Crescent City Auction Gallery on Saturday, July 23. The Baroque painting portrays St. Joseph as a young father and the baby Jesus as a toddler holding a branch of lilies. Its provenance, as denoted by a label to the stretcher, is Rev. Canon A. Silva-White (possibly of Spanish heritage), St. Peter's Vicarage, Sunderland England. It is thought to have been de-accessioned circa 1968 and then purchased by a private collector before passing to the collection of a Mandeville, Louisiana collector in 1985. "St. Joseph and the Infant Jesus" carries a conservative pre-sale estimate of $8,000 to $12,000. [link]

"Ancestors of Congo Square": African Art in the New Orleans Museum of Art

AOA NEWS
By Rev. Steve Abrams

LOUISIANA - The New Orleans Museum of Art presents Ancestors of Congo Square: African Art in the New Orleans Museum of Art on May 13 to July 17. In keeping with the spirit of NOMA's centennial year, the Museum will be highlighting one of the most impressive areas of its permanent collection: its extensive holdings in African art. Additionally, the exhibition will look at the strong artistic and cultural connections between New Orleans and Africa. The New Orleans Museum of Art, 1 Collins Diboll Circle in City Park, 658.4100, noma.org. [link]

Bible Museum in Louisiana to Recieve European Art Collection

LOUISIANA - Thanks to the generosity of an art collector and friend of the Biedenharn Bible Museum, the permanent collection will be signficantly enhanced next year with the donation of some 1,000 works of art, books, manuscripts and antiquities. “Dan Bibb, who has given the Biedenharn Russian icons in the past, is giving us a collection of European paintings and decorative arts,” said museum director Ralph Calhoun. The first items in the new collection will be unveiled in an exhibit in May 2012, according to Calhoun. “It’s (the exhibit) mostly paintings, chairs, porcelain and table settings,” he said. “The collection is of French paintings and artworks from the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries. A lot in this collection is French, and this works well in Louisiana. [Source: link]

Haiti photo exhibit at St. Tammany Art Association

THE TIMES-PICAYUNE
March 14, 2011

LOUISIANA -- The photo exhibit at St. Tammany Art Association is filled with images that circle the room in a subtle and effective presentation. Integrated with the Haitian Vodou Flags, the iconography is above all spiritual and has religious significance for most Haitians. Catholic images such as those in Haitian artist Georges Valris' “Flag F322, Madonna and Child” are dramatically presented. [link]

Jewish Sculpture in New Orleans Reflects Tale of Sacrifice

AOA NEWS
By Tahlib

"Sacrifice III" (1949-57 by Jacques Lipchitz. Bronze, 55” x 40” x 25”

LOUISIANA - Jewish sculptor Jacques Lipchitz is considered by many to be the modern successor to Auguste Rodin because of his handling of symbolic themes in an expressive manner and in his preference for modeling his materials over carving. He created the sculpture "Sacrifice III" (above) between 1949-57 reflecting his interest in mythological and biblical subjects. Today it rests in a park in New Orleans. Sacrifice III depicts the Biblical story of Abraham and the sacrifice of Isaac. Lipchitz uses allegory to portray Isaac as the rooster in Abraham’s hands. The ram that was sent to replace Isaac is shown between Abraham’s legs. He worked on various versions of Sacrifice II between 1949 and 1957. These are years that the artist spent in the United States, having taken refuge here during World War II. It reflects his personal experience of persecution and displacement, as well as the modern Jewish practice of sacrifice (See Kapporet). In 1941 with the Nazi invasion, Lipchitz fled to New York, where he lived and worked until his death in 1973.