Osama Bin Laden Anti-Portraits at Aldridge Museum

Anti-Portraits of Bin Laden on view at the
Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum [Read More]

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Drawing Bin Laden, Before and After Death

RIDGEFIELD PRESS
By Macklin Reid

"This is not a portrait" (2011) by James Esber

CONNECTICUT- Since January, Osama bin Laden’s face has glared out from the walls of The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum on Main Street. New York artist James Esber’s ‘This is not a portrait’ exhibition features more than 100 drawings of Bin Laden’s face, created by a variety of people he invited to trace from and remake a drawing he’d done, based on a familiar photo image of Bin Laden. He is interested in the way common media images take on a life of their own. [link]

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An Interview with "Arab-Jew" artist, Dor Guez

HAARETZ
By Dalia Karpel

Dor Guez (2011)

ISREAL - On his father's side he's a third-generation Holocaust survivor, on his mother's side the scion of a prominent Palestinian Christian family. In his work, artist Dor Guez, 29, explores his roots while refusing to be labeled. "I have full confidence in my identity. All the definitions such as I'm a Jew, I'm an Israeli, I'm a Palestinian, I'm a Christian Arab, are something that I don't want to use or contain. "What is art, if they're trying to castrate it of the only condition that justifies it - the test of criticism. I have no interest in abstraction or in imitating the traditional Western artistic narrative, but I have a desire to use the tools of that language. These are two different activities. Time will tell if my exhibition within the walls of Israeli museums is an activity that makes me a part of the quasi-Western Israeli canon or establishes the presence of another narrative. It's a real dilemma: Is an exhibition like 'The Nation's Groves' a Trojan horse or a fig leaf?" [link]

"Georgiolopolis" (2009) By Dor Guez

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Artist Uses The Book of Mormon to Create 41-ton Sculpture

THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
By Glen Warchol

"The Fourth Thousand Words" By Adam Bateman

UTAH - The museum’s “The Matter of Words,” a three-artist exhibit that has been attracting and challenging visitors since it opened last month, is a case in point. The eye-popping, jaw-dropping sculpture is Adam Bateman’s “The Fourth Thousand Years,” some 100,000 books formed into a towering monolith. In installing the 41-ton Bateman sculpture, a base had to be built to protect the museum’s floor. A number of copies of The Book of Mormon, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ most sacred text, were cut to make a façade to hide the base. About 70 percent to 80 percent of the 100,000 books in the sculpture are Mormon-related, including church publications, teaching manuals, writings of church leaders, and scriptures, including Bibles and copies of the Book of Mormon, says Bateman, a Weber State University art instructor and a BYU graduate. The books were donated by the Provo nonprofit Worldwide Book Drive, which will get them back when the sculpture is dismantled. [link]

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Caravaggio's "Behold the Man" to be Centerpiece of Ohio Exhibit

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
By Nancy Gilson

"Ecce Homo" Behold the Man (1606) By Caravaggio

OHIO - A painting by Italian master Caravaggio will serve as the centerpiece of an exhibit opening in October at the Columbus Museum of Art. "Ecce Homo" ( Behold the Man) - to be lent by the Musei di Strada Nuova, Palazzo Bianco in Genoa, Italy - will headline "Caravaggio: Behold the Man! The Impact of a Revolutionary Realist" as part of the museum's celebration of the Columbus bicentennial. "Last year was the 400th anniversary of Caravaggio's death, and there has been Caravaggio mania since then," said Dominique H. Vasseur, director of curatorial administration and curator of European art for the museum, 480 E. Broad St. Ecce Homo (1606) will be teamed with 10 works by artists inspired by Caravaggio. The biblical-themed painting depicts Pilate showing a bound Jesus to a hostile crowd. [link]

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Ethiopian Christian Art on View in Oregon

THE OREGONIAN
By Nany Haught

Ethiopian Christian manuscript

OREGON -The Hallie Ford Museum of Art has created an exhibit titled "Glory of Kings: Ethiopian Christian Art From Oregon Collections." It continues at the museum, 700 State St. in Salem, through June 12. Ethiopia, clinging to the rugged highlands of sub-Saharan Africa, has been home to a unique strand of Christianity that traces its history back to the Queen of Sheba and ancient Israel's King Solomon. The museum exhibit gathers examples of Ethiopian art and crafts, including murals, iconic images painted on wood, elaborate crosses made of metal and carved in wood and illuminated manuscripts that are different from European examples but vibrantly colorful in their own way. A few magic scrolls also are on display, each made to protect a particular person with images of guardian angels and watchful eyes. [link]

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Banksy's Stained Glass Window at MOCA

FLAVORVILLE

"Stained Glass Window" (2011) By Banksy

CALIFORNIA - The Museum of Contemporary Art's first major U.S. museum survey of graffiti and street art traces the genre from the 1970s to the present, concentrating on key cities where a unique visual language or attitude has evolved. It runs through August 17 in Los Angeles. Art in the Streets will feature paintings, mice media sculptures, and interactive installations by 30 of the most dynamic artists to emerge from the street art scene, including Shepard Fairey (Los Angeles), Os Gemeos (Sao Paulo), Risk (Los Angeles), and Swoon (New York). [link]

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National Art Museum Gathers Secular and Spiritual Belarus authorities.

BELTELER RADIO COMPANY
By Yelena Bormotova

Vladimir Prokoptsov, director of the National Art Museum of Belarus

RUSSIA - The exhibition of scared art is being showcased at the National Art Museum during the Easter days. The restorers worked hard on the icons forwarded from the Zhirovitsy Monastery. Seven restorers of the National Art Museum opened the holy beauty. Presidential grant in the amount of 55 million rubles was allocated for the restoration of the sacred masterpieces. These are masterpieces saved in the years of atheism. [link]

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Canadian Temple of Art and Music

THE METROPOLITAIN
By Alan Hustak

Montreal's former Erskine American Church

CANADA - The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts newest pavilion is as calm and as uplifting as ….. well, a church. Which it once was. The old Erskine American Church, a brownstone Sherbrooke St. landmark since 1894, has been converted into a $40-million temple of art and music known as the Claire and Marc Bourgie Pavillion. The run of galleries adds 2400 square metres of exhibition space to house the museum’s Canadian art collection is behind the old church. What was once the church sanctuary has been turned into a splendid 444 seat concert hall. The project was designed by Provencher Roy + Associates, who have restored the church and discreetly added the gallery space behind it. [link]

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San Diego Hosts "From El Greco to Dali: The Great Spanish Masters"

SAN DIEGO MUSEUM OF ART
PRWeb

Salvador Dalí. The Ascension of Christ, 1958.
Oil on canvas. Pérez Simón Collection.

CALIFORNIA - For the first and only time in the United States, The San Diego Museum of Art presents the exhibition "From El Greco to Dalí: The Great Spanish Masters from the Pérez Simón Collection." Displaying 64 Spanish oil paintings, sculptures, and drawings from more than 25 master painters, the exhibition, on view from July 8 to November 6, 2011, presents a remarkable overview and visual representation of the progression and history of art in Spain over the last 500 years. With the works of El Greco, José de Ribera and Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, the visitor is taken to the heart of the different faces of Catholic Reformation art in the 16th-18th centuries. Goya and Sanchez Coello counter this religious art with beautiful, and sensitive, court portraits of Spanish Monarchs, balancing the portrayal of power with realistic representations. [link]

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Getty Museum's "God's of Angkor"

Bronze (samrit in Khmer)

CALIFORNIA - Bronze (samrit in Khmer) is of enduring significance in Cambodian culture. The Cambodian mastery of the medium will be highlighted in a focused exhibition at the J. Paul Getty Museum, "Gods of Angkor: Bronzes from the National Museum of Cambodia," on view through August 14, 2011 at the Getty Center. The ancient capital of the Khmer people at Angkor, located in northwest Cambodia, once formed the heart of a large sphere of influence that extended over much of mainland Southeast Asia. [link]

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Norton Simon Museum's "Sculpture from the Hindu-Buddhist World"

Goddess

CALIFORNIA - The Norton Simon Museum presents "Where Art Meets Science: Ancient Sculpture from the Hindu-Buddhist World, a focused exhibition of primarily Cambodian sculpture from the Norton Simon foundations’ permanent collections, examines the connoisseurship and conservation involved in identifying and preserving these ancient objects. The exhibit is on view in the Museum’s small rotating exhibitions gallery on the main level through August 1. [link]

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A&O Meetup at Kentucky's Creation Museum, August 6 & 7

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By Ernest Disney-Britton



KENTUCKY - This August, join the AOA Meetup at the "Creation Museum", a one-of-a-kind, high-tech museum, filled with animatronic displays that tells the compelling story of the creation of life on this planet to proclaiming the Bible as supreme authority in all matters it addresses. The weekend theme is Prepare to Believe.

Highlights of this two-day, August 6 & 7 AOA Meetup includes:

• Saturday, Aug. 6 - 6pm Meetup at Dewey's Pizza followed at 7:15pm by movie, Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows. (Both Meetups at Newport on the Levee).
• Sunday, Aug. 7 - 12noon Meetup at the Creation Museum. Walk through time at the striking exhibits designed based on the “Seven C’s of History” according to Scripture: Creation, Corruption, Catastrophe, Confusion, Christ, Cross and Consummation.

Since it opened on Memorial Day 2007, the $27 million museum museum has attracted over 1 million visitors and captured the attention of the world's major media. Whatever you Believe, this is one AOA Meetup you will not want to miss. To register for the August AOA Meetup, please RSVP at meetup@alphaomegaarts.org by August 5, or simply meet us there.

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INSPIRE ME! Artist, George Rouault

"My only objective is to paint a Christ so moving
that those who see him will be converted."
~ GEORGE ROUAULT, artist

By TAHLIB

LAST EASTER, we visited Saint Louis, Missouri to see the Museum of Contemporary Religious Art, and we were so impressed that we immediately put it on our calendars for Easter 2011. This past week though, I received the bad news that the museum would be closed for Easter weekend. Sad, but undeterred, I contacted the museum's founder/director Father Terrence Dempsey, SJ who graciously offered to meet us, and then gave us an inspiring tour of the current exhibition, "George Rouault: Miserere et Guerre" (See #58 above and #32 below).

Inspired by the horrors of World War I, Rouault worked for nine years on this masterpiece collection. They capture the human misery he experienced in Paris – probing portraits through a war ravaged-religious lens: tragic faces of the pompous, the homeless, and through it all the suffering of Christ. Rouault himself said, "All of my work is religious for those who know how to look at it."

Last year's visit to the Museum of Contemporary Religious Art's exhibition, "Good Friday: The Suffering Christ in Art" left me in tears of despair. As I walked out of the museum this year, I felt lighter. Certainly Rouault understood suffering as much as the previous year's collection of artists, but through his stunning works I also felt the hope.

 
Georges Henri Rouault was born in Paris on May 27, 1871. He studied under Gustave Moreau at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and also under Elie Delauney. Rouault's early work was influenced by his teachers as well as by the artist's fascination for medieval art and stained-glass techniques. "Miserere" was finished in 1927 but was not published until 1948. Rouault died at the age of 87 in Paris on February 13, 1958.

Other Rouault's in US Museums

I've been a fan of Rouault's work for some time, and have seen his works at nearly every major museum I've visited including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, MoMA and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Most recently, we saw Rouault’s painting, “Head of Christ.” at the Cleveland Museum of Art (see below). 

"Head of Christ" at Cleveland Museum of Art

"Three Clowns" at the Indiana University Art Museum

"The Crucifixion" at the Minneapolis Institute of Art

"Circus Act" at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC

Recommendation

The 58-piece collection that makes up "George Rouault: Miserere et Guerre" at the Museum of Contemporary Religious Art far exceeded our wildest expectations. The exhibition runs through July 31, and we strongly recommend the experience. Lastly, special thanks to Father Dempsey for sharing his Easter Saturday morning with us, and we'll be back in September for the opening of the next season!

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A&O Meetup in Oklahoma City Museum of Art + Film: "Tree of Life"

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By Ernest Britton

There is no place like Oklahoma City, and there's no larger collection of Abrahamic Bibles on display anywhere else in the world. Join us for "Passages" at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art on Saturday, July, 9, 2011.

• Connect with: Greg Disney (@GregoryDisney)
• Exhibit Title: "Passages, The Bible Experience"
• Day/Time: Saturday, July 9, 2011 at 10 am
• Location: Oklahoma City Museum of Art
• Cost: $10 for non-members
• RSVP: Call (317)755-8400 for an iteniary for the entire weekend including Muslim cemetary, Hindu Temple, and Buddhist Temple.

A&O will also Meetup at 8:15pm the evening of Saturday, July 9 to view the new film, "Tree of Life" starring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn. This limited release film is being shown at AMC Quail Springs Mall 24, 2501 West Memorial. Categorized as Drama/Sci-Fi/Fantasy, many interpret the film as an allegory about God and nature, life and death.



Join A&O for coffee and dialogue right after the movie at Cafe NOVA, 4308 North Western Avenue, open Saturday 'til 2am; or follow on Twitter @ErnestBritton.

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AOA MUSEUM LISTINGS

All displays and exhibitions below are at US museums unless otherwise noted:

COLORADO: Denver Museum of Art: ""Cities of Splendor: A Journey Through Renaissance Italy," through July 31. This show focuses mostly on second- and third-tier artists — many well-regarded by experts — such as Giovanni da Bologna. Denver has one of just four known signed paintings by the Venetian artist, "The Coronation of the Virgin" (circa 1380). 100 West 14th Avenue Parkway, Denver, CO, (720) 865-5000, deverartmuseum.org.


ILLINOIS: Art Institute of Chicago: "Kings, Queens, and Courtiers: Art in Early Renaissance France," through May 30. One reviewer wrote that this show is so good, they don't even feature the Leonardo da Vinci in their promotions. 111 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, ILL, (312) 443-3600, artic.edu/aic.

INDIANA: Indianapolis Museum of Art: "Hard Truth: The Art of Thornton Dial," through September 18. A twenty year retrospective featuring 70 of Dial's large-scale paintings, drawings and found-object sculpture. 4000 Michigan Rd., Indianapolis, IN, (313)923-1331, imamuseum.org.

KENTUCKY: Owensboro Museum of Fine Art Art: "The Divine in Art," through May 31. More then 150 objects by a range of artists — from European master Rembrandt to Kentucky sculptor Jeanne Dueber, a nun and artist in residence at the Motherhouse of the Sisters of Loretto — are part of a major survey of religious art. 901 Frederica Street, Owensboro, KY, (270) 685-3181, omfa.us.

MARYLAND: Walters Art Museum: ‘Treasures of Heaven: Saints, Relics, and Devotion in Medieval Europe,’ through May 15. Holy relics — the physical remains of the venerated dead — were objects of Christian devotion from Roman times. 600 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD, (410) 547-9000, thewalters.org.

MISSOURI: Museum of Contemporary Religious Art: "Georges Rouault: Miserere et Guerre," through July 31. A small interfaith museum with a contemporary art focus in a former college chapel, on the residential campus of 221 N. Grand Blvd., Saint Louis University in Saint Louis, MO, (314) 977-2999, slu.edu.edu/x27662.xml.

NEW JERSEY: African Art Museum of the SMA Fathers: "Permanent Collection, Part I," through May 29. SMA is another small unorthodox museum in a stained-glass-windowed hall beside a church, on the residential campus of a Roman Catholic missionary order in a leafy New Jersey suburb. 23 Bliss Avenue, Tenafly, NJ, (201) 894-8611, smafathers.org/museum.

NYCITY: Japan Society: ‘Bye Bye Kitty!!! Between Heaven and Hell in Contemporary Japanese Art,’ through June 12. 333 East 47th Street, NYC, (212) 832-1155, japansociety.org.

NYCITY: Museum of Arts and Design: ‘The Global Africa Project,’ through May 15. A survey mixing contemporary art, design and craft by some 120 participants who are mostly African or of African descent. 2 Columbus Circle, NYC, (212) 299-7777, madmuseum.org.

NYCITY: Museum of Biblical Art: "Passion in Venice: Crivelli to Tintoretto and Veronese," through June 12. This fascinating exhibition presents about 60 paintings, sculptures and objects by famous artists and unidentified artisans, all representing a major iconic image of Christendom: Jesus as the Man of Sorrows, post-Crucifixion, pre-Resurrection. 1865 Broadway, at 61st Street, NYC, (212) 408-1500, mobia.org.

PENNSYLVANIA: Brandywine River Museum: "Barry Moser: Bookwright," through May 22. US 1 in Chadds Ford, PA, (610)388-2700, brandywinemuseum.org.

WASHINGTON (STATE): Jundt Art Museum: "Bolker Collection: Fritz Eichenberg," through July 30. The display includes "Ten Wood Engravings for the Old Testament" and include pieces such as the well-known "The Peaceable Kingdom," "And David Played the Harp" and "The Story of Jonah." The museum is located on the campus of Gonzaga University. 502 East Boone Avenue • Spokane, WA, (800) 986.9585, http://www.gonzaga.edu/.


LAST CHANCE TO SEE:

PENNSYLVANIA: Andy Warhol Museum: "Word of God: Sandow Birk's American Quran," through today, May 1, 2011. The paintings are reflections by an American artist of Persian miniatures and of Christian illuminated manuscripts, having a delicacy and refinement of image centered with panels containing the words of Mohammed. 117 Sandusky Street, Pittsburgh, (412) 237-8300, warhol.org.

UTAH: BYU Museum of Art: "Carl Bloch: The Master's Hand," through May 7. Beloved by members of the LDS church, the exhibition is the most well-attended show the museum has had in 15 years, with more than 250,000 people coming to see the Danish master's paintings. Advance tickets are no longer available, but people can still try to enter through a standby line to see if someone has cancelled a reservation. Bringham Young University, North Campus Drive, Provo, UT, (801) 422-8287, carlbloch.byu.edu/.

COMING SOON:

OKLAHOMA: Oklahoma City Museum of Art: "Passages," opens May 16. The museum will be the first stop for a worldwide traveling exhibition of historic biblical texts and artifacts collected by Hobby Lobby President Steve Green. 415 Couch Drive, Oklahoma City, OK, (405)236-3100, okcmoa.com.

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Danish Artworks Resonate with Mormons

KSL NEWS
By Nicole Warburton

One of 23 Carl Bloch paintings inside Frederiksborg Castle in Hillerod, Denmark.

DENMARK - About a mile’s walk through the streets of this picturesque and quaint little town is Frederiksborg Castle. It’s perched in the middle of a lake, and tourists aptly describe it as the Versailles of Denmark, with its meandering gardens and majestic inside rooms. But members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints consider this castle special for a different reason. It’s home to a series of paintings by 19th-century Danish artist Carl Bloch on the life of Christ. Since 1955, when few images were actually used by the LDS Church in publications, these paintings have been used to illustrate more than 300 issues of the Improvement Era or the Ensign. They can also be seen in LDS meetinghouses, temples and other buildings. And now, perhaps as result of the extensive use of these Frederiksborg paintings, a special exhibit of other artworks and altarpieces by Bloch is now on display at the Brigham Young University Museum of Art in Provo. [link]

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SJMA to Feature Comic Book Artist R. Crumb's Book of Genesis June 23 – September 5, 2011

SAN JOSE MUSEUM
Press Release

CALIFORNIA - The San Jose Museum of Art will showcase the work of legendary underground comic artist R. Crumb this summer. The Bible Illuminated: R. Crumb's Book of Genesis will be on view from June 23 through September 25, 2011. The exhibition will feature 207 individual, black-and-white drawings from Crumb's critically acclaimed 2009 adaptation of the first book of the Bible, which incorporates every word from all fifty chapters. The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb was published by W.W. Norton in October 2009.  In his review of the book for the New York Times David Hajdu wrote, "Crumb luxuriates in the carnality of Genesis without playing it for gratuitous shock or comic effect." 110 South Market Street in downtown San Jose, CA, (408) 271-6840, SanJoseMuseumofArt.org.[link]

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Book Review: "Living Traditions in Indian Art"

THE HINDU
By Kausala Santhanam

INDIA - Unlike in the West, the genre of spiritual art is still vibrant in India, says Martin Gurvich, Director, Museum of Sacred Art, in his introduction. Published by the museum, "Living Traditions in Indian Art" celebrates the presence of the divine even amidst the mundane and the material in our country. It showcases popular, devotional art in India and also metal icons, masks, sculptures, puppets, and ritual objects of divinities from this country as well as from Thailand, Nepal, Tibet, and Indonesia, as displayed in the Museum of Sacred Art, Radhadesh, Belgium. [link]

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Resurrection Week Art | 2011

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By Ernest Britton

Plate 28 : “Celui qui croit en moi, fut-il mort, vivra” John 11:25 by George Roualt

MISSOURI - We returned to Saint Louis for Easter Weekend 2011, and this time for the work of George Roualt at the Museum of Contemporary Religious Art. Another wonderful visit which I will write about in detail later. The weekend, which included The Stations of the Cross at Saint John the Evangelist in Indianapolis; followed on Saturday with the George Roualt in Saint Louis; and concluded Sunday with the community of St. Mark's Episcopal Church, the city's first contemporary style church (1939), and one of most welcoming church experiences ever.

Saint Marks Episcopal Church

Saint Mark's was a wonderful place to be for Easter morning service, but the dark experience with Roualt lingered and made me reflect on the distinct disconnect between Crucixion masterpieces versus Resurrection masterpieces. What comes to mind for you? For me, only "The Resurrection of Christ" (c. 1612) by Rubens (next) came to mind, so I did some Googling. How about Carl Heinrich Bloch's "The Resurrection" or Dan Peres much newer "Resurrection" ? A new favorite is Incarnation by  Edward Knippers (all four below).

By Rubens

By Carl Heinrich Bloch

By Edward Knippers

By Dan Peres

WANT MORE? Follow the annual Resurrection Day Art for Easter Series since 2008 but visiting, Holydays page and going to "Easter."

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