Priceless or Worthless?

Masterpiece No.1 (Royal Red and Blue)

This Mark Rothko painting was sold for £47.3 million recently.  Here is a comment I read in the Metro the other week written in response to a positive blurb about the painting…

“Hana, what you don’t seem to understand about modern, abstract art is how stupid the concept is. 

Someone makes blocks of colour on a canvas that a child could reproduce, but apparently it’s worth millions because we attach some arbitrary ‘meaning’ to how the blocks are arranged and think it is soulful and insightful.  Actual artists who have the skill to paint something worthwhile are being passed over in favour of the guy who spilled paint on the canvas. 

When did painting become about not actually painting anything? ”

So the question is, ‘what is the Christian response to a comment like this?’  Is this kind of abstract art ‘meaningful’?  Is it worth £47.3 million?  Well to answer these questions the best thing to do is ask some more questions.  Here are three simple questions that can be applied to any work of art that will help us to form a more grounded opinion than that of the person above.

1. Who?  Who is Mark Rothko?  What is his view of the world (religion, culture etc)?

Mark Rothko (1903-1970) was a Russian-American Jewish painter.  He is classified as an abstract expressionist, although he himself rejected this label and even resisted classification as an "abstract painter".  He was influenced by artists like Paul Klee and Georges Rouault.  He was influenced by two world wars (as a Jew) in his lifetime and the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche.

2. What?  What is the painting about?  What is Rothko trying to achieve by painting this picture?

Rothko was interested …“only in expressing basic human emotions — tragedy, ecstasy, doom, and so on. And the fact that a lot of people break down and cry when confronted with my pictures shows that I can communicate those basic human emotions . . . The people who weep before my pictures are having the same religious experience I had when I painted them. And if you, as you say, are moved only by their colour relationship, then you miss the point.”

3. Evaluate!  Is it Successful?  Does Rothko say what he’s trying to say well?  From a Christian point of view what is good about his work?  What is bad about his work?

Rothko is clearly interested in human feeling and emotion.  In the painting above he uses a simple language to communicate a human experience that goes beyond words.  He is interested in the experience of something higher and more profound.

Rothko offers to share with his viewers an experience and in my view he does it very well indeed.  If you have ever stood in front of a Rothko painting you will know that they are very powerful.  They do make you feel something.  They are more than simply blocks of colour on a canvas. 

But what do we make of this painting as Christians?  Well, it is good because it places high value on elements of Gods creation - colour and form are prized.  It also suggests there is great meaning in these elements of creation and that beyond them is something (or someone) greater.  Rothko may not have believed in the God of the bible but he did recognise and honestly communicate his experience of life.  So, from a Christian perspective Rothko is interested in good things but rather than seeing God in those things (in colour, form texture etc) and turning to worship, he indulged in a personal ‘religious’ experience.

So in my view, Rothko’s painting is good.  It is very insightful and valuable.  Is it worth £47.3 million?  I’m not sure about that!

My answers to these questions are brief but you can see that very quickly your view of a painting can change just by doing a couple of simple Google searches! 

Fearing God vs Fearing Man: Who's opinion matters most?

How much does the question 'what do people think?' grip you?

It may be the big crit that leaves you either utterly crushed or flying high, or your tutor's off-hand comment that shapes your mood for the rest of the day...

Maybe you fear people seeing your new work in case your reputation wobbles in the lime light...

How do people's opinions affect making your work?

Making work is one of those things where there will always be an audience, normally of more than one.  Consider your course-mates looking over your shoulder in the studio, your tutor's cursory glance and more intense perusal, the wider audience who may see it in the coming months, and the harshest critic of all: yourself.  Fearing man can be stifling.  It can be all-consuming.

So what do we do with this desire for people to like our work? Is it wrong to seek approval? Is it wrong to want to be successful in what we do?  Is that really fearing man above God?

Andrew Jones, a vicar in east London, gave some very helpful advice to the London Interface gathering this month. He started off by saying very simply that

'there is an appropriate way of wanting people to like your work, and there's wanting people to like your work too much.  The former leads to pleasure and an outgoingness, as your own success leads to wanting others to experience such delight, while the latter leads to pride, and shutting yourself off from other people.'

Pride: something we all are tainted by.  An attitude that creeps up on both success and failure and robs us from responding with integrity.  Pride isn't just a puffed up feeling when we've been successful.  Pride is also the root of feeling utterly despairing and crushed at failure too.  It's the attitude that imprisons us either with 'I deserve better' or 'look at me, aren't I great?', both of which place ourselves at the centre.

So what's the antidote?
In Ezekiel 14v1-6 we are shown how people had "set up idols in their hearts and put wicked stumbling blocks before their faces" - notice the language here: they're not setting up idols as we might imagine back in the Old Testament, whether we think of the golden calf or the many statues of Baal.  No, here we read they are setting up idols in their hearts.  It's our hearts that are the issue.

So when we think to ourselves, "If I stop showing my work I'll be ok", or "If I just have one taste of success I'll be content and satisfied", we are ignoring the root issue: that our heart is still captured by what others think.

Thomas Chalmers, one of those wise men back in the 19th century once wrote:

"the only way to dispossess the heart of an old affection is by the expulsive power of a new one"

God is after your heart.  But in a way far removed from the simplistic "God loves you" and so everything will be alright.  The gospel digs way past the superficial and instead invites us to repent.  To acknowledge that we are more sinful, more proud, more enamoured by other's opinions than we believe.  But that there is freedom and honesty in coming to God.  Because in the gospel we are more loved and more accepted than we can ever imagine, through Christ.  The gospel accepts us just as Christ is. Which is far better than just as I am.  The only way to dispossess our hearts of the affection of ourselves, or other people's opinions, is by the expulsive power of Christ and and the very brilliant gospel.

So the question that I leave you to ponder today:

What are you looking for in the approval of others, that Christ does not give you?

Understanding the world we live in...

Do you ever have trouble discerning what exactly makes some of your friends so apathetic about life? Do you ever wonder how they can think that there's no need for them to take the claims of Jesus seriously?  Without knowing it, we are saturated in a culture that has been well and truly affected by 'postmodernism': the call to reject truth claims, external authority and meaning, and to start living how we want.

There are some really useful resources out there to help us think through the persuasive and deceptive call of postmodernism.  If you're at art school at the moment, you are no doubt saturated with postmodern attitudes without even realising it.  Let's not be blinded by the lies it throws at us: why not spend some time delving into it from a Christian perspective to help you stand firm at college this week.

Mark Meynell is a minister at All Soul's, London.  He loves Christ.  He loves culture.  Listen to these three really useful talks for an overview into postmodernism and a fauré into our current culture's mindset.

Even better than the real thing  - a day seminar seeking to understand Postmodernism and how it affects Christians (recorded 2006)


Marcus Honeysett used to be UCCF's London team leader.  He's had much insight into the student world and has written a very helpful book: Meltdown: Making sense of a culture in Crisis.  Marcus goes through the various academic theories that have underpinned postmodernism, and how they have been translated into wider society.  Each chapter takes a theory at a time (sometimes it's quite heavy going, but worth reading if you really want to grapple with the issue).  He then gives really helpful case studies at the end of each section, challenging us to think through the implications of believing, or not believing the postmodernist claims.  A brilliant book to read in a group and discuss together.

It all starts with the mind...

When Jesus is asked what the most important commandment is in Mark's gospel, here is how he responds in Chapter 12:

'The most important one', answered Jesus, 'is this: "Hear O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength."

Jesus has taken the most famous commandment in the book of Deuteronomy (chapter 6) but he's actually added something: Love the Lord with all your mind.

To love God with all our minds is to be 

engaged with what He thinks about the world.   

grappling with what He thinks about art.  

taking seriously His views on how we live life at art college 

and standing up as someone who follows their convictions.   

Being a Christian means integrating your faith with every part of life.  Everything we do, say, think and act upon stems from our minds.  Having the right thinking will impact every part of your life.  

In Romans chapter 12 Paul follows up on the importance of our minds with the following:

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God - this is your true and proper worship.  Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

These are deeply challenging words aren't they? In view of God's mercy, in view of the glorious gospel, the extravagant love that has been showered on us through Christ,  we are called 'not to conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our minds.'

What's the pattern of the world of art college? What do you notice about the way people live, and think about the world?  The only way that you will live, and want to live, any differently is by renewing your mind and bathing in the sunshine of the gospel.  

As we spend time with the Lord, as we dwell on the riches of the gospel and his many mercies to us each and every day, we will be loving the Lord with our minds.  It's not a pie in the sky kind of faith we have.  It's a deeply intentional desire to be renewing our minds with truth, with love, with Christ.
And the overflow of loving the Lord with our minds will be a deep desire to integrate every part of our lives with our faith - to be loving him in the way that we make art work, to be seeking to honour him in the way that we don't gossip in the studio, and to be sharing the hope that we have with others as we engage in conversation.

So as you go into college today, be a thinking Christian.

"Dropstone"

Peter Glasgow reflects on his time as artist in residence for FORUM: UCCF's national CU leaders conference...

This year I was the Artist in Residence at UCCF’s FORUM conference - I held an exhibition of my work entitled “Dropstone” and spent the week interacting with the students who were there.  To be honest it was a bit of an up and down week - I think it’s ok to say that!  A lot of the time my expectations didn’t match up with reality and I wasn’t properly prepared for what it would be like exhibiting my work to a thousand students.  So I just wanted to share some of the lessons I learned and maybe something I say will prepare you for showing your own work and the challenges that brings. 

First of all - I simply wasn’t prepared for any sort of disappointment.  Being a final year Fine Art student I leap at any chance to show my work and having a full exhibition to myself sounded like the best deal in the world.  I didn’t realise that it’s pretty normal for artists to feel an anti-climax when they show their work.  After all, we put so much into it and we are passionate about what we do and it’s going to be disheartening when most people looking at our work don’t have the same level of enthusiasm.  Exhibiting is a hard experience and it’s ok to be disappointed or disheartened - I think If I’d have known that, I would have coped with the anti-climax better. 

I also wasn’t prepared for how vulnerable I’d feel with my work up, in front of a thousand people.  Now most of us believe in what we do and have confidence in our work, but it doesn’t take away the fact that showing your work makes you vulnerable.  As artists so much of who we are we put in our work and how that’s received by others.   At FORUM I was really helped by a friend who came alongside me and reminded me that as artists, when we show our work, we are serving others - and being a servant doesn’t always feel great.  I thought other people would be serving me - praising me for how good my work was - but actually I was meant to be serving them by sharing my art practice. Isn’t it amazing that Jesus has woven being a servant into what we do as artists.  So if you’re showing your work - prepare to feel vulnerable when you do that - thats normal! 

Finally when those feelings of disappointment and insecurity come, my first instinct is to wish that more people liked my work.  But actually that wouldn’t solve the problem and if I believe that I’m just going to keep working and working for the next big “success”.  No one is going to like my work enough to satisfy my desire for approval and validation.  So my only other option is to turn to my Heavenly Father and be satisfied that I am his child and He loves me - and my identity and worth is not shaped by my success as an artist.  Once I realised that I was free to have my work out there, trust God with the disappointments and enjoy the wonderful little conversations that I was able to have with students.  

So I hope you get an opportunity to show your work sometime soon, and maybe as you do that you might hit up against some disappointment, and I would just encourage you to keep going and to put your trust in our Creative, Loving and Wonderful Heavenly Father.    

Peter is going into his final year studying Painting at Wimbledon College of Art, London.  To see more of his work have a gander at his excellent blog

Know anyone starting art college this september?

It's an exciting time as freshers prepare to head to art college! But it's a daunting one as well...

If you know anyone who's starting college this september take a few minutes to point them to an article we've recently written just for them!

Craig and I take a few minutes to help answer some questions like:
What does being a Christian look like at art school?
Is God even interested in art?
Does my faith have any bearing on my work as an artist?
What if it's hard being a Christian?

Why not check out the rest of the website too - it's full of really useful articles, talks, and interviews that are all there to equip you to be a thinking Christian...

3 Issues Facing Recent Graduates

Introducing  Moprhē Arts

 Moprhē works predominantly with Christians in the arts with a commitment to biblical discipleship, the study of God's word and prayer. This either happens one to one or at group gatherings and events. We want to encourage graduates to make art that plays it's part in the development of God's world, bringing blessing and influence in the area of the arts they find themselves in. 

 

Get In touch with Morphē if you are a Christian working in the arts in the UK.

I asked Cully who works for Morphē up in Scotland,

What do you think are the top three issues for art students leaving art school?

1. Lack of artistic community and peer learning

After art school it is not easy to find the community that students experience and graduates can feel isolated.

Morphē provides a network of artists and regular gatherings to meet, share and discuss ideas, and enjoy ongoing critique of work.  Christian artists can belong to a community where no excuses need to be made for their creative practice.

2. Maintaining practice under financial pressure

Art school doesn't seem to prepare graduates for the reality of how to make a living as an artist after art school.

Many artists have to find other ways to pay the bills and often don't have the time or motivation to make art.

Morphē provides mentoring from experienced artists who can advise recent graduates on how to commit to a career in the arts with real expectations.

3. Competition and Opportunities to showcase work

It is difficult to find galleries and agencies who will take on recent graduates or any other opportunities to showcase work as there is a lot of competition. This makes it difficult to gain experience and establish your name in the art world.

Morphē encourages collaboration within the network which encourages artists to help each other. We also offer opportunities for artists to exhibit, to work on projects with others and to take part in art prizes and residencies. Our website has a section dedicated to offering practical resources for seeking opportunities in the art world.

'Beyond Air Guitar' by Ally Gordon has a chapter dedicated to coping with life after art college with resources and interviews with established artists.