Seeing What’s Sacred: Jonathan Anderson On Religion’s Place In Contemporary Art
(REVIEW) What might the discipline of art history look like if its scholars took religion and theology more seriously? Conversely, how might the scholarship of theology benefit from a deeper engagement with modern and contemporary art?
These are the underlying questions posed by Jonathan A. Anderson in his new book, “The Invisibility of Religion in Contemporary Art” by Notre Dame Press, which seeks to provide “a much-needed critical field guide” to what he describes as a “controversial topic.”
But what makes the issue of religion in modern art so controversial? After all, many modern artists have engaged with religion in and through their work, from Kazimir Malevich and Vasily Kandinsky, through to Ad Reinhardt, Andy Warhol and beyond. The problem, as Anderson explains, has been in the way that art historians and critics have written about these artists, routinely overlooking or downplaying the religious aspects of their work. As he states: “The canonical histories of modern and contemporary art have been largely written without serious consideration of religion.”
Furthermore, in the late 20th century, an overriding agenda of secularization caused talk of religion in art to become actively suppressed. As the influential art critic and theorist Rosalind Krauss conceded in 1979, “we find it indescribably embarrassing to mention art and spirit in the same sentence.” This, Anderson writes, led to a situation that “obstructed vital understandings of modern and contemporary art histories” — leaving religious ideas “underinterpreted” and “functionally invisible” in the histories of art.
Over the course of six in-depth chapters, Anderson challenges the notion that religion is irrelevant to modern and contemporary art. Drawing on his exhaustive knowledge of art and theology, he demonstrates the ways in which pivotal modern artists have been deeply informed and shaped by religious traditions, even if this is not reflected in the scholarship about them. He calls for the histories of art “to be reread and rewritten in ways that understand religion and theology more seriously,” and encourages new ways of thinking and writing about artists whose works are more theologically complicated than has previously been recognized.
After exploring how and why religion has been made “invisible” in the writing about 20th-century art, Anderson considers how these histories might be reconsidered. A touchstone here is James Elkins’s 2004 book, “On the Strange Place of Religion in Contemporary Art,” which argued that while questions of religion are at play in the works of many artists, it is virtually impossible to discuss them in any sensible or meaningful way within the discourses of contemporary art. Anderson’s book is effectively an extended response to Elkins, providing scholarly guidance and myriad signposts for those wanting to engage more deeply with the intersections of art and theology.
Since the publication of Elkins’s book, there has been a steady resurgence of interest in religion in contemporary art and a willingness to openly discuss it. This has led to what Anderson describes as a “new visibility” and “new discussability” of these issues. But, he says, much recent writing has lacked the appropriate theological apparatus, resulting in work that is underdeveloped and sometimes confusing. Anderson therefore develops a set of theoretical frameworks for the study of religion in modern and contemporary art, going on to identify four “interpretive horizons,” in which artworks are encountered and interpreted. These horizons — anthropological, political, spiritual and theological — are central to Anderson’s ideas and are explored in considerable detail, with particular attention being given in later chapters to the “theological horizon” and how it can be effectively employed in the writing of art history and criticism.
All four horizons come into play in Chapter 5, in an extended experiment in critical art writing: a fascinating and brilliant case study of the sculpture “Altar” (2014) by Belgian artist Kris Martin. This is a full-scale steel model of the frame of the famous Ghent Altarpiece by Hubert and Jan van Eyck. It is only ever installed in outdoor locations, which causes the empty framework to appear as a kind skeletal figure in the landscape, framing the world around it. For Anderson, Martin’s sculpture (which appears on the book’s cover) illuminates the challenges and potentials of theological writing within the discipline of art history. And while it would have been instructive to have had additional case studies, the insightful essay stands as an important example of the kind of careful critical reflection that Anderson hopes his book will inspire.
At the heart of this book is the contention that, for the scholarship of modern and contemporary art to deal sufficiently with questions of religion, it must become better versed with theology. It is therefore imperative that the disciplines of art history and theology be brought together. To that end, the book closes with a stimulating chapter theorizing the place and function of theology within art history and criticism and the ways forward for this kind of writing.
Make no mistake, “The Invisibility of Religion in Contemporary Art” is a deeply academic tome. Its 480 pages includes an extensive set of endnotes that will no doubt prove invaluable to future scholarship, while its large appendix is itself a significant resource, listing major international exhibitions from the last 50 years that directly address topics of religion and spirituality.
Yet, with Anderson’s lucid and well-informed writing style, this book will be accessible to a wide audience of readers. Certainly, it will appeal to those involved in the visual arts who want to learn more about the importance of religion to their disciplines. Conversely, those involved in religion and theology who are interested in the significance of art to their fields will also find it enlightening.
“The Invisibility of Religion in Contemporary Art” offers a serious resource for reconsidering the thorny place of religion and theology in modern and contemporary art history. In addressing and dismantling many of the deep-rooted obstacles that have stood in the way of serious thinking about his subject, Anderson has made a significant contribution to both the scholarship of art and the scholarship of religion.
David Trigg is a writer and art historian based in the U.K. He is the host of the “Exhibiting Faith” podcast. You can find him on Instagram @davidtriggwriter.