From storytelling to self-expression: Contemporary art through a Christian lens

Gold embellished mosaics with detailed tile pieces cover the background for a beautifully handcrafted saint’s portrait hung in glorious cathedrals with colorful stained glass windowpanes. Today these mosaics are uncommon and infrequent because of images and mass produced prints showing personal stories and advertisements. It begs the question: “Is there still Christian art?”

Religion has been an outlet for art over the years, and many religions have different forms of art to respect their culture. Islamic art relies on bright hues and unique patterns, whereas Catholic art depends on elaborate portraiture adorned with large gold halos surrounding a saint, the Virgin Mary or Jesus Christ.

Christianity offers inspiration, stories and a way of life for every piece of work. In early days, Christian art mainly focused around handcrafted scenes from the Bible, such as the many hand painted versions of the Nativity scene display. Nowadays, the focus of Christian art has drastically transformed with technology.

Matt Brandon, world-traveling fine art photographer, said, “I’ve seen many artifacts of what true and pure Christian art was, but with today’s world there is almost no true Christian art. Back around Jesus’ time, they would have beautifully detailed biblical stories portrayed in jaw dropping pieces all made by hand, but now we rely on technology to portray everyday stories.”

Early Christian art began with the Apostle Paul when he spread the Gospel to the Greco-Romans. The Biblical word was such an awe-inspiring artifact that the stories within the Bible became the muse for art. It inspired some of the very first forms of basic Christian art. Stories like a man and a woman living in a perfect garden filled with every fruit of the earth and every animal of the land completely ruining their opportunity to stay in the garden became the picture-perfect story to illustrate.

Viewers that felt lost and hopeless looked towards images of Moses in the desert leading wanderers with God’s hand in the sky leading them and they received hope of His faithfulness. The hand crafted work led spectators to understand and apply the artworks to their owns lives.

All of this brings us to today and to the question of whether Christian art still exists today or not.

Neal Holland, photography professor at John Brown University in Arkansas, said, “There is still Christian art. However, not too much and very little of merit that is commissioned the way it once way.”

Artwork like “The Descent” by Van der Weyden that pushed viewers to feel the pain from Mary and the disciples as they begrudgingly lower Jesus from the cross. The detailed faces display horror, sadness and complete despair in the realistic painting of the crucifixion.

Today, Holland points his students to Makoto Fujimura for contemporary Christian artwork shown through abstract paintings. One of Fujimura’s galleries was based on the four gospels. “Mark- Water Flames” displays a bright red pigment covering the entire canvas with minor touches of gold to depict flames.

“Christian art used to be the telling of Jesus’ story, now it is about telling your part in the Jesus story. What happened in your life? What inspires you? What do you love? Well show us,” Brandon said.

Fujimura’s galleries most famous gallery displays abstract paintings of the Christian persecution in Japan. “Silence- Kairos” is an array of deep blues with very small touches of gold on the edges to make viewers hear the silence of the trauma and sacrifice the Japanese went through.

Jordan Melugin, art curator in Kansas, said, “I would consider Christian art the art pieces that were commissioned or are very detailed pieces of work about the Bible because they are very obviously Christian based. Nowadays, everything is very surface level in their attempt of Christian connection if there is any connection at all.”

Like Melugin, many art historians would say Christian art is outdated, replaced, and forgotten. The difference is today people don’t openly label their work as Christian art because they won’t be openly telling the story of Christ as seen through Fujimura’s artwork.

Brandon said, “As the old saying goes, ‘Art lies in the eyes of the beholder.’ I can walk into an art gallery that is focused on crime in Syria or even sex trafficking around the world and I can find the story of Christ.”

As Brandon goes on to explain, pain is a part of the Christian story, and there is hope at the end of it all.

Artists can have many interpretations and styles of representing their feelings through abstraction and photography. Christian art could be found at an art gallery by simply reading the artists statement. Artists may not have detailed pieces to display the stories of the Bible, but their artist statement could point to a higher power.

As Ken Johnson said in his exploration of artists motivated by religion in “The New York Times,” “in many cases, you would not know that Christian faith had anything to do with the work were it not for accompanying statements by the artists.”

Christian art relied on displaying stories from the Bible in a realistic way to lead people to Christ, but today it relies on viewers to explore deep meanings of the artist’s artwork. Art used to be viewed in majestic cathedrals, and now it has moved to homes, galleries, and everyday life.

Whether you go to a cathedral or art gallery, viewers can find pieces of contemporary abstraction to display the modern struggles of Christian life or they can find detailed paintings showing the Biblical story.

It depends on where you go and what you are looking for as to whether you will be able to find Christian art.