Audio God's art (story audio) Photos Ecce Homo Marilyn Chiatt at Temple Israel A wise man View full slideshow (7 images) Resources Temple Israel Hennepin Avenue Methodist Church Basilica of St. Mary United Theological Seminary Respond to this story Talk about this story in the MPR News Forum Submit a commentary Help us cover this story

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God's art
by Marianne Combs, Minnesota Public Radio
July 29, 2004

Ecce Homo (Behold the Man), by Antonio Ciseri, is one of close to 300 works of art on view at Hennepin Avenue Methodist Church in Minneapolis. It was the first painting to be given to the church, around 1900. (Photo courtesy of Hennepin Avenue Methodist Church)

In recent years, many religious institutions have started collecting art. Paintings, sculpture, tapestry -- you can find it all in temples, churches, mosques and other houses of worship. They use the art to inspire and educate their congregations. But the collections add new wrinkles to the already complex business of collecting art.

St. Paul, Minn. — In the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis, Johan Van Parys carefully opens a wooden crate and eagerly unwraps its contents. Inside is a two-foot high magi, or wise man, robed in blue with a white and gold turban. It's one of the last pieces of a nativity the Basilica commissioned from a studio in Italy.

Johan Van Parys is the Basilica's director of liturgy and the arts. While a nativity, or creche, is probably the most readily recognized part of a church's art collection, he says the Basilica houses much more -- everything from 14th century paintings to modern sculpture and photographs.

Van Parys says all of the work is sacred art, but in the very broad sense of the term. Many, he says, touch on deeply human questions, where the answer must be sought in a divine realm. Van Parys says throughout history, the Catholic Church has used art to complement its Christian message.

	A wise man

"Art communicates not only on a very intellectual level, but also a very human and emotional level. So the art, in a sense, combines our highest intellect and our deepest emotional feelings," says Van Parys. "Body, soul, mind are touched by art."

Van Parys says many people see art in the church as simply a sort of window treatment, but he believes it's essential to the worship experience. Different churches use their art collections to serve different purposes. Currently the Basilica of St. Mary is working on expanding its collection so that it better reflects the diversity of the congregation.

Van Parys is looking for artistic representations of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Then he hopes to add images of Our Lady of Africa, and Our Lady of Asia. Van Parys says collecting the art is not so difficult, thanks to the generosity of the congregation. For him the main concern is preserving and protecting the pieces.

"What we do not want to do is to put barriers between the art and the people," says Van Parys. "We want the art to be an active part of our life here, and if we have to put barriers between the people and the art, that will not work."

As a result, the art is more vulnerable to theft or damage, and many traveling exhibitions of religious art will not stop at the Basilica because the work is left relatively unprotected.

	Johan Van Parys

Examining the many issues surrounding religion and art is part of Dr. Wilson Yates' job. He's director of United Theological Seminary in New Brighton, one of a handful of seminaries that have a focus on the arts in worship.

"Art is a very important means by which people experience God, experience the holy. There isn't such a thing as a house of worship of whatever religion that does not have aesthetic form, and does not have artistic representation," says Yates.

As soon as you walk into a church or a temple or a mosque, Yates says, you are entering into an artistic experience created from the architecture, windows, music, and images. But Yates says many faiths, including Protestantism, Judaism and Islam, were for many centuries wary of having any purely representative images on their walls.

Catholicism was the noted exception. Yates says it was in the 1950s and '60s that many American houses of worship began to deliberately collect visual art. The reason? Television.

	Modern religious art

"We were becoming an image focused culture. And so these religious communities said, 'We need to move with the people.' The people themselves had discovered the image in a new way," says Yates. "It has indeed been a blessing that we haven't simply drowned ourselves in words, but we are also opening ourselves to images to discover what the holy can be and what God might say to us."

Yates says he would like to see more small churches and temples exhibit the work of local artists, or offer spiritual discussion inspired by a particular work of art.

"It seems to me that the 'estate' of art has something to do with the quality of life, it has something to do about contributing to the common good and being concerned about the welfare of human beings," says Yates. "Now that's what the church is saying it is concerned about. So why should the church not ally itself more directly with the arts community?"

At Temple Israel in Minneapolis, Marilyn Chiatt waves a hand at the temple's modern art collection, shakes her head and keeps on moving. Marilyn is an active member of the temple, and has spent her life studying and writing about religious art and architecture. She's not excited by the modern art; her passion is ritual art -- Judaica.

Chiatt leads the way down a hall to several display cases. They contain silver spice boxes, horns, and menora. One menora is made from bullet casings -- she guesses it's from the 1967 war in Israel. She says Temple Israel's exhibit is not so much about inspiring spiritual contemplation as it is about reminding its members of their history.

	Dr. Wilson Yates

"This is our link to our past. These objects, that we are still creating and using today, we can trace back centuries," says Chiatt. "Here we have these examples of them, and we can see how there's been this wonderful unbroken chain between our past and our present. And it's a chain we hope -- by our children seeeing these objects -- will continue into the future."

Chiatt says Temple Israel has lost some art to theft in the past, and the temple has since tightened its security. Chiatt's pride and joy is a beautiful green and gold peracoat. Traditionally it hangs before the Arc of the Covenant where the Torah is kept. This one is protected in a glass case. It's made out of a young woman's wedding dress. The damask and velvet were taken apart, restitched and embroidered with lions, a crown and the 10 Commandments.

Chiatt says what sets a religious collection of art apart from a museum's are the stories that accompany each work. Not just the story of the artist, but of the people who owned the art and cared for it before it reached the temple. But not every gift is beloved. Chiatt admits sometimes the temple is obliged to refuse a donation.

"We try to do it gently, saying, 'Maybe your children would enjoy having this,'" says Chiatt. "You have to! People with the best intentions often don't have the best eye."

	Menora made from bullet casings

Chiatt says it's always best to consult a temple or other house of worship before making a donation. She says Temple Israel is in the process of forming a committee to oversee the maintenance and care of the art.

Right now many of the items are tarnished or poorly displayed. Insurers warn that if left in such a state, the collection will decline in value. Chiatt is more concerned the art simply survive, so future generations might enjoy and learn from their faith's history. To her the work will always be priceless, because it's irreplaceable.

Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church has probably the highest profile art collection of any house of worship in the Twin Cities. It owns close to 300 works of art, including oil paintings donated by the entrepreneur Thomas Barlow Walker at the turn of the 20th century.

The most valuable painting dates from the 16th century. It's a depiction of Abraham and the Angels by Flemish painter Pieter Pourbus. As the angels sit over a meal with Abraham and tell him he's going to have a child, his wife Sarah looks on and laughs from the doorway of their home -- she's in her 80s. The painting is vibrantly colored and richly detailed.

	Marilyn Chiatt at Temple Israel

Yet there is no security guard on hand to prevent a curious passerby from reaching out and touching it. The church provides tours, rents out the gallery as a meeting space, and regularly loans its works to museums for exhibitions.

Bill Mathis, the director of music and fine arts, admits the church will never have the same standards of care and maintenance as a museum. He says the choir sometimes even uses the gallery for rehearsals.

"The Minneapolis Institute or Walker would not have a 200-voice chorus rehearse in the gallery, because of what it would do to the humidity suddenly," says Mathis. "That wouldn't be good for the art. Well, it isn't good for this art either. But we think it's a public space."

So why should an art collector donate one of his or her works to a church or temple, when it would surely be better preserved in a museum? Mathis likens the difference to that of a church choir versus a professional choir. While a professional choir might hit all the right notes, he says with a church choir you can be sure the singers believe every word they're singing.

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