Anderson Jonathan A. - Modern art and the life of a culture: the religious impulses of modernism

InterVarsity Press
P.O. Box 1400,
Downers Grove, IL 60515-1426
ivpress.com

2016 by Jonathan A. Anderson and William A. Dyrness

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All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIVCopyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Cover design:David Fassett
Images: A Shower of Eyes by Jan Groneberg (Contemporary Artist) / Private Collection / Bridgeman Images

ISBN 978-0-8308-9997-5 (digital)
ISBN 978-0-8308-5135-5 (print)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Anderson, Jonathan A., 1977- author. | Dyrness, William A., author.
Title: Modern art and the life of a culture : the religious impulses of
modernism / Jonathan A. Anderson and William A. Dyrness.
Description: Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 2016. | Series: Studies
in Theology and the Arts | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016007933 (print) | LCCN 2016008542 (ebook) | ISBN
9780830851355 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780830899975 (eBook)
Subjects: LCSH: Modernism (Art)Themes, motives. | Christianity and art. |
Rookmaaker, H. R. (Hendrik Roelof), 1922-1977. Modern art and the death of
a culture.
Classification: LCC N6494.M64 A53 2016 (print) | LCC N6494.M64 (ebook) | DDC
261.5/7--dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016007933

One should reject nothing without a determined attempt to discover the living element within it.

Vasily Kandinsky

In 1970 InterVarsity Press published Modern Art and the Death of a Culture, a book by the Dutch art historian Hans Rookmaaker that offered a retelling of the history of modern art by linking it to broader dynamics of religious (un)belief in Western cultures. Rookmaaker argued that beneath all its other orders of meaning, modern art was shaped by fundamentally theological assumptions and practicesand in his view there were some deeply problematic theologies that were in play. His book has become a classic in some circles: the majority of Christians interested or involved in the visual arts have read it at some point. At the same time, however, it is almost entirely ignored outside of those circles: within the academic art discourse, Rookmaakers theological method and the narrative of modernism that emerged from it are foreign and idiosyncratic. This incongruity is emblematic of larger disconnects between the worlds of modern art and Christianity, particularly in its evangelical forms.

Written four and a half decades later, this present book, Modern Art and the Life of a Culture, is in some ways a grandchild of Rookmaakers volume. We share Rookmaakers belief that the history of modern art does indeed carry an enormous amount of theological freight, even if it generally remains underinterpreted as such in the academic discourse. However, as might be surmised by comparing our title and his, this is also a kind of belated riposte to his book. Our sympathies with Rookmaaker are tempered by some deep reservations and disagreements about the ways he interpreted modern art history and its theological meanings. His work was surely ennobling to many Christians who were struggling to think more carefully about twentieth-century artistic practicesindeed, he opened up intellectual space that the present authors have certainly benefited frombut his critical method and his declinist account of modern art history have also produced significant impediments to understanding and constructively contributing to the primary art discourses. Readers of Rookmaaker who spend extended time in a graduate art program inevitably encounter these impediments in one way or another.

In what follows we intend to pay tribute to Rookmaakers pioneering study and to the generative thinking it fostered for many Christians, yet at the same time we will critique and supplant the central theses of that book. In contrast to Rookmaakers approach, we propose to attend to modern art in terms of the life of a culture, by which we mean to signal at least two themes that we will highlight throughout: (1) This book is an attempt to trace some of the ways that religious lifewithin Christian traditions in particularcontinued to influence and constructively shape the development of the modernist avant-garde, despite general impressions to the contrary. And (2) we wish to investigate the ways that modernist artists were attempting to come to terms with (the meanings of) life in the age of modernity, which consistently pulled unresolved theological questions and concerns into the cultural foreground. In light of these themes, this book is a preliminary attempt to revisit the rise of modernist art in visual art in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and to contest the reigning narrative of that period (which Rookmaaker only reinforced)namely, that it represents a growing secularization and antipathy toward religion. Rather, we will argue for a rereading of modern art history that recognizes the more complicated roles of religious tradition and theological questioning in the formation of that history.

In taking up these tasks, this book is also an attempt to press into what Sally Promey has called the historical absence of interdisciplinary collaboration between those invested in the academic study of art and religionand especially the disinclination of art historians to come to scholarly terms with religion. The argument presented here is the product of collaboration between a theologian of culture, William Dyrness, and an artist and art critic, Jonathan Anderson. This collaboration is intended to bring modern art history and theologytwo disciplines that have historically been in conflict or simply unintelligible to each otherinto more direct, mutually enriching conversation. We hope that by including the different perspectives and disciplinary backgrounds of the two authors, this partnership will contribute to a more holistic view of this period.

Such collaboration inevitably produces multiplicity in the points of view, writing styles and positions taken; and the methods and angles of approach in the following pages will vary accordingly. Bill is drawn to a more historical and genealogical approach, tracing the lines of influence by which religious practices and theological thinking have, directly or indirectly, shaped the lives of modern artists and their communities. Jonathans framework is more critical and philosophical, oriented toward questioning the ways that religious contexts and theological concerns bear upon our encounters with and interpretations of particular artists and artworks. Our differences are also evident in the use of key vocabulary, which a careful reader may notice. For example, Bill will use theology in the sense of Gods actual presence (or absence) in the development of cultural products and in the way theological ideas and traditions have, often unnoticed, exercised continuing influence. Jonathan understands