The question of whether abstract art has a place in the Christian world came up in a discussion I had recently. Art is near to my heart (and rhymes with it) so I decided to gather a few initial thoughts here. This is not intended to be a detailed or refined article – it’s a precis: an abstraction of my thoughts in no particular order, and a little disorganized. I’m putting my sub-titles on the same line as script in an attempt to stop WordPress putting ugly ads or gaps between them.
NOT UGLY IN PRINCIPLE It seems to me that as a whole Christians view abstraction – in any human production – as evil and ugly. It most definitely can be ugly but it doesn’t have to be. Art for art’s sake may also be worldly, empty and godless…. it all depends on the motive of the artist, and on his or her gift and level of talent. Abstraction is of necessity creative, whether you appreciate it or not. You can call it “destructive” if you like but it takes a mind to deconstruct constructively. The effect and its appreciation or lack of it is down to the individual.
AN ABSTRACT OF ABSTRACTION Abstraction makes art and the world around us more interesting and multi-faceted. Abstraction most simply is a focusing on an element of what we are thinking of or looking at, and it may be an imaginative extrapolation of that element. Turning a toe into a work of art is not wrong or sinful just because we can’t see the whole foot, and there’s no verse in the Bible telling us that toes should not be painted orange with blue stripes, or that it should even look like a toe at all. There’s no cosmic law that says we have to recognise what we’re looking at. Some people, lying face down on the ground, would be just thinking about getting up again, while others – particularly some children who have a fresh and vibrant sense of wonder at the world – would be amazed at the array of tiny particles and living things inches (or centimetres) from their noses.
MIRROR IMAGES Detailed and mirror images can be an expression of pride: “Look at what I can do”. To my mind a painting which looks “realistic” may as well be a photograph. Why not save time, cut the pride, and take a picture? Are you looking for someone to tell you how clever you are, or do you rather want people to appreciate the scene or the object and its creator: God? Who are you trying to draw attention to? Of course, the same principle applies to abstraction.
THE POTENTIAL Detailed and mirror images can also be boring. Some of us want to go beyond the obvious when it comes to any form of art, and I’m particularly keen on applying this principle in music. Let’s make the words “trite”, “cliche” and “predictable” redundant in the Christian world.
Abstraction allows a world of creativity and imagination: art is limited only by the intellect. There is and should be no limit to art besides the need to say something good rather than something ugly or mean. Look around at the world and the night sky and see the incredible variety our Creator has blessed us with. The natural world is an expression of His power, love, imagination, and His infinite aesthetic sense.
DARK IS NOT NECESSARILY EVIL We sometimes interpret God’s created things as being dark and ugly – take the spider as an example. The spider is to many of us ugly and frightening, but it’s an expression of one part of the unfathomable mind of God. Our inability to appreciate it or to comprehend its value does not discount its incredible testimony, spoken without words, to who He is and what He is capable of.
Incomprehensibility is not necessarily wrong, and neither is threatening. The sun would turn us all to toast and then dust were we to try to get closer to it, but what pleasure and value it gives us from afar!
LANGUAGE Art is a language and some people don’t understand it. Language can be universal but it doesn’t have to be. Neither does it have to be understood to be godly or good. I don’t speak German but to a German the language has enormous value and meaning. Russian poetry can be beautiful to a Russian speaker. A waterfall does not speak in human words at all, but it has an attractive voice and is saying something about its Creator. We don’t all walk around with scripture verses on every item of clothing and every object we possess. A musical note is not a word but it can speak volumes.
Damning criticism of art from those who don’t understand it or appreciate its intent is no better than a biased or possibly uneducated or uninformed opinion, and a demonstration of lack of imagination and understanding. It’s also a demonstration of the will to not allow someone else their own view of beauty. However, having a good-spirited laugh at someone’s work, so long as we don’t mean it in spite, is on the table, so far as I’m concerned. Let’s laugh more freely, without spitefulness.
MOTIVATION The intent or motivation of art is without doubt vitally important. Art is an expression of the artist’s mind, and if what you see is an expression of the artist’s hate and bile, and of a dark and unforgiving mind it is, after all, evil and the expression of evil thoughts. It’s only art in the sense that it was created by someone, but it has no positive or useful beauty or value. It does not reflect our God and it does not bring Him glory, as art should. Without doubt, darkness and hate is expressed in a lot of art in the 21st Century. There has to be a line of tolerance drawn, meaning that yes, there is that which is called “art” but which should not have seen the light of day.
We should aim to glorify God in all things. However, the dirt on the ground has no words on but we all use it and it isn’t sinful. It’s part of God’s creation and it says something about Him and His loving provision. So in art. It doesn’t have to look pretty, it doesn’t have to look like something else, and it doesn’t have to look just the way you or I would do it.
FREEDOM Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and I say thank the Lord for variety and freedom of expression, because if the world was limited to only person’s imagination, and if we were all the same, we would all be a lot poorer for it.
Fuel for Faith, Food for Thought 