Vol. 1 No. 10
Exploring trends in all the
IN THE NEWS
Religion in London’s National Gallery?
POETRY
All Things New by Andrew Menkis
MUSIC
Rachmaninoff's 150th
EDITORIAL
Apologizing for Beauty
RESOURCES
IN THE NEWS
Religion in London’s National Gallery?
Since early 20th century art critics, the art-going public, museums, and artists have been dismissive of frankly religious subject matter. But The Art Newspaper in May of this year reports that at least in a few quarters, things are changing.
But religion, or more precisely, theology, has been quietly emerging in some major museums and in academia as an important tool for interpreting art. Curators at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, for example, worked with focus groups representing Christian, Muslim and secular communities before redisplaying the Medieval and Renaissance galleries in 2009 because they realized that the works were 80% religious and needed to be understood.
An example:
The Construction of Noah's Ark, from Die Schedelsche Weltchronikby Hartmann Schedel
1493, woodcut printed on paper.
Michael Wolgemut and Wilhelm Pleydenwurff
POETRY
All Things New by Andrew Menkis
“I wrote this poem as a reflection on Romans 8:18-22. My imagination has always been drawn in by the language Scripture uses to describe nature’s relationship to God. Sometimes creation sings, sometimes it exults, but in this case, creation groans:
All Things New
The warm, still air, gently lulls my senses
As I amble beneath the pale blue sky.
The cattle roam the hills, free of fences
And a distant low sounds like a gentle sigh.
A balmy breeze makes its way through the grass,
The tall green blades murmur as they wake.
Discontent, they await this age to pass;
They groan at their fate and curse the damned snake.
I’m caught in their eager expectation.
I listen and become strangely aware,
It’s to me they whisper adulation
And to heaven that they lift their prayer:
“Reveal the glory of the sons of man
Make all things new, according to your plan.”
This, by the way, is my first published poem. It was published in Modern Reformation Magazine Volume 32, Issue 3 and can be accessed online here: https://modernreformation.org/resource-library/articles/all-things-new/
MUSIC
Rachmaninoff's 150th
1873-1943
Sergey Rachmaninoff was born in Semyonovo, Russia, April 1, 1873. He was “the last great figure of the tradition of Russian Romanticism” according to Britannica online. He went to Moscow Conservatory as a young pianist, graduating at 19 and quickly catching the public’s eye as a piano virtuoso and rising composer. Choral groups continue performing his Vespers (All-Night Vigil), while his ‘signature’ works are Prelude in C-sharp minor and Concerto No. 2 for Piano and Orchestra. He died in Beverly Hills, California March 28, 1943 just before his 70th birthday. Rachmaninoff’s music exemplifies the beauty that rises from a love of his native Russia, along with a private but deep religious faith.
EDITORIAL
Apologizing for Beauty by T. A. Yount
Are we now in an age of nihilistic neglect of the great works?
Think of the ways we experience the arts in our culture. Media have manipulated or marginalized many forms of art. Using technology, we can access entertainment of all kinds; we are obsessed with celebrity so the artists must be trendsetters who have millions of followers just to be noticed. Worse still, we seem unaware of the classical arts. Despite many who value paintings, attend gala concerts, or indulge in 600-page novels, our aesthetic poverty is manifest. Western popular culture has, through choice or neglect, concluded that ‘beauty’ as an abstract thing is boring. At best it is a fringe specialty for nerds and weird-ohs. Most of our arts institutions are quietly fading away.
The cause of the arts’ fading into insignificance? One reason is our culture’s collective impatience with contemplation. It might surprise you, considering our obsession with higher levels of consciousness via meditation. A culture that marginalizes any challenge to its short attention span, however, is missing a core component of balance: the ‘glue’ of quiet retreat provided via personal enjoyment through beautiful sounds, words, or objects.
Technology: Is it the culprit?
Another inhibitor for the arts is technology. Ironically, it is advancing digital media that has increased our capacity for definition in images and sounds—with its many benefits to painters, designers, writers, and musicians. However, I am convinced it is not the primary cause. It goes deeper.
Before computers and smart phones, we were developing a small window of tolerance, taking less time to think, to imagine, to dream. The twentieth century mind had already begun its intolerance with quiet contemplation. In the 21st century we are shrinking in our daily sense of the eternal. We have given up thinking, instead reaching beyond to discover. Where are the Einsteins, the Schweitzers, the Flannery O’Connors among today’s movers and shakers? Writer Alvin Tofler addressed it this way:
To survive, to avert what we have termed future shock, the individual must become infinitely more adaptable and capable than ever before. We must search out totally new ways to anchor ourselves, for all the old roots - religion, nation, community, family, or profession - are now shaking under the hurricane impact of the accelerative thrust. It is no longer resources that limit decisions, it is the decision that makes the resources.
― Alvin Toffler, Future Shock
Lack of Interest and Indifference
We are habitually short of time to enlarge our awareness of nature, of human relationships, and every form of beauty all around us. We are too caught up in the immediate to consider the timeless.
Someone visiting us from the 18th century might ask, ‘what happened to the world?’ A few years ago the whole world was forced to retreat into the home because of a pandemic. Pause for a moment to consider how the fine arts functioned during that interruption of a culture obsessed with immediate gratification. Concert series, schools, even churches were temporarily closed to us. We survived because many of us knew the inner world already. Perhaps those who had no inner place to, no quiet retreat to withstand the awful separation from loved ones, were forced for the first time in years to confront eternal things.
Such anguished searching, although unpleasant, brought us to a place of renewed longing for the lost exposure to the arts and humanities in our schools and communities. But it didn’t last. By 2022 we had returned to normal life. With it our intolerance for quiet contemplation reared its head. We were back to the old culture. I think for many of us, it was sobering to realize where we had come. We continued pursuing the transcendent things that during the pandemic had opened up our ‘inner life.’ We were more careful, we were wiser with our time. But had we learned anything, really?
Is this deliberate?
I am not sure it is deliberate, as some have suggested. As Tofler said, we are in a hurricane of change, and it is threatening almost every community and societal foundation under us. For many, it is simply a shell-shocked response to curl up in our corner of the world and browse the internet all day. Many of us simply lack tools to cope with the changes, and are reluctant to approach the arts intentionally.
Despite incredible advances in satellite-based communication, we continue to lag behind our ancient fathers (Plato, Aristotle, Augustine) in our curiosity about the universe. In his writings, Plato mused about what might happen to beauty:
Someday, in the distant future, our grand-children’ s grand-children will develop a new equivalent of our classrooms. They will spend many hours in front of boxes with fires glowing within. May they have the wisdom to know the difference between light and knowledge.
~ Plato
Is it the academy?
Despite stunning digital images filling our little screens, our culture is impoverished. We are manifestly unfamiliar with great literature, music, and painting. Dante and other artists from the Great Tradition are now seen as dispensable or only relevant for graduate students specializing in historical literature. Common practice composers like Palestrina have remained in the music curriculum, but perhaps only as historical relics. Modern artists ignore elements of composition, yet creators from the past like Van Eyck and Rembrandt remain in the fine arts curriculum.
When a college or university curriculum replaces electives in music and art with required gender studies, they have decided about the relative value of the arts and humanities. Take visual art, for example. I see a thing for its visual appeal (although not an expert) using skills honed over time that give me an eye for exceptional beauty.
The skill of assessing something you find beautiful directly applies, incidentally. I’ll never forget buying roses for my wife as a surprise just before dinner. I had no special reason for getting them. It wasn’t a birthday or anniversary; just a surprise for her. I spent minutes studying the petals, roundness, and color of multiple bouquets until settling on a dozen whites. A choice, incidentally, that delighted her. Is judging roses easy? Yes. Is assessing a Renaissance painting easy? Not unless you’ve keenly observed it and developed a sense of how masters like Albrecht Dürer achieved success. In today’s academies, with some exceptions, core curriculum (other than a brush-by) including the arts is not an option.
Or is it something else?
We all decide daily based on our experience and personal preferences. Rarely do we take notice unless a thing catches our attention. Regardless of genre or style, culture or belief system, things of beauty invade our senses and open our eyes. How we choose a car, a home, or a pair of shoes requires a sharp eye and a keen mind. We all set standards. We all judge beauty. And if we are to believe the pundits of modern culture, beauty is not difficult to spot. In a freely developing category like physical attractiveness, everyone knows when they see someone who is beautiful. Of course, this question demands another one.
Have we changed our minds as a society? Is beauty now passe, a device to manipulate, a tool of Madison Avenue? Next issue we will explore this aspect of this thing we have all around us. Meanwhile, pause to engage with it. It will reward you more than you realize.
RESOURCES
Rachmaninoff: Man of Faith
Stay tuned...
MJB, N1V11: The Menacing Presence of McChristmas in December
Mere Beauty is a forum to encourage artists to explore works of beauty,
share resources, and go deeply into the treasures around us...
A Word from Terry Yount
Executive Creator, Mere Beauty
In our modern world, rarely is beauty seen as more than skin deep.
Mere Beauty exists to encourage contemplation,
to become part of the art we see or hear,
and experience personal renewal.
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Your feedback, as always, is welcome.
I totally agree with all you said in your editorial. To think, to imagine and to dream all require quiet contemplation--something that is no longer held in esteem. I also believe that beauty and all it entails is becoming a thing of the past. 😥