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Contemporary art is capable of conveying eternal truths |
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By Maria Wiering
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Thursday, 03 December 2009 |
People don’t usually think of Michelangelo as a modern artist.
 Artfully
Maria Wiering
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He’s known for his frescoes in the Sistine Chapel, the marble “Pietà” in St. Peter’s Basilica and St. Peter’s dome that dominates the eastern Roman skyline.
But it’s partly a Michelangelo sculpture that inspired Sister Mary Ann
Osborne to create the contemporary wooden artworks that fill her
Mankato studio and grace several churches, including Holy Rosary in
Minneapolis and Pax Christi in Eden Prairie.
Known as the “Pietà Rondanini,” it was one of several pietà statues
carved by the Renaissance artist. It was also his last; Michelangelo
worked on it just days before his death in 1564.
Most historians consider this pietà an unfinished work because it lacks
the smooth polishing and intricate dealing of his other work.
School Sister of Notre Dame Mary Ann Osborne holds her artwork
“Sanctuary” as she stands in her Mankato studio. - Photo by Maria
Wiering / The Catholic Spirit
Sister Mary Ann thinks it may be otherwise: a modern piece before its time.
In it, Mary holds the crucified Christ vertically, his head resting on
her shoulder. The marble is rough and tool marked, the faces undefined.
A disconnected arm is suspended in front of Christ, revealing that
Michaelangelo either changed his mind or reused another piece.
“I love more primitive pieces; they bring out the essence of what
something is about,” she said. “Maybe that’s why I was attracted to
Michelangelo’s piece, because it is more primitive.”
Mary and Jesus’ chests are touching, she pointed out, as if their
hearts are connected. “It always spoke to me as something that
[Michelangelo] knew at the end of his life that was different than when
he was a young person,” she told me as she sat in her studio,
surrounded by her art, raw wood and tools.
Professed for 35 years as a School Sister of Notre Dame, Sister Mary
Ann has been making art for about 25 years. She works mostly in wood,
but her sculptures also include glass, tile, paint and metal. Many of
her pieces are large, and all of them are inspired by her Catholic
faith.
“It’s really ancient truths told in new ways,” she said. “I cannot
really separate who I am and how I pray from my art, because it’s one
and how God speaks to me.”
‘Custodians of beauty’
On Nov. 21, Pope Benedict XVI hosted more than 250 international
artists in the Sistine Chapel, where he invited them and their work
into a deeper relationship with the church.
“Remember that you are the custodians of beauty in the world,” he told them.
Upcoming art exhibit
Sister Mary Ann Osborne, SSND, will be displaying her wood sculpture artwork at the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis June 5 to July 25, 2010. Called “The Journey,” the exhibit will be held in the John XXIII Gallery and Teresa of Calcutta Hall in the Basilica’s lower level.
View Sister Mary Ann’s artwork at www.ssndmankato.org/mao.
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For centuries, the church was the greatest patron of the arts, but in
the last few centuries that relationship has waned, giving way to a
growing disconnect between contemporary art and the church.
I haven’t always connected with it, either. Truth be told, for a long time, I detested modern and contemporary art.
I mean, it looks weird, right?
Its abstracted or stylized forms are confusing, and I’m often
frustrated by my inability to immediately understand the message the
artist is conveying. At first glance, some of it can look unrefined and
childish.
However, I’ve changed my mind.
I’ve learned to appreciate the challenge of contemporary art, the way it coaxes me to really think about what I’m seeing.
Earlier art doesn’t always do that. Unfortunately, it can be easy to
gloss over a medieval “Annunciation” painting, because its scene and
meaning are so painstakingly clear.
However, a modern “Annunciation,” like the one in Sister Mary Ann’s
studio, compels me to pause to consider the symbolism, to ask why the
artist painted something in that way.
“I want to help people see things in a new way, or a deeper way,” Sister Mary Ann said.
His own relationship with art persuaded Pope Paul VI to inaugurate the
Vatican Museums’ Collection of Modern Religious Art in 1973.
“We need you,” he had told artists in 1964 at a Sistine Chapel
gathering strikingly similar to that of Benedict XVI. “We need your
collaboration in order to carry out our ministry, which consists, as
you know, in preaching and rendering accessible and comprehensible to
the minds and hearts of our people the things of the spirit, the
invisible, the ineffable, the things of God himself.”
Pope Benedict XVI reiterated these words Nov. 21, urging the artists
not to seek “mere aestheticism,” but rather authentic beauty that
liberates mankind from darkness and transfigures it, “unlocking the
yearning of the human heart
. . . to reach for the Beyond,” ultimately spurring the heart toward God.
“Faith takes nothing away from your genius or your art,” he said. “On
the contrary, it exalts them and nourishes them, it encourages them to
cross the threshold and to contemplate with fascination and emotion the
ultimate and definitive goal, the sun that does not set, the sun that
illumines this present moment and makes it beautiful.”
As much as an exhortation to artists, the pope’s words are also an
invitation to viewers: Don’t so easily write off the works of
contemporary artists. Search out the beautiful, the true and the good
within the works. Ask what they can teach you, and then be taught.
Maria Wiering is a staff writer for The Catholic Spirit. She is
pursuing a master’s degree in art history at the University of St.
Thomas.
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