Churches and Modern Art

I went by St. Sulpice a couple of days ago. When I was here in July, I lived on rue St. Sulpice for a couple of weeks: just the neighborhood parish, you know. It's an 18th century cathedral done in a quasi-classical style. It has colonnades and friezes, but also two unmatched turrets and a Renaissance-style dome. Surprisingly, it all works quite well together. Not as good as the high Gothic, my friends, but what is. This summer, I was most surprised to see a piece of contemporary art installed in one of the side chapels. I thought it might have been a temporary exhibition, but it was, in fact, still there on Tuesday. Called Epiphany, it was made in 2007 by Benjamin Bergery and Jim Campbell, two American artists with backgrounds in (respectively) cinematography and electrical engineering. Three screens (one of Japanese paper, one of sandblasted glass, and one of ground plexiglass) show figures in vague Biblical narratives. It's subtle, beautiful, and open to interpretation.
Modern art is rarely shown in churches. There are a variety of reasons why, such as the move away from religious themes in the art of the last century and the somewhat ground-in stance of abstract expressionism when there is any spirituality at all. In American churches, the only art is in the stained glass. Look at them: they're all abstract shapes of varied shape and color, and that's it. So that's what makes this effort special. Check it out:




So if anyone's wondering exactly why I want to go to graduate school, it's because I can't resolve the gap between modern art and religious practice. No one can. Frustrating, right? Well, probably not to you.