Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Art and the pope


From the BBC today:

“The Pope has announced plans to hold a summit later this year with around 500 international artists.

The move is believed to be an attempt by the Vatican to mend relations with the contemporary art world.

It's being seen as an overture by the Vatican to mend relations with the contemporary art world after Pope Benedict XVI condemned a sculpture by German artist Martin Kippenberger of a crucified green frog. "

“Mend relations with the contemporary art world” What kind of contemporary art world any way? The note from the BBC is tendentious as usual because it implies that the pope is virtually asking the “contemporary art world” (whatever that means) for forgiveness. The art world in our days is a wilderness where there are a few precious examples of beauty but where nihilism, vulgarity, mediocrity and plain hatred of our Church are manifested.

Frogs crucified, crucifixes submerged in urine, a portrait of the Virgin Mary smeared with excrement, portrayals of men performing oral sex on our Lord Jesus, a naked Virgin; that is the contemporary world of art. Not that all modern art is corrupted but a vast majority of what goes for art these days is just ugly and mediocre expressions of so called artists that have a deviant mind.

The note also reflects the thought of the media and liberal Catholics who think the Church should change to accommodate the world and not the other way around.

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