Why is Christian art so bad?
[edited 6/11/2015] I believe I have been misunderstood. Maybe not, but just to be clearer I will attempt to restructure the headings. I am responding to those who believe that Christians suffer in artistic relevance because Christian art is typified by being poorly crafted and vapid. Some contend that Christians should strive for excellence and that will solve… I don’t know… something. I can’t even think what that would solve.
Misdirection #1: The problem with Christian art is that Christian art is so bad.
Spoiler alert. There is bad art everywhere. Christian’s have no monopoly on bad art.
The solution for good bad Christian art (if there is such a thing as Christian art) is the same for all bad art. This is not a Church only problem. It is a larger, cultural issue and goes back to the cultural marginalization of art and artists.
Over the past few years, possibly even longer, high schools across the nation have been graduating students who do not have first hand experience in art making. They have never handled a violin, written poetry, painted a painting, danced to Bach. Their only experience of art is what they discover in pop culture. Not that I believe pop culture is intrinsically poor. Some of the most talented artists I know work in pop culture. Only that pop culture is intrinsically narrow, driven by only one goal, and that goal is not regenerating art and art making. It very well can, but only as a side effect, if at all.
Misdirection #2: Christians should strive for high levels of excellence.
We’ve all been there. The visiting pastor gives a riveting sermon. Your perspective is forever changed because of it. Then you hear the pastor’s family will be providing special music for the service. Mountain echoing melodies from the von Trapp family ring through your imagination. Then the four beautiful children open their mouths to sing. You think, wait. Who let that screeching cat in? Oh, no, maybe the sound man is having an off day and hit a sound effects audio track of a train instead of un-muting the mics. Wait… oh, my. Ah, well. Another illusion shattered.
There is an irony of arts programs being cut at primary and secondary education levels. At the same time, US universities graduate more artists every couple of years (maybe every year now) than existed through the entire 15th century in Florence, Italy. Yet, according to a report by an organization, bfamfaphd.com, most arts graduates rarely, if ever, earn their living with their art.
My point, and I do have one…
To me there is more at work here. Rothko once said “There is no such thing as good painting about nothing.” Excellence is important, but it is not the end goal. Who would argue that B. B. King is less of an artist than Segovia? Yet Segovia is a superior technician. I heard the choreographer William Forsythe say “Anything can be dance. Not everything is dance.”
My point here is not to get into a discussion about what is and isn’t art, as important as that is and as much as I enjoy that discussion, too. My point is that excellence in and of itself is not the proscription of bad art. My point here is that where public schools are leaving off in arts education, Christians have an opportunity to make a difference in culture at large. But we can’t see ourselves as isolated in our problems or our solutions. Our problems are everyone’s problems.
In Bill T. Jones’s work, Storytime, there is a line from an interview:
“What has never changed in your work through the years?”
“Doubt. It burns like fire.”
Maybe you can see where I am going with artistic intent.
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