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Too in love with disenchantment
Jonathan Evens on an exhibition that seeks, but does not always find, religious influence in modern art
 Mondrian’s Evolutie (Evolution), c.1911. Both pictures on this page are in the Pompidou Centre’s exhibition GEMEENTENMUSEUM DEN HAAG, THE HAGUE |
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THE recent Von Hügel Institute report Moral, but no Compass made a case for arguing that Christianity is treated less than equally in multi-faith society, and a similar argument could be made about the Centre Georges Pompidou’s exhibition “Traces du Sacré”. This exhibition seeks to document the traces of spirituality to be found in modern and contemporary art. As the story of modern art has generally been told as an entirely secular tale, this is a valuable undertaking, and one that is carried off with great aplomb. Three hundred and fifty major works are displayed in 24 thematic sections, and contemporary works are shown alongside the Romantic and modern, creating a broad look at art history from the late 19th century to the present day. The exhibition argues that metaphysical questioning has consistently featured in the story of modern art, and this argument is at its strongest when the exhibition uncovers evidence of the contribution that spirituality made to the development of modern-art movements. Sections exhibiting works from the De Stijl movement, for example, show clearly how theosophical ideas combined with scientific experimentation to create new forms for art. There is also much of interest when synergies develop between art styles, and emerging spiritualities allowed for their depiction and exploration through art; as in the room devoted to differing depictions of Homo Novus (a Nietzschian idea) or the critique of established religion, as in the Offensives section, where works by Francis Picabia and Max Ernst put religious belief into question. “Traces du Sacré” argues that one of the roots of modernity is the “disenchantment of the world”, the disappearance of the primacy of religious belief and observance (in this story, primarily Christian) in structuring society and culture. As a result, the search in this exhibition for traces of spirituality in modern art is primarily a search for non-Christian expressions. This argument affects the exhibition in several ways. First, with the exception of the room featuring sacred art, it sends Christian imagery and influence underground within the exhibition itself. Little public prominence is given to the continuing influence of Christianity, and yet its influence is felt strongly in many of the works exhibited. For example, Boccioni’s Futurist sculpture Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, which is generally written about in purely secular terms as a figure in motion, is here displayed as an example of pre-war interest in the “new man”. The face of Boccioni’s figure, however, is wholly formed by a cross and can, therefore, be read as a Christ-like figure.In many such instances, Christian imagery or narrative is secularised, but its underground prevalence in this exhibition demonstrates the continuing strength and power of the Christian story in modern art. |
 On the offensive: left: Max Ernst’s The Virgin Spanking the Christ Child before Three Witnesses: André Breton, Paul Eluard and the Painter, 1926 MUSEUM LUDWIG, COLOGNE |
| Second, several artists are misrepresented by the way in which their work is presented in the exhibition. Caspar David Friedrich, for example, is presented here as depicting the decline of Christianity through an image of a ruined church overtaken by nature. Friedrich, however, was a profoundly Christian artist who renewed Christian imagery in the Romantic period precisely through his depiction of nature. Similarly, artists such as Vassily Kandinsky and Kasimir Malevich are discussed in relation to their interest in esoteric spiritualities, but their debt to Russian Orthodoxy is left unexplored. Third, the thematic sections sometimes distort the orthodox Christian imagery inherent in specific works of art. Georges Rouau |
