Religion in American Art

 

Articles and essays from Resource Library in chronological order:

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

1999

1998

 

TFAO references:

A 2/12/11 search within TFAO's digital library retrieved:

 

Also from the Web:

"The Carmel Mission in Art," February 2008 article in American Art Review, .pdf file courtesy of Carmel Mission Basilica American Art and Culture," (book review)  Sept, 1997  by Gail E. Husch, from The Art Bulletin (File not found as of 2013 audit. Source site may contain this content via a revised URL)
 
"Christian art hidden in America's dusty corners" by Marisa Martin, published 8/8/12 in WND.
 
Christ in the Smokies Museum & Gardens in Gatlinburg, TN
 
"Easton Bible Artist" is a May 14, 2011 article by Karen Samuels, accessed on February 9, 2013 from the website of The Express-Times of Easton, PA. The article is devoted to Johannes Ernst Spangenberg (1755-1814), a Fraktur artist known as the "Easton Bible Artist." He is also referenced in Resource Library. See Pennsylvania Fraktur; essay by R. David Brocklebank and Barbara L. Jones (6/28/07)
 
"The Landscape of Belief: Encountering the Holy Land in Nineteenth-Century American Art and Culture," (book review)  Sept, 1997  by Gail E. Husch, from The Art Bulletin (Link found expired as of 7/24/09 audit. Source site may contain this content via a revised URL)
 
Salvation Mountain in Niland, CA, from Wikipedia
 
Cooper-Hewitt Museum, The Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Design, offered freely online as of 2013 over 25 titles highlighting the Museum's collections, published between 1978 and 1987, including Santos from Puerto Rico
 
Smithsonian Institution Conservation Institute provided online as of 2013 the exhibition brochure for Santos and related reading lists
 
View from the Pier contains in Compass Rose section On the Santos Trail in Puerto Rico, published in four parts April and May, 2011
 

Online audio:

Sister Corita was aired March 03, 2007 on "Weekend America." American Public Media says "When you think about pop art and counter culture, in all likelihood, you don't immediately think of a convent in Los Angeles in the 1960s. Sister Corita Kent was a nun at the Immaculate Heart Convent in Los Angeles, as well as a teacher in the art department at the Immaculate Heart College. She was also an artist whose screen prints garnered world-wide attention. At one point she was on the cover of Newsweek. But she was also criticized by conservative Catholics, including the archbishop of the Los Angeles archdiocese. Sister Corita Kent left the convent at the height of her fame but continued to live a fascinating life. Weekend America host Bill Radke visits the Corita Art Center in Los Angeles to learn more about her life and see some of her work."

National Public Radio provides archives of its radio program series. An example is Black Religious Art from All Things Considered, April 13, 2001. On this Good Friday, Commentator Robert Franklin remarks on the growing role of art in African-American churches.

WNET/New York produced Religion & Ethics Newsweekly: The Legacy of Howard Finster on October 26, 2001. Tom Patterson, Howard Finster's biographer, provides insights into the life and career of the acclaimed artist in two audio clips:

 

Online video:

Video titled Ron DiCianni: Painting the Resurrection (04:24) features the artist discussing The Resurrection Mural, 12' x 40', oil on canvas, commissioned by the Museum of Biblical Art in Dallas, TX. Video appeared on CBN.com.

 

DVD or VHS videos:

Divining the Human: The Cathedral Tapestries of John Nava is a 2003 feature-length television documentary in DVD format, directed by David Tlapek, produced by Brookwood Enterprises and narrated by Edward James Olmos, that follows the creation of tapestries by artist John Nava for the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, in Los Angeles, CA.

Fabric of Survival: The Art of Esther Nisenthal Krinitz (13-minute DVD or CD) is a documentary film that includes the interview with Esther Nisenthal Available through Art & Remembrance, which says: "In 1998, acclaimed filmmaker Lawrence Kasdan spent three days interviewing Esther Nisenthal Krinitz and family, with her art work as a focal point. In this beautiful 13-minute documentary film, Kasdan has distilled Esther's story and art into into a poignant memory of survival." (left: front box cover of Fabric of Survival: The Art of Esther Nisenthal Krinitz)

Minerva Teichert: A Mission In Paint is a 46 minute video documentary produced and directed by Nicholas J. Gasdik and written by Tim Slover on the art and life of Minerva Teichert. See this page from LDSFilm.com for more information.

Visiting...With Huell Howser #1005 - MOSAICS is a 28 minute 2002 video by Huell Howser Productions, which says on its website: "You've seen his work all across the Southland. Meet Denis O'Connor master mosaic artist, who has created some of the largest and most amazing mosaics in America." In this video, Denis O'Connor creates a large glass mosaic mural for St. John Vianney Chapel on Balboa Island, in Newport Brach, CA. Huell follows the creation of the mural in O'Conner's two studios through to its installation in the chapel.

TFAO does not maintain a lending library of videos or sell videos. Click here for information on how to borrow or purchase copies of VHS videos and DVDs listed in TFAO's Videos -DVD/VHS, an authoritative guide to videos in VHS and DVD format.

 

Museums :

Museum of Biblical Art in Dallas, TX has a collection of American religious art.

Museum of Biblical Art in New York, NY has exhibitions on religious art. Some exhibitions feature American religious art.

 

Books:

Art, Belief, Meaning: The Visual Arts and the Restored Gospel : Papers Presented at the First Annual Art, Belief, Meaning Seminar for Faculty and Students, November 20, December 4, and December 11, 1998, by Christian F. Sorenson. Brigham Young University Museum of Art, College of Fine Arts and Communications, 1998 - 76 pages

Art and Popular Religion in Evangelical America, 1915-1940, by Robert L. Gambone. Published in 1989 by University of Tennessee Press.

Benjamin West: The Context of His Life's Work with Particular Attention to Paintings with Religious Subject Matter, by John Dillenberger. Published in 1977 by Trinity University Press.

Crossroads: Art and Religion in American Life, Published in 2001 by The New Press. Amazon.com reviewer Michael Joseph Gross says "...Crossroads is a valuable contribution to America's ongoing project of navigating the complex relationship between its aesthetic and spiritual ideals..." with "... insightful anthology of seven essays by prominent artists, art historians, and religious scholars."

Icons of American Protestantism: The Art of Warner Sallman, By David Morgan. Published 1996 by Yale University Press. 246 pages. ISBN:0300063423. Google Books says: "This fascinating book focuses on the production, marketing, and reception of one such set of religious illustrations, the art of Warner Sallman (1892-1968), whose '1940 Head Of Christ' has been reproduced an estimated five hundred million times." Note: Google Books offers a Limited Preview of this book. For more information on this and other digitizing initiatives from publishers please click here and here. (left: front cover, Icons of American Protestantism: The Art of Warner Sallman, image courtesy Google Books)

Jewish-American Artists and the Holocaust, by Mathew Baigell. Published by Rutgers University Press in 1997.

The Landscape of Belief: Encountering the Holy Land in Nineteenth-Century American Art and Culture, by John Davis. Published by Princeton University Press in 1998. Google Books says: "This book tells of the nineteenth-century American painters who, along with photographers, archaeologists, writers, evangelists, and tourists, flocked to the biblical Holy Land, a world of striking landscape vistas that reflected, in their eyes, a powerful image of the United States..."

Nineteenth Century German-American Church Artists, by Annemarie Springer from Max Kade/SGAS, text published online.

Painting Religion in Public: John Singer Sargent's Triumph of Religion at the Boston Public Library, by Sally M. Promey. Published by Princeton University Press in 2001.

The Religious Art of Andy Warhol, By Jane Dillenberger, Andy Warhol. Published 1998 by Continuum International Publishing Group.128 pages. ISBN:082641334X. Google Books says: "An examination of the spiritual side of Warhol looks at his art during his final years, which includes paintings based on Leonardo da Vinci's "Last Supper," and Warhol's "Skull" and "Cross" paintings." Note: Google Books offers a Limited Preview of this book. For more information on this and other digitizing initiatives from publishers please click here and here. (right: front cover, The Religious Art of Andy Warhol, image courtesy Google Books)

Religious Folk Art in America: Reflections of Faith, by C. Kurt Dewhurst, Betty MacDowell, Marsha MacDowell. Published by E.P. Dutton in association with the Museum of American Folk Art, in 1983.

Seven Visions: The Spirit of Religion in Contemporary Regional Art, by Arnot Art Museum -1991

Signs of Grace: Religion and American Art in the Gilded Age, by Kristin Schwain. Published in 2007 by Cornell University Press. On the back cover, Leigh Eric Schmidt of Princeton University says: "Signs of Grace offers a revealing window on the way in which the visual arts were given a distinct religious bearing in late Victorian America-one that accentuated momentary experiences of spiritual and aesthetic illumination. In this rich and sumptuous book, Kristin Schwain has done an excellent job of analyzing these forms of spiritualized visuality through the works of Thomas Eakins, Henry Ossawa Tanner, F. Holland Day, and Abbott Handerson Thayer." (left: front cover, Signs of Grace: Religion and American Art in the Gilded Age, image courtesy Google Books)

The Spirit and the Vision: The Influence of Christian Romanticism on the Development of 19th-century American Art, by Diane Apostolos-Cappadona. Published by Scholars Press, in 1995.

Transforming Images: New Mexican Santos In-between Worlds, by Claire J. Farago, Donna Pierce. Published by Pennsylvania State University Press in 2006.

The Visual Arts and Christianity in America: From the Colonial Period to the Present, by John Dillenberger. Published in 1984 by Scholars Press (Chico, Calif). Book Review: "Stalking the Spiritual in the Visual Arts" by David Morgan.

The Visual Culture of American Religions, by David Morgan, Sally M. Promey. Published by University of California Press in 2001.

A Google Book Search conducted February 12, 2011 located 307 books featuring the search phrase "American Religious Art. Forty five books featured Limited Preview.

 

Articles:

Julianne Burton-Carvajal and Scott Shields, "The Carmel Mission in Art" American Art Review, January-February 2008 (Volume XX, Number 1

 

Note: To date, TFAO has not been able to locate significant information on American art derived from faith communities other than that for Judeo-Christian topics. Readers and institutions with links and materials derived from other faith communities to share with TFAO will be appreciated.

Contents listed within Topics in American Representational Art are largely derived from articles and essays in Resource Library, which is a publication of Traditional Fine Arts Organization.Where identified and available, included with each topic are also listings of:

-- books published on paper that are devoted exclusively to the topic
-- magazine articles published on paper that are devoted exclusively to the topic
-- DVD and VHS videos devoted exclusively to the topic (see Videos for examples)
-- online audio files with substantial content devoted to the topic (see Audio Online for examples)
-- online video files with substantial content devoted to the topic (see Videos Online for examples)
-- online texts not published in Resource Library, with substantial content devoted to the topic (see Articles and Essays Online for examples)
-- online museum exhibitions devoted exclusively to the topic
-- websites devoted exclusively to the topic

For teachers and students wishing to study American art history from additional perspectives such as race and ethnic orientation, Resource Library contains texts related to a plethora of subjects. An easy way to identify specific texts is to use Resource Library's search feature, as articles and essays are fully indexed. Since American art museums often focus on local art history, an index to assist in identification of articles and essays with a regional focus is useful. See Resource Library's Sources of Articles and Essays Indexed by State within the United States for a handy guide.

TFAO welcomes volunteers to further the broadening of knowledge of American representational art. To learn more about TFAO's many volunteer opportunities please click here. Qualified volunteers are welcome to contribute suggestions for additional content in this catalogue. Please see Catalogue and database management for details.

TFAO extends thanks to Chet Murray for suggesting information for this topic and to Gayle Larkin, an artist in San Juan Capistrano, CA, for providing a reference in the above list.

For more information on volunteering please send an email to:

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