Art penetrates the surface ...

Thursday, Sept 20, 2012. Last Saturday we had a day off to visit museums. In Frankfurt, you can buy a two-day ticket which allows you to enter around 40 different museums which are scattered around the town center. We were walking around with friends, and partly with our kids … what do you like about art?

Art can help to see …

I like to see art as an effort to understand the world, to see the world, to interact with the world. This is one of its important features. The artist is representing a piece of something either as painting or by a sculpture. Hi way to shape his image or representation is an effort to see, to clarify his relationship to what he shows.

We attended an exhibition which showed paintings about reality. They were non-real … fantastic, but not by showing non-realistic worlds, but by putting realistic features into an abstract environment. Things become interesting by taking them out of their normal circumstances. We start to see when things change in an unusual way.

We saw great art that day, but also art which was not well presented. If you just put a piece somewhere, it might be difficult to understand what is tells you - if it wants to tell something (usually it does). Museums can do a lot to make art accessible, to help the visitor to understand it and love it. The interaction with art can be a way to explore what life is and what life can be …!

Learning to see in a biblical way …

The interaction with artists often reminds me of the biblical task to teach us how to see. God wants us to see the world with his eyes … and that is not always easy or straightforward. He is full of mercy, full of understanding, but also full of justice and eager to love and help and be with us. Humans often see the world through different eyes!

God gives us stories to learn. The New Testament is full of words, of stories, of events, of speeches and interpretation. We can interact with it, as we interact with a piece of art, something special, made to teach us and to tell a story. We can listen, try to understand, put the pieces together … explore what is there and discover the treasures which need us to open our heart and our mind!

I love biblical art, Christian art, art which makes the Christian message visible and helps to understand it. All over the world you can find such art … mostly traditional, but also modern, with all the tools and features which art can have today and tomorrow. It is wonderful to join the great adventure of faith! (Roland Potthast) ... more texts