UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) Dis-continuities: The role of religious motifs in contemporary art Alexandrova, A. Publication date 2013 Document Version Final published version Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Alexandrova, A. (2013). Dis-continuities: The role of religious motifs in contemporary art. General rights It is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: https://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. UvA-DARE is a service provided by the library of the University of Amsterdam (https://dare.uva.nl) Download date:23 Sep 2021 Dis-Continuities The Role of Religious Motifs in Contemporary Art Alena Alexandrova Dis-Continuities The Role of Religious Motifs in Contemporary Art Academisch Proefschrift Ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de University of Amsterdam op gezag van de Rector Magnificus prof. dr. D.C. van der Boom ten overstaan van een door het col- lege voor promoties ingestelde commissie, in het openbaar te verdedigen in de Aula der Universiteit op Vrijdag 14 Juni, 2013, te 13:00 uur door Alena Alexandrova geboren te Stara Zagora, Bulgarije Promotor Prof. dr. B. Kempers. Overige leden Prof.dr. W. den Boer Prof. dr. M.B. Pranger Dr. J. Boomgaard Prof.dr. B. Baert Prof. dr. B. Meyer Prof. dr. H. de Vries Faculteit der Geesteswetenschappen Ontwerp Mike Kokken Julian Doove © 2013 A. Alexandrova Contents Preface and Acknowledgments I - IV Introduction: Situating Contemporary Art and Religion 1 Chapter One 18 Veronicas and Artists Eras of the Image 19 Acheiropoietos 23 The Image-Instant 31 Presentation. Concealment. 35 Fictions of the Origin 37 Regimes of the Image 40 Religion as a Subject Matter 43 Religious Motifs in Contemporary Art 44 Chapter Two 50 Images Between Religion and Art Inversions. Discontinuities 51 Incarnational Motifs 54 Image Critique and Iconoclasm 59 Blasphemy. Profanation. Immunity 62 Displaying Art and Religion 69 Chapter Three 88 Between Critical Displacements and Spiritual Affirmations Two Tendencies 89 Religious Art and Church Art 96 Friedrich: Art as a Religious Practice 100 Nazarenes and Pre-Rafaelites: The Quest for a New Sacred Art 104 Faith in Art: Manet’s Dead Christ and the Angels 105 Van Gogh: Personal Religion 108 Symbolism: Natural Spirituality 109 Breaking the Religious Image: Reinventing Religion and Art 11 Expressionism: Critical Reflection and Apocalyptic Mysticism 113 Abstract Icons: Kandinsky, Malevich, Mondriaan 119 Surrealism: Inverted Sacred 130 Ready-Made: A Fake Acheiropoieton? 135 Broodthaers: Myths of Power 137 The Instant, Sublime, Presence: Newman and Rothko 140 Bacon: Atheism in Painting 145 Body and Performance Art: Reinventing the Ritual 148 Warhol: Pop-Icons, Pop-Relics 153 Re-Staging the Past: Postmodernism 155 Video Art: Techno-Sublime 157 Chapter Four 164 The Video Veronicas of Bill Viola Miracles and Instants 165 Painting Emotions in Video 172 Visibility and Display 181 Video Veronica 183 Suspended Instants 186 Chapter Five 196 Images that Do Not Rest: The Installations of Lawrence Malstaf “Written on the sand of flesh” 201 Self-Annunciation 203 Symptom-Image 207 Shrink 213 Chapter Six 218 The Flesh Painting of Victoria Reynolds 219 Seeing God in the Flesh 226 Anachronic Elements 229 Illusionism. Mirror. 231 Un-Framing Chapter Seven 236 Breaking Resemblance: The Sculptures of Berlinde de Bruyckere Interrupted Resemblances 237 Counter-Time 245 Faith Displaced 247 Presentations 250 Death and Resemblance 251 Death in the Image 257 Conclusion 262 Bibliography 266 Illustrations 278 Dutch Summary (samenvatting) 286 Summary 290 Is every work of art a fake acheiropoieton? Marie-José Mondzain, 2005 Preface and Acknowledgments At the present moment, perhaps more than ever, images are pervasively present in so- cial life. We perceive but also have the capacity to produce and see more and more images. We are confronted with such questions as: how do we believe in images, how do they acquire their importance as public objects and how is their status produced? These are related to further questions around the power of images and concern not only their iconic or symbolic powers, but also the power mechanisms around images, related to their display and presentation. Many artists demonstrate a distinct interest in revisiting the role of religion and the legacy of religious art as part of their reflection on these questions. This indicates a desire for situating one’s practice with regard to the past and placing it in a dialogue with a very different economy of the image. By re-appropriating and reworking reli- gious images artists not only re-examine the complex relationship between religion and art, but also their respective regimes of visibility. This book is about a particular fold that is happening in the space of contempo- rary art, which opens up a space to think about religion through images. After I began this research project, many exhibitions that dealt with the relationship between reli- gion and art were organised, demonstrating a multiplicity of approaches, debates and lecture series, which I followed and included in my research. Some parts of this thesis have also appeared as articles in several volumes and journals. I am profoundly grateful to Bram Kempers, who agreed to adopt and supervise a project already in progress. Without his encouragement, unconditional support, pa- tience in reading versions of my chapters, and precise comments, this thesis would not have been possible. My sincere thanks go to Laurens ten Kate, Aukje van Rooden and Ignaas Devisch with whom I co-edited the volume Re-treating Religion: Deconstructing Christianity with Jean-Luc Nancy, 2012. The work we did together on the volume and the discussions we had provided a stimulating and inspiring context. Special thanks go to Vladimir Stissi, a friend and colleague with whom I initiated the exhibition Capturing Metamorphosis, 2010, on the occasion of which I had the privilege to experiment with ideas, and to work with an inspiring group of artists in the context of the Allard Pier- son Museum in Amsterdam. Vladimir provided support in the moments I needed it most, and read and gave invaluable feedback on chapters. Special thanks are also due to Sylvia Mieszkowski, a friend and colleague, whose feedback and encouragement helped me a lot. I would also like to extend my gratitude to Hent de Vries who gave feedback on my research and was interested to discuss ideas, and to Ruth Leys and Mi- chael Fried for one of my most intellectually inspiring moments – the semester at the Humanities Center at The Johns Hopkins University. My sincere thanks go to Helen Tar- tar, the editor of Fordham Press; besides being a precise and professional editor, her generosity and support gave me confidence in the development of my writing. I am in- debted to my students at the Dutch Art Institute, Arnhem, and the Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam. Both programs provided a welcoming, inspiring and intellectually stim- ulating context in which to teach, where I could discuss and test ideas, and proved to be the places where much valuable and innovative research happens. I am grateful to Gabrielle Schleijpen and to Suska Mackert who created a very productive and stimu- lating environment in which to work. I would like to thank Mieke Bal who supervised my research in its initial phase as part of the team-project Critical Incarnations, and the NWO program The Future of the Religious Past for funding my research. I am grateful to many friends and colleagues who have read and commented on different parts, texts and chapters of this study: Maria Jose de Abreu, Thomas Lange, Rachel Esner, Eva Foti- adi, Gülru Çakmak, Bastiaan Hoorneman, Martine van Kampen, Boyan Manchev, Kate Khatib and Charlotte Roijackers. Special thanks go to Clare Donald who proof-read the final manuscript with patience and precision. I am very grateful and lucky to have the ever loving, cheerful and supportive presence of Dirk Bruinsma who has been there all along. Introduction: Situating Contemporary Art and Religion Walking into one of the exhibition rooms of Bozar in Brussels in the autumn of 2010, I was puzzled by a sculptural work that offered a strangely familiar, yet enigmatic im- age. Helix DHAACO, 2008, by Wim Delvoye (1965) is part of a series of sculptures con- sisting of black crucifixes joined to one another in a chain and twisted to form a double helix (Fig. 1.). The work was included in his solo exhibition Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door, 2010-11, and featured his laser cut steel Gothic tower installed on the roof, a scale copy of a Gothic cathedral, and a series of sculptures consisting of similarly twisted multiple crucifixes. Religious art and architecture were the very “material” of Delvoye’s works, to be modified, and literally twisted in a manner that demonstrates both the involve- ment of contemporary technology and craftsmanship. The bronze crucifixes were ren- dered in such way that they appeared flexible, and were twisted in a manner that can only be done to soft, yet strong material. Helix DHAACO appropriated a religious sym- bol to make out of it a DNA model. The blending of two symbols central to religion and science in the sculpture al- lude to two different definitions of the concepts of image and image-making, which 1 converge into the motif of the true image, or acheiropoietos.