Conferences ...
In 1953 Duncan Grant was commissioned to decorate Lincoln
Cathedral's Russell Chantry with a set of murals depicting St
Blaise, the patron saint of wool workers. A day conference Duncan
Grant/Lothar Gotz/ Lincoln: 21st Century Perspectives on Murals and Art
for Public Spaces--will take place alongside an exhibition at The
Collection Lincoln, of Grant's preparatory drawings for the murals,
highlights from the Methodist Art Collection and a true to scale re-
imagining of the Chantry chapel by contemporary artist Lothar Gotz.
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Grant is known for his decorative and narrative schemes for civic,
domestic and religious interiors; Gotz makes intensely coloured,
geometric and architecturally related paintings, informed by the
specific circumstances, inhabitants or histories of a place. The day
brings together artists, curators and historians to provide a context
for Grant's Lincoln murals and Gotz's response, looking at
both their heritage and their significance today. The conference will
also explore more widely the commissioning and role of contemporary art
in public spaces, whether sacred or secular.
18th March 2016, 10am-4pm, The Collection, Danes Terrace, Lincoln.
Visit the University of Lincoln's website for more details or to
book a place.
ACE's own biennial conference (advertised on p.10) will take
place in Dublin, Ireland this July. As co-organiser Jim Malone of
Trinity College Dublin explains the theme:
Ireland was known as the island of saints and scholars, a
reputation that probably derives from the golden era of Celtic
Christianity in the later centuries of the first Christian Millennium.
This period saw the creation of large monasteries, places of learning,
and extraordinary art works and artefacts associated with Christianity.
The creators of this heritage in due course became pilgrims and scholars
bringing to mainland Europe the gift of re-evangelisation during and
following the dark ages. Later again, the art and scholarship of several
European countries (eg. Spain, France, Belgium and Italy) became
nourishing sources for Irish Christianity during centuries of
persecution and suppression at home. And so the wheel turned, until
today when a post-Christian Europe poses a new challenge to artists and
people of faith alike. These events provide perspectives we can use as
background to reflection and celebration on the place of art and artists
in 21st-century Christian life.
How can the 21st-century artist relate to the saintly and scholarly
life of the early monks in re-evangelising the many post-Christian parts
of the world as we now find it? For many artists, life can be viewed as
an invitation to pilgrimage, to a quest for a version of truth that
speaks to our time. Indeed the public seem to trust artists as source of
truth and inspiration/revelation, in a broad sense. The conference aims
to explore the life of art and artists in the churches through the
Christian and post-Christian cycles of the last millennium and to
celebrate the saints, scholars, artists, mystics, and pilgrims that have
brought enlightenment and share this journey with us.
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