Jewish Art Salon Advisor Aaron Rosen is featured in a Q & A with David Van Biema.
It is not easy to be a respected member of the art-world intelligentsia and take religion seriously.
“Religion and modern art continue to be typecast as mortal enemies,” writes Aaron Rosen.
But the very context in which he makes this statement suggests that a truce may be in the works. Rosen is the author of the copiously illustrated book “Art + Religion in the 21st Century,” which illustrates his belief that there is “a tremendous potential for reciprocity” between the two.
And his may be the voice of the future.
Many of the currents in 20th-century culture made it hard to imagine the phrase “contemporary religious high art.”
Most artists hold religion at arm’s length. Heroic images of the Holy Family and the Catholic saints that were staples of the art of faith fell out of fashion; meanwhile, institutional Catholicism, wary of stirring controversy within its ranks, moved away from museum-grade art, and evangelical Protestant art had a not-ready-for-prime-time look.
“Art + Religion in the 21st Century,” is available on Amazon here.