Ann Rennie Reflects

Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.

Pablo Picasso

Over the past few weeks, I have been able to visit a number of galleries to look at exhibitions and to appreciate the giftedness of artists.  I am a stick figure aficionado so have a particular admiration for those who can draw and paint and sculpt.  These are works that we sometimes archive as special to us because they point us in the direction of beauty, truth and goodness.  They are keepsakes we hold in our hearts.

Where there is much negativity and gloom in the news today, visiting a gallery or museum is heartening and balancing for the sagging spirit.  It’s a reminder that joy can be found when we look for it, when we are open to little glints and glimmers of God-given man-made grace; when we take the time to look and see elsewhere, open up new corridors of thinking, giving our predictable patterns and inert neurons a good shake.

Perhaps this is my way of spring cleaning my mind, dusting off the winter slump and reengaging with the world beyond my walls.

I am in awe of those who can paint a portrait, a bush landscape or a moody interior that invites you to marvel at their skill with paint and a brush, the work of their hands.  The artist asks us to lean in and look closely, interrogating the execution of the work and wondering about the vast palette of the imagination.

To see certain works of art is to commune with the talent that God has given creators, who have, in turn, shared this gift with us.  I am also reminded that the great works transcend time.  A 17th century Amsterdam tulip merchant may have gazed at a painting by Vermeer with the same awe as a 21st century New York banker.  Great art is a gift from the past to the future.

I caught the train to Geelong to see the Impressionists, the second generation of whom were promoted by Paul Durand-Ruel, who had also promoted and financed the original Impressionists – such was his belief in their work when it scandalised the Paris Salon in the 1870s.  I loved the colour in these second-generation paintings, linked to the originals, but painted with each artist’s sovereign talent.

At the NGV, I wandered through the Margaret Preston exhibition and learned a lot.  I had known about her linocuts but had no idea that she was a very good painter. She did not stand still in one genre and we see her evolution as an artist and her immersion in new ideas, styles and appropriations.  I liked a small picture of goldfish in a bowl and some lovely linocuts telling gospel stories in the outback.

Locally, I have popped in a couple of times to the AME Bale Exhibition at the Hawthorn Town Hall to see the lovely work of this Kew resident whose floral still lifes are well known and whose country scenes around Castlemaine catch the beauty of the area.  There are also very good portraits of parents and friends.  It was good to see that private collectors are still interested in mid-20th century Australian art of the Meldrum School of tonalism.  And Bale can be remembered for her philanthropy in leaving money in her will to benefit emerging or mid-career artists in the traditional field with the renowned AME Bale Travelling Scholarship.

This week (10 October) Pope Leo addressed Museum Directors around the world.  He reminded his audience that art is not mere aestheticism but helps to proclaim the gospel through beauty.  Many works are imbued with transcendent meaning which reawakens the eyes of the heart and mind directing the human person to what is above.  When I gaze at a work of art, I do so in appreciation and gratitude.  I am also reminded that the preservation and conservation of such works is essential to the honouring of the human story and I am thankful that so many museums and galleries are free.

There are many great works of religious art with which we are familiar; Rembrandt’s Return of the Prodigal Son, Da Vinci’s Last Supper, Murillo’s many Madonnas, Michelangelo’s La Pietà and the glories of the Sistine Chapel, the stained glass windows in Saint Chappelle, the cathedrals, basilicas and churches around the world and the ones we worship in each week; our home grown artistic endeavours all helping us devotionally, leading us to look above.

One of my favourite religious paintings is in the National Gallery in London.  It is Federico Barocci’s Madonna of the Cat (c. 1575).  It is a lovely picture of the Holy Family at play.  I love its domestic felicity; the infant Jesus and his cousin, John, and his parents, Mary and Joseph, watching as John teases a cat with a goldfinch.  Behind the warmth of this tableau is the anticipation of Jesus’ future sacrifice.

At Genazzano, there is a good 19th century copy of Raphael’s Sistine Madonna (c.1512-1513).  Many of us have seen the little cherubs (putti) at the bottom of the picture become hugely popular as decorative items.  There is so much art to love; William-Adolphe Bougereau’s Virgin of the Lilies (1899), the Tiffany windows at the Arlington Church in Boston – heavenly with their pearlescent lustre and textured glass, the great altar-pieces of Europe, Salvador Dali’s Christ of St .John of the Cross (1951), Russian icons, mosaics, Stations of the Cross.

This is especially the case at Our Lady of Good Counsel Church, Deepdene where the Austrian immigrant sculptor Leopoldine Mimovich’s work is on display.  Throughout her life, Leopoldine, who lived in Kew, undertook sculpting in wood and bronze, much of which reflected her devout Catholic faith.  In 1990, ten sculptures were placed in Alexandra Gardens.  A gift for all to enjoy.  A place to pause and ponder and be grateful.  Time to catch a butterfly burst of joy.  Her drawing of a nativity scene with local flora and fauna was on the 2020 Australian Christmas stamp.

Pope Francis in addressing artists at the Vitae Summit in 2020 said: You are preachers of beauty. Beauty does good. Beauty heals. Beauty helps us go forward on our journey… Artistic creation completes, in a certain sense, the beauty of Creation, and when it is inspired by faith reveals more clearly to people the divine love which is its origin.

God is the supreme artist, the creator of heaven and earth, his palette infinite in its variety.  He painted the world with vivid impasto strokes and the softest watercolours.  He coloured in the continents and imagined miraculous hues for mountains and rivers and jungles and all living things.  He created the colours of all people and the red blood of brotherhood under the skin.

Our world, our common home, is his masterpiece.

Thomas Merton wrote: Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time. As we enjoy these longer and lighter days, do something joyful for yourself. Indulge in appreciating the art that speaks to your soul.

Thank God for all those artists who direct your gaze to what is above.

By Ann Rennie