April 6, 2014

The Sacred & Contemporary Art

Sophie Calle, "Rachel, Monique," 2014



















This morning, I will give a talk for the Sunday Forum at the American Cathedral in Paris on the position of religion and the sacred in Contemporary Art. My talk closely considers Brian O'Doherty's Inside the White Cube: The Ideology of the Gallery SpaceJames Elkins's On The Strange Place of Religion in Contemporaray Art, Thierry de Duve's examination of Edouard Manet's The Dead Christ with Angels in his exhibition catalogue Look, 100 Years of Contemporary Art, and Hans Belting's Likeness and Presence, as well as the Centre Pompidou's 2008 exhibition, "Traces du Sacré." We will also look at modern and contemporary works that blur the Western post-Reformation separation between art and religion in projects including, among others, Matisse's Chapel at Vence; the Rothko Chapel, Houston; Willem de Kooning's triptych altarpiece, "Hallelujah," made for Saint Peter's Church, New York City; John Armleder's "Pour Paintings" for the Eglise Saint Eustache, Paris; Christopher Wool's stained glass windows for the Prieure La Charité, Loire; and Sophie Calle's upcoming exhibition "Rachel, Monique" at The Episcopal Church of the Heavenly Rest in New York.