Biblical imagery in visual art

Mikey posted this article on Think Christian recently, asking “Where are the modern artists taking on Biblical themes?” The post is brief, but includes some links worth perusing. His post basically asks the question without any additional commentary.

Biblical themes run the risk of being, well, cheesy. In my own experience, most artwork featuring said themes is usually sub-par. I don’t know how or why this is in light of how many of the classical masterworks, to which we still refer in awe, examine and display Scriptural ideas and characters.

The author of the entry posits that the question may be derived from his own ignorance. This may be the most reasonable way to approach the question. A comment on the blog refers the poster to Makoto Fujimura‘s work, although none of Mako’s work that I’ve seen employs much (if any) representation of any kind. A better example is probably Sandra Bowden.

The church will do well to keep from requiring, or even requesting, overtly Christian themes from its visual artists. This will isolate a group of people which, frankly, already is isolated for a variety of reasons — and has been on its own for decades now among its Christian peers.