| Art and Renewed Sacred Space
The Dove Descending
Even when not spoken aloud, words
from Psalm 96 echoed throughout the
Renewal project that created Grace
Church’s new worship space:
“Worship the Lord in the beauty of
holiness.” Beauty was always a
requirement for the burnished
concrete floor, for the light-filled
proportions of the space itself, and for
all the liturgical objects within it.
Nothing was bought “ready made”
out of a catalog. Everything was
produced by local artists and
craftsmen.
The recent installation of two
paintings has continued the pattern.
One is an old friend. Swooping down
now over the doors to the nave is
“The Dove Descending,” oil on
canvas, by Patric Shannon. It hung for many years on the back wall of the former nave, which is now the
parish hall, first as a long-term loan and then as a gift of the artist. He was a member of the congregation
from 1974 until his death in 1998, serving as Bishop’s Warden, licensed lay reader, notable lector and trainer
of other lectors. A graduate of Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley, he had a long
career in the arts as a museum director and a college teacher of both theater and visual arts. His paintings
were widely exhibited at museums and galleries.
The title of the painting comes from “Little Gidding,” the last of T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets:
The dove descending breaks the air
With flame of incandescent terror
Of which the tongues declare
The one discharge from sin and error.
The lines are part of a complex reference to the operation of the Holy Spirit, even amid the London fires
started by German dive bombers during the Second World War. However, the painting is not a representation
of the dove as a symbol of the Spirit. Patric said that he did not compete with the camera to produce
“pictures.” Instead, as “an old-fashioned abstract expressionist,” he manipulated the plastic means of space,
light, color, line, and texture to express the inner world of mind, imagination, and feeling – the world of
spiritual life. Titles, including this one, came afterward to suggest experiences the works might evoke.
The second painting, hung over the columbarium, is new to Grace. “The Spirit Rising,” also oil on canvas, is
by Lee Mullican, who died in 1998. An important twentieth-century American painter, he was Professor of
Art at the University of California, Los Angles. He exhibited nationally in museums and galleries, including
two one-man exhibitions presented by Patric Shannon. His work is included in the collections of major
museums.
The Spirit Rising
The first reaction of many viewers is, “It can’t possibly be a
painting! It looks like a tapestry!” The effect comes from a
technique Mullican developed during his later career, laying
on paint in small strokes with a palette knife. In some works he
outlined figures or created designs within a large brushed-in
field. In “The Spirit Rising,” painted in 1971, the entire
composition is done with the knife. The result is a brilliant
piece of virtuoso painting. However, the merit of the work
does not come simply from technique. It shows the influence
of Mullican’s immersion in Eastern philosophy and Eastern
and native South American spirituality. It both expresses and
evokes spiritual experience.
It hung for many years in the Shannons’ home, where Mother
Susan saw it and immediately loved it. She agreed that it was a
religious painting and she and Ann Marie Shannon decided
that it would someday go to Grace Church. Ann Marie made
the gift in June, 2007, so that the painting could be part of the
beautiful new sacred space created by Renewal.
|
