The greater part of this work is devoted to a discussion of ten modern Irish artists and of thirty paintings (three by each artist) from the point of view of the "spiritual-theological content" of the paintings and "the faith, spirituality and theological views of the painters" (p. 9). The main guiding question of the whole project is how the modern visual work of art can function as a locus theologicus (analogous to passages from the gospels, for example) and can play a significant role within theology. Among the criteria by which the artists were selected are (a) that they should not have regularly received church commissions and are, in that sense, 'autonomous', and (b) that there is, at least implicitly, some spiritual, religious, not necessarily Christian dimension in their work and that there is available evidence of the artists' own reflection on this dimension. Chapter 2 presents a summary account of the lives and relevant thoughts of the artists, while Chapter 3 presents a meticulous analysis of the paintings selected. These two long central chapters are framed by a broad-context-setting opening chapter that provides a brief account of the relevant writings of the famous theologian Paul Tillich and the much less well known Horst Schwebel, and by a final chapter of summary and conclusion, which outlines further possible and desirable co-operation between art and theology.
Thiessen's main contention, suasively argued, is that the work of art, even when containing no explicitly religious reference, and independently of the artist's acceptance of any specifically religious view of the world, much less of his/her faithful adherence to any particular church, and quite without the artist's intention, can evoke a genuinely religious response in the viewer and can therefore play a significant role within theology. In particular, it is her view that art can support an anti-nihilist Christian theology of hope. The analysis of the paintings and of the painters' world-views is interesting and enlightening, and the whole discussion thought-provoking. Further discussion might profitably focus on precise distinctions and relations between religious experience, religion, faith, beliefs and theology, and on distinct functions within theology. If, for example, we say, with Bernard Lonergan, that faith is knowledge born of religious love, and if theology as process is faith seeking understanding--which would make theology as product achieved understanding--then where does art fit in?
Does the work of art, in providing or enhancing religious experience, thereby support faith, and is the analysis of the work of art theology-as-process, leading to a deeper, broader understanding of faith? This is Thiessen's position, I believe, and it explains why she places art-in-theology mainly in the area of systematics. I think, however, that further reflection might reveal the lack of need for the concept "unsystematic-systematic theology" to guarantee the "artistic image and the artistic imagination their rightful and essential place in the work of theology" (p. 271).
It would be interesting to see Lonergan's idea of functional specialisation, as presented in his Method in Theology , applied to the work of art as locus theologicus , and Thiessen would be well equipped for this task, as much of her own work, notably in this book and in her courses of lectures on God in Art and Art and Spirituality at the Milltown Institute of Theology and Philosophy, ranges over several of the eight functional specialities identified by Lonergan.
Marie Burke and Síghle Bhreathnach-Lynch, Discover Irish Art at the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin: National Gallery, 1999
Discover Irish Art is an excellent reference book on the history of Irish art from the late 17th to the late 20th century. The authors have chosen one-hundred works of art in the Irish collection of the National Gallery of Ireland, where Marie Burke is Keeper and Head of Education and Síghle Bhreathnach-Lynch is Curator of the Irish Collection. Each of the works reproduced is accompanied, on a facing page, by a short essay, including a biographical note on the artist and, where relevant, on the subjects of portraits (which amount to about one third of the works discussed), with helpful comments on the political, economic, social and cultural environment, on artistic conventions and techniques, and on how particular artists achieve particular effects.
It is the authors' intention to celebrate "the extraordinary range and excellence of the Irish art tradition" (p.1). The selection does indeed reveal a wide range of talent, of expertise, of mastery of artistic techniques, but does it reveal much great art? The authors note that "everywhere we turn we see images of Shaw, Yeats, Joyce, Beckett and Heaney, all major figures praised for their achievements in the field of literature" (ibid.), but while using phrases such as "some great works," "masterpiece," "breath-taking landscapes," and "outstanding subject painting," they refrain from suggesting that Irish visual artists, in general, can match the achievements of their literary counterparts. Indeed, their introduction, summarising the history of Irish art since the English Restoration, goes some way towards explaining what may be perceived as a lack of outstanding achievement. For if much 18 th -century Irish art derives from the fact that the Protestant Ascendancy "built new houses to reflect their affluence and invited painters to make records of themselves and their property" (p. 2); if 18 th -century landscapes tended to be idealised, classical, topographical; if few 19th-century Irish painters tackled themes such as famine, emigration, land agitation, and those who did reduced the harrowing realities of such events to a minimum, because it was believed that fine art "should not overly concern itself with distressing aspects of life" (p.7), is it surprising that few works from those centuries inspire genuine awe or wonder in the viewer? Even Barret's Powerscourt Waterfall , presumably influenced by Edmund Burke's view of the sublime in nature as "vast, awesome, terrible and uncontrollable" (p. 38), is, while impressive, hardly overpowering. Is it only in more recent times that Irish artists acquired sufficient independence to experiment, to be radical, to struggle to express deeper, more complex feelings, and so produced more works that inspire some wonder, awe, sense of mystery in the viewer. In the study reviewed above, Thiessen chooses for discussion Jack B. Yeats, Mainie Jellet and Gerard Dillon, also included in Discover Irish Art , but one wonders what artists she could have chosen, if she had broadened her scope, from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.
Most of the 28 paper collages in this collection, made between 1994 and 1997, are based on the once so popular picture postcards of John Hinde, which offered an idealised, romantic view of Ireland, an Ireland that some of us used to believe actually existed and most of us were happy, in any event, to sell to tourists as Ireland of the Welcomes. Hillen undermines this Ireland, but he does it in style. Satire it is, but unlike much present-day disowning of our past, it is not harsh, humourless, reductionist, but gentle, affectionate and exuberantly funny. In his richly perceptive introduction, Fintan O'Toole comments that Hillen does not contrast the fake imagery with an allegedly more authentic realism, which would be easy; he does not take out the myth, but puts a lot more in. Perhaps one might say that he puts contemporary, 'realistic' Ireland in its place, by dismantling it, as he dismantles Hindeland, to use its component parts in the construction of Irelantis. One one level, Hillen's images stretch the mind and imagination of the viewer, just by combining very disparate elements from various ages and cultures, and from various parts of our earth and our universe: for example, pyramids bridging Carlingford Lough, lions beside the Lia Fáil in Waterford, a whale floating on air above a rowing boat on the river Liffey, the Delphic Oracle on O'Connell Street, for example. On another level they challenge us by combining wit with wonder, in particular wonder at the forces of nature, in the face of which all the achievements of science, technology and the economy seem very fragile. There are also three interesting appearances of the Virgin Mary, at Newgrange, Tara and Temple Bar. </>
This slim volume, had it appeared a couple of years ago, could have provided useful data for Thiessen's study of theology and modern Irish art. It certainly reveals an artist endowed with what Séamus Heany, in his 1986 lecture entitled The Government of the Tongue , called "a power to open unexpected and unedited communications between our nature and the nature of the world we inhabit." And Hillen's relaxed, informal comments--a kind of playful musing on the content and inspiration of individual images--make an excellent tourist guide to Irelantis, and to the mind and imagination of its creator.
Conn O'Donovan(connpadd@gofree.indigo.ie) teaches languages and has a background in Philosophy and Theology.
Reviews reproduced from CIRCA 91, Spring
2000, pp. 49-51
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