A related article on Suite 101 explores how religious artists in the 20th and 21st centuries have explored a more global spirituality, addressed social and political issues and raised questions about faith. This article considers the use of words and text in modern religious painting.
Affirmation and Doubt
Declaring “I need words”, New Zealand painter Colin McCahon abandoned landscapes and Biblical scenes in the mid-1950s in favour of canvasses based almost entirely on words and text. Such expression evokes the John 1:1 description of the nature of God: “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God”.
In the first years of this period McCahon’s work includes powerful affirmations such as the I AM series. Theologian Lloyd Geering has linked these affirmations to the story of Moses and the burning bush (the voicing of God’s name) and to words of Jesus, such as “I am the bread of life.” In a 2008 lecture in Wellington, New Zealand (organised by the St. Andrew’s Trust for the Study of Religion and Society), Geering stressed the dynamic nature of the “I Am” phrase. To affirm the nature of God suggested that, at the time, McCahon was confident of his own identity and meaning.
Similarly powerful is the painting I and Thou, inspired by Jewish philosopher Martin Buber’s writing that God could be found in reciprocal personal relationships. On a related theme—the interdependence of humans—is the John Donne tribute Let Us Possess One World (1955), which includes the words: “each has one and is one.” McCahon observed that much of his work was aimed at “relating man to man and man to his world”.
But between the 1950s and 1972, McCahon’s paintings gradually become less colourful and affirmative. Concerns about the potential for nuclear disaster creep in, and there is an increasing preoccupation with death. Geering considers that the series Shall We Gather at the River reflects the theological debates raging in established churches in the late 1960s, and another series (on the tradition of the resurrection of Lazarus) may actually be raising questions about the future of the Church.
By the 1970 Victory Over Death shadows of “Am I?” surround the “I Am” message, and McCahon’s last works, based on the book of Ecclesiastes, are apocalyptic in nature. By 1972, unwell and then unacclaimed, McCahon had stopped painting, leaving his lifework of visual celebration and questioning to future generations.
Finding a Place in the World
Closer in spirit to the affirming work of McCahon’s early textual period are some of the paintings identified by New Zealand curator Stuart Shepherd’s analysis of self-taught and visionary (often called “outsider”) art. In a category described as “text-based and preacher art” , Shepherd includes works dominated by words, poetry or text-based messages, expressing a personal belief. (Preacher art arose in the southern USA when some religious leaders would “pronounce” in their art).
An example of a work in this category is Colin Korovin’s Give Peace a Chance (2000). The red, white and blue-dominated work features letters and numbers and lists of countries. As he does in his other paintings, the artist locates himself in the text. Notable are the words “respect, trust, hope and faith”.
The use of text may appear unusual when a painter on religious themes has so many other techniques available. However, words have proven a powerful tool for artists to meditate on belief issues and their own faith identities.
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