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vimini newsShelhy Artist Calls for Religion I o Accept New Ideas in Church ArtRenewed interest in art lor the churches of America is the basis of the feature article by Terence Duren, Shelby artist, in the current Sketchbook, annual pubUc-cation of Kappa Pi.DurenDuren is an h o norarv member o f this national art franlernity and Marie B. Ryan of Kearney is national editor.Among the 2 chapters are AlphaIZela of the 'Joslyn Memorial, Oma-cenlury, and he scores the repetition of these eiiehes as bomi recommended by the unthinking “as a means of avoiding what seems to them a radical departure into unproved territory.”IN THIS country andUtimeha: and Beta and Beta Theta of the teacher colleges at Kearney and Wayne respectively.The cover of the Sketchbook carries a reproduction of Daren's “Annunciation in Nebraska” and inside are three others* “Nativity in Nebraska,” “Salome Receives the Head of John the Baptist” and “Jesus Is Made to Bear His Cross.”TRACING THE path of art in connection with the Christian religion from the paintings and carvings left by early Christians in the Roman catacombs, the -Nebraska artist admits these gave rise to some of the greatest art of the past, but adds that a host of imitators of the masters seemed to have lost the inspiration of the miracles they depicted and replaced it with miracles of technique and made its illustrative power their prime morive. Thus by the I9th century they had become moralists rather lhan artists.* c. *“IT IS NOT the artist’s province to preach,” says Duren. “It is not, nor has ever been, even in the days of the best religious painting, necessary to tag a moral to a picture, any more than to a loaf of bread.” From the ranks of these moralists, he goes came the mistaken notion,on.Puritanism swept most of the small churches clear and bare “to a point of absurdity,” eliminating color almost entirely, and clinging to the trivial and banal, the merely pretty with a religious connotation. Contrasted with these are the new chapel decorations permitted under aruling of the ^Catholic Church that they must Dc traditional, yet created by such modernists as Matisse.The commentator makes short pie” don’t understand art and are not therefore to be considered. He concludes that it is not the artist who has deserted religion, but vice versa; that the “real” in art will hardly find its way back into religion until clergymen and their congregations find it expedient to add some knowledge of art to their accomplishments In the field of education.suLl too prevalent, that religious art must follow the grandiose style set by artists of the 10thCOVER PICTURE—This painting by Terence R. Duren of Shelby, “Annunciation in Nebraska” appears on the cover of the annual Sketchbook of Kappa Pi.Quartet, Evangelist At NE MissionaryTlio irorcifr niiarfof nf RtaihAlDr. ThompsonAt First T\T#tlinr1i«tHomebuilders Class lOtb Birthdav Todav
Newspaper Details
Sunday Journal and Star
Lincoln, Nebraska, US
Sun, Jul 04, 1954
Page 25
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 16 Mar 2025
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