Art Events
Sacred Argentinian Art II
"Only the Spirit, if it blows over matter, can create Man", this is the last sentence of Saint-Exupéry in "Wind, Sand and Stars", the work in which the protagonist is the human being as such.
Well, since the spirit breathed into man and while he kept the common sense, he was clearly aware of his indigence, his smallness and weakness, and his dependence. And in turn, the concern of their intelligence pointed to unravel the most pressing questions and the most interior desires of his being: a certain and safe destination, a reality that meets his expectations, the achieving of happiness. In short, a Salvation of cosmic dimensions, far superior to modern palliatives, tiny imitations of the infinite longing of the spirit, aspirins to relieve the unlimited pain of the salvation lost in exchange for promises of an illusory social justice, civilization of comfort, or benefits to all. Medicines much more malicious and dangerous than the "opium of the people", which was the name applied by Marx to that reality intuited by men since the beginning as the only remedy to their proper human problems: Religion.
That's why since man expresses himself plastically, what reflects is the sense of mystery that he expresses with what he has on hand, with the means of expressing that his culture allows him. He cares not to reproduce beings around as such, nor stories to communicate news; this is a modern interest of what we now call science, which had to first go through the abstraction of positivism in order to prevail. What our ancestors wanted was to express their concerns, their fears and their hopes so that they were reached by the favor of the forces that govern the cosmos. They wanted to invoke, please and worship the divinity. Their intention was not profane, that is a modern development that acquires the bill of rights since Galileo. Sooner or later, their intention was always sacred, i.e. separated from the quotidian and focused on the primary or "primordial".
That's why we call the modern world as materialistic; but while the spirit was what guided the paths of man, art was, in a greater or lesser manner, religious as both in Egypt and as in Greece and Rome, and from the mysterious rock art to the Aztecs or Mayas or the primitive Kmehr.
When Christianity filled the mystery with meaning, with Logos, art multiplied and was perfected to express it, but it did not change its intention. It acquired the forms with which we know it, forms that modern evolution made grow apart from their original objectives. That is how the religious art became a different specialty from the profane.
At one time or another and with one or other intention, many Argentine artists ventured into the genre to show typical chapels or popular demonstrations of faith, and even to occasionally express their devotion, but few have cultivated the genre in a consistent and persistent manner according to traditional canons. Having made incursions with its exhibitions in those generically religious senses, EGA wanted in this opportunity to put into consideration of the community the Sacred Art in the latter and strict sense, namely: What constitutes artistic expression that could not only take place in the temple, but properly be the subject of devotion of the faithful. The representation of Jesus-Christ, His Immaculate Mother, the saints, and the mysteries of our faith.
For it EGA has met manifestations of those who did so with explicit intention: Fray Guillermo Butler, Norah Borges, Horacio Butler, Ballester Peña, Aquiles Badi, Walter Gavito, Jorge Larco, Francesco Parisi, Francisco Vidal, Pedro Outerelo and selected works of those which they promptly cultured as Stephen Koek Koek, Dominguez Neira, Mariette Lydis, Lola Frexas, Eugenio Daneri, Gaston Jarry and others.
In November last year, EGA presented the first part of this diptych of Argentine Sacred Art with an exhibition focused on the mysteries of Christmas, led by the enchanting picture of Fray Guillermo Butler on the Holy Family; four months later it takes place the second part, centered in the mysteries of the Easter of Our Lord.
Well, since the spirit breathed into man and while he kept the common sense, he was clearly aware of his indigence, his smallness and weakness, and his dependence. And in turn, the concern of their intelligence pointed to unravel the most pressing questions and the most interior desires of his being: a certain and safe destination, a reality that meets his expectations, the achieving of happiness. In short, a Salvation of cosmic dimensions, far superior to modern palliatives, tiny imitations of the infinite longing of the spirit, aspirins to relieve the unlimited pain of the salvation lost in exchange for promises of an illusory social justice, civilization of comfort, or benefits to all. Medicines much more malicious and dangerous than the "opium of the people", which was the name applied by Marx to that reality intuited by men since the beginning as the only remedy to their proper human problems: Religion.
That's why since man expresses himself plastically, what reflects is the sense of mystery that he expresses with what he has on hand, with the means of expressing that his culture allows him. He cares not to reproduce beings around as such, nor stories to communicate news; this is a modern interest of what we now call science, which had to first go through the abstraction of positivism in order to prevail. What our ancestors wanted was to express their concerns, their fears and their hopes so that they were reached by the favor of the forces that govern the cosmos. They wanted to invoke, please and worship the divinity. Their intention was not profane, that is a modern development that acquires the bill of rights since Galileo. Sooner or later, their intention was always sacred, i.e. separated from the quotidian and focused on the primary or "primordial".
That's why we call the modern world as materialistic; but while the spirit was what guided the paths of man, art was, in a greater or lesser manner, religious as both in Egypt and as in Greece and Rome, and from the mysterious rock art to the Aztecs or Mayas or the primitive Kmehr.
When Christianity filled the mystery with meaning, with Logos, art multiplied and was perfected to express it, but it did not change its intention. It acquired the forms with which we know it, forms that modern evolution made grow apart from their original objectives. That is how the religious art became a different specialty from the profane.
At one time or another and with one or other intention, many Argentine artists ventured into the genre to show typical chapels or popular demonstrations of faith, and even to occasionally express their devotion, but few have cultivated the genre in a consistent and persistent manner according to traditional canons. Having made incursions with its exhibitions in those generically religious senses, EGA wanted in this opportunity to put into consideration of the community the Sacred Art in the latter and strict sense, namely: What constitutes artistic expression that could not only take place in the temple, but properly be the subject of devotion of the faithful. The representation of Jesus-Christ, His Immaculate Mother, the saints, and the mysteries of our faith.
For it EGA has met manifestations of those who did so with explicit intention: Fray Guillermo Butler, Norah Borges, Horacio Butler, Ballester Peña, Aquiles Badi, Walter Gavito, Jorge Larco, Francesco Parisi, Francisco Vidal, Pedro Outerelo and selected works of those which they promptly cultured as Stephen Koek Koek, Dominguez Neira, Mariette Lydis, Lola Frexas, Eugenio Daneri, Gaston Jarry and others.
In November last year, EGA presented the first part of this diptych of Argentine Sacred Art with an exhibition focused on the mysteries of Christmas, led by the enchanting picture of Fray Guillermo Butler on the Holy Family; four months later it takes place the second part, centered in the mysteries of the Easter of Our Lord.
Javier Bocci
April 2013
