The Art of Creation

Stimulating one day conference organised by the National Gallery at King’s College London bringing together academics and practitioners from artistic, theological and ecological backgrounds to discuss how three paintings from the gallery reflect themes of creation.

The conference was the culmination of this year’s Art and Religion Research programme which had had been discussing the topic via three paintings; Rachel Ruysch’s “Flowers in a Vase” (1685), Claude Monet’s “Flood Waters” (1896) and Van Gogh’s “Long Grass with Butterflies” (1890). Although the networks are closed, they had opened this conference to a wider audience. At times I found it a bit too philosophical for me but as I typed it up I realise I had got a lot of new ideas from it and new things to think about when looking at pictures.

The format of the day was three panels with two speakers on each talking about one of the pictures. The Ruysh speakers set up opposing arguments about whether the work was about extinction or creation and how that could illuminate wider current ecological issues.

The Van Gogh session looked at the nature of resonance and how this can relate to art alongside an artist who had done a residency at a Christian community where she used materials made for the land around her to draw the trees on the site.

Then finally panel was less successful as it compared the Monet to South African poetry. I think I was quite tired by then and didn’t understand the link which I think was a purely philosophical one and possible not one Monet would have understood either. This was pared with an interesting discussion on some verses from Job around the questions God asked of him and how we can compare those to the questions artists ask about the world around them, I think.

The best session was a keynote lecture by the curator of the recent St Francis exhibition reflecting on the effect of it and what they had learnt from it. He gave some wonderful insights into how he chose the contemporary pieces, what conversations between works he was trying to set up, and the effect the show had had on people. He talked about finding people praying in front of St Francis’s habit which was in the show and how he felt that every time he went into the show there seemed to be a friar there.

 

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