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 extincti...