The Church and the Art of Today

Sacré Art Contemporain: Evèques, Inspecteurs et Commissaires

By Aude de Kerros
Jean-Cyrille Godefroy Editions (2012)

From France – where at least some still think deeply about matters of the mind and spirit – comes a new shot in the culture wars. Aude de Kerros is a renowned artist (in painting and graphic works) and a cultural critic. In this extremely up to date account of the intrusion of the profane into the sacred in France, she tells us about the progress of conceptual art in France, how it became a dogma, the adoption of such “art” by the state for its own purposes and finally its takeover of the sacred spaces of France as facilitated by a subservient conciliar clergy. Although this is the specific focus of the narrative, de Kerros tells a story that has a much wider application. By the end of Sacré Art Contemporain the reader will have learned much about the nature of art, those forces in the market, the state and the Church that destroyed it in the last generation and the interrelationship of art and the sacred. And even something about those who are now struggling for art’s rebirth.

What occasioned this book were the recent unprecedented protests in France against the tidal wave of blasphemous artworks and plays – including, of course, Andres Serrano’s “Piss Christ.” A French public that had become habituated in taking direction in matters artistic from their ‘betters’ rose up in protest and even destroyed the offending works. It seemed that the unending series of outrages finally had goaded the public into action, even at the risk of being labeled as “reactionaries” and ignoramuses by the establishment. How did this unheard-of aesthetic “tea party” come to be?

It is a reaction to “contemporary art” – which de Kerros distinguishes from Modern Art. Contemporary Art has roots in certain personalities of the Dada and surrealist eras. It rejects concepts of form and beauty. Indeed, whether it is “art” at all is unclear, because it seeks to convey ideas and concepts (“conceptual art”) rather than create any kind of form. Instead of making anything, its practitioners use “found objects” and create “installations”. And what Contemporary Art seeks to do is to disturb, to trouble and to divide (Romeo Castellucci). “In a universe a prey to contradictions, an aesthetic advocating beauty and harmony would be hypocritical.” (Robert Brownstone”). There is an obsession with the blasphemous and the scatological, the sex organs and the anus.
Such tendencies in art had in the past been understood by its enemies and supporters alike as the reflection of revolutionary, antireligious developments. More recently, however, the adepts of Contemporary Art have attempted to see it as a manifestation of the “sacred.” But their understanding of “the Sacred” is not at all “religious.” Rather, it is immanent, “a kind of sacred drive preceding religions, free of all rationality and order,” “where the pure and the abominable are joined.” “The effects of the transgressive are a part of this “Sacred.’”(Sacré Art Contemporain at 11) When art reflecting such concepts is introduced into the magnificent sacred spaces of France – the cathedrals, monasteries and parish churches of earlier, greater ages – it can have only one objective and effect: to call the beauty of the art and architecture into question, to challenge and displace it.

Now de Kerros presents the progress of Contemporary Art and reveals the forces standing behind it. She shows the immediate source of the current incarnation of this art in the market of New York: France now functions as a provincial outlier of the New York scene. And precisely here we begin to a second thing radically new about Contemporary Art. For the blasphemers are no longer bohemians like the surrealists or beatniks of yore. Rather, they dispose of ample funding furnished by well heeled collectors and galleries in New York and France. The French state gives them domination over the state-controlled and financed art scene of France. And the subservient French Church collaborates in bringing their work and “installations” into the churches of France. Thus, an unholy trinity of the market, the state and the Church sustains “contemporary art” in France and gives it a near monopoly on major commissions. What was once supposed to be the protest of a fringe is now official dogma.

The Church in France, in its eagerness to “inculturate” and to “dialogue” with “modern culture,” has opened its doors to this art. Indeed, churches have become favored locations for exhibits and installations – what better places for the transgressive and the scandalous? What the Church spokesmen totally ignore is that Contemporary Art is not some cultural fact or “given” but a very specific instrument subject to the control and direction of the state and of civil society. This attempted “dialogue” of the Church with Contemporary Art – like so many others with modernity – is one-way street in which the state and economic powers impose their vision on the Church. De Kerros’ reflections here are of particular importance and have an application far exceeding the specific context of this book. It is a fundamental critique of the modus operandi of the Conciliar Church

De Kerros’ descriptions of some of these events makes entertaining if revolting reading. Consider the exhibit “The Virgins of Christmas” which took place at the famous Parisian church of Saint Sulpice 2011-12. Seven artists were invited to “revisit” plaster statues of the Virgin Mary. One “artist” repainted his statue in the colors of the rainbow – the symbol of gays. The state was covered with hearts, crosses and other signs derived from the art of Keith Haring which has its own secret sexual code. On the back of the statue was painted the devil giving a “thumbs-up” salute as if to say: “He’s won!” On the base of the statue four faces of demons appear. Public displeasure at the show was vented not so much at this “artwork” but at another statue of the Virgin clad in a burka…

De Kerros writes in a clear and entertaining style, free of jargon and pretention. The author is no reactionary in art nor does she end in despair. Rather, she introduces artists and critics – both established and of a new generation – who are “coming out of the woodwork” to challenge by word and artistic deed the hegemony of Contemporary Art. So this important work ends on a surprisingly inspirational and optimistic note. But de Kerros is clear: the Church cannot accommodate itself to a totalitarian Contemporary Art without denying her very essence. A choice must be made between the transcendental sacred open to the Divine, truth and beauty and the bogus immanent “sacred” of Contemporary Art. Finally, what can one say of the true artist who elects to continue to work in the face of the totalitarian system of Contemporary Art? De Kerros answers in a beautiful conclusion to her book: “It is an adventure in a far-off land, a poetic deed, heroic and human… It is an act of hope. One may lose, may die – but it doesn’t matter. There can be no question of renouncing a divine gift.”