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MOCRA at Fifteen: Good Friday
February 15, 2009 to May 17, 2009
On February 14, 1993, the world’s first interfaith museum of contemporary art opened its doors. Fifteen years later, Saint Louis University’s Museum of Contemporary Religious Art (MOCRA) continues to serve as a forum for the ongoing dialogue between today’s artists and the major faith traditions. MOCRA celebrates this milestone with two fifteenth-anniversary exhibitions drawing on artists and artworks selected from the museum’s 35 exhibitions. In Fall 2008 the first exhibition, Pursuit of the Spirit, set works by over 40 artists in dialogue with each other, exploring themes such as Sacred Spaces, The Sublime, Mother and Child, and Image and Text.
The second exhibition, Good Friday, presents works by over 30 artists of diverse backgrounds who have used the events of the day of Jesus’ death as inspiration for their own reflections on such themes as faith, suffering, loss, compassion, and unconditional love. The selected works are drawn from the MOCRA collection and works on long-term loan, and employ a wide range of media from painting and sculpture to fiber arts.
Some works employ familiar images such as Hans Holbein’s The Dead Christ in the Tomb (1521), or Heinrich Hoffmann’s Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane (1890), while others make use of traditional devotions such as the Stations of the Cross. Many of the artists translate the events of Jesus’ Passion to contemporary situations and draw forth a variety of insights, from the personal to the political.
Artists in the exhibition include:
Peter Ambrose | Craig Antrim | Gryphon Blackswan | Edward Boccia | Nick Boskovich | Sr. Helen David Brancato | Frederick J. Brown | Bill Christman | Salvador Dalà | Michael David | Douglas DePice | Eleanor Dickinson | James Ensor | Nancy Fried | Ian Friend | Daniel Goldstein | Juan González | Luis González Palma | Patrick Graham | Steven Heilmer | Tobi Kahn | Adrian Kellard | Gerhard Knell | Horatio Hung-Yan Law | Stephen Luecking | Jim Morphesis | James Rosen | Georges Rouault | Thomas Skomski | Michael Tracy
Reflecting on Good Friday is a booklet of self-guided reflections on the art included in the exhibition, particularly appropriate for the Christian season of Lent. Partially inspired by the Stations of the Cross, it is structured around six episodes which are reflected in the works in the Good Friday exhibition. For each of these episodes, in addition to a brief summary of the episode and its significance, we provide a a reflection and reflection questions on a related artworks, along with relevant passages from the Christian Bible and space for notes or journaling.
Download a copy of Reflecting on Good Friday.
above:
Installation view of MOCRA at Fifteen: Good Friday at MOCRA, 2010. Photo by Jeffrey Vaughn.
Related programming
Art and the Religious Imagination
Watch and on the MOCRA Voices Vimeo channel
Exhibition |
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Bernard Maisner: The Hourglass and the Spiral |
Georges Rouault: Miserere et Guerre |
Erika Diettes: Sudarios |
Regina DeLuise: Vast Bhutan – Images from the Phenomenal World |
Calligraphic Art of Salma Arastu |
Thresholds: MOCRA at 20 - Part Two, The Second Decade |
Rebecca Niederlander: Axis Mundi |
Jordan Eagles: BLOOD / SPIRIT |
Thresholds: MOCRA at 20 - Part One, The First Decade |
Archie Granot: The Papercut Haggadah |
A Tribute to Frederick J. Brown |
Patrick Graham: Thirty Years – The Silence Becomes the Painting |
Adrian Kellard: The Learned Art of Compassion |
Good Friday: The Suffering Christ in Contemporary Art |
James Rosen: The Artist and the Capable Observer |
MOCRA at Fifteen: Good Friday |
Michael Byron: Cosmic Tears |
Miao Xiaochun: The Last Judgment in Cyberspace |
MOCRA at Fifteen: Pursuit of the Spirit |
Oskar Fischinger: Movement and Spirit |
The Celluloid Bible: Marketing Films Inspired by Scripture |
Arshile Gorky: The Early Years – Drawings and Paintings, 1927–1937 |
Andy Warhol: Silver Clouds |
Junko Chodos: The Breath of Consciousness |
DoDo Jin Ming: Land and Sea |
Rito, Espejo y Ojo / Ritual, Mirror and Eye: Photography by Luis González-Palma, Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, and Pablo Soria |
Radiant Forms in Contemporary Sacred Architecture: Richard Meier and Steven Holl |
Daniel Ramirez: Twenty Contemplations on the Infant Jesus, an Homage to Oliver Messiaen |
Avoda: Objects of the Spirit – Ceremonial Art by Tobi Kahn |
Tony Hooker: The Greater Good – An Artist's Contemporary View of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study |
Andy Warhol: Silver Clouds, an encore presentation |
Andy Warhol's Silver Clouds: A Fortieth Anniversary Celebration |
Lewis deSoto: Paranirvana |
Robert Farber: A Retrospective, 1985–1995 |
Bernard Maisner: Entrance to the Scriptorium |
Tobi Kahn: Metamorphoses |
MOCRA: The First Five Years |
Steven Heilmer: Pietre Sante | Holy Stones |
Utopia Body Paint Collection and Australian Aboriginal Art from St. Louis Collections |
Manfred Stumpf: Enter Jerusalem |
Frederick J. Brown: The Life of Christ Altarpiece |
Edward Boccia: Eye of the Painter |
Consecrations Revisited |
Keith Haring: Altarpiece – The Life of Christ |
Ian Friend: The Edge of Belief – paintings, sculpture, and works on paper, 1980–1994 |
Eleanor Dickinson: A Retrospective |
Post-Minimalism and the Spiritual: Four Chicago Artists |
Consecrations: The Spiritual in Art in the Time of AIDS |
Sanctuaries: Recovering the Holy in Contemporary Art, Part One |
Body and Soul: The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater |
Transformations: Highlights from the MOCRA Collection |
Georges Rouault: Miserere et Guerre |
Georges Rouault: Miserere et Guerre |
Georges Rouault: Miserere et Guerre |
Georges Rouault: Miserere et Guerre |
Visible Conservation |
Highlights from the MOCRA Collection |
Highlights from the MOCRA Collection |
Highlights from the MOCRA Collection: The Romero Cross |
Highlights from the MOCRA Collection |
Highlights from the MOCRA Collection |
Highlights from the MOCRA Collection |
Highlights from the MOCRA Collection |
Highlights from the MOCRA Collection |
Highlights from the MOCRA Collection |
Highlights from the MOCRA Collection |
Sanctuaries: Recovering the Holy in Contemporary Art, Part Two – Three Major Installations |
Beyond Words: Three Contemporary Artists and the Manuscript Tradition |
MOCRA: 25 |
Gary Logan: Elements |
Gratitude |
Surface to Source |
Quiet Isn't Always Peace |
Tom Kiefer: Pertenencias / Belongings |
Double Vision: Art from Jesuit University Collections |
Lesley Dill: Dream World of the Forest |
Jordan Eagles: VIRAL\VALUE |
This Road Is the Heart Opening: Selections from the MOCRA Collection |
Vicente Telles and Brandon Maldonado: Cuentos Nuevomexicanos |
Open Hands: Crafting the Spiritual |
Selections from the MOCRA Collection |