Public Announcement

Barbara Kruger, “Belief + Doubt” Installation at Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C

If you walked into Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C anytime between August 20, 2012 and the beginning of 2014 then you were greeted with a public announcement. Right as museum visitors walked in the door they were bombarded with Futura Heavy Oblique text enveloping them with questions and directions. Scattered between the white text with alternating black and red backgrounds are black and white images. Most of these images have been taken from vintage commercial photography and other sources that have been appropriated by the creator of this exhibit. But make no mistake about it: the subject of these works is not the image but rather you. You are in the center of this designed art space and indeed central to the aim of the text. The text is all written in the second person point of view... it questions and directs you. This communicative art is the work of Barbara Kruger. The text/image balance in this exhibit is a departure from her traditional works that she is known for. In those iconic pieces the black and white photograph took up the clear lion share of the composition and the white text was placed on a linear red background in a significantly smaller portion of the artwork. These images would then be printed out on a massive scale and posted on a billboard. What her contemporary works and her historic images share is their large sizes. These grandiose pictures are designed to be enormous because of their intended function. They are created to be public announcements of private convictions and queries. Why does Barbara Kruger work this way? Much of it is due to her background. She came from the world of publishing, working as a designer and image editor with Condé Nast Publications. Kruger illustrated the pages and thoughts from writers of such diverse publications as Mademoiselle, House and Garden, Aperture, Ms., Esquire, Newsweek, The New Republic and other Conde Nast publications from over the decades. Barbara Kruger's art is sort of like advertising… but then it’s something different, isn't it? Barbara Kruger wasn't just selling products, images or even ideas. She was selling her convictions. To some her Feminist and political messages all seemed a bit "preachy" at times. By that I mean that she was thoroughly convinced of her convictions and was determined to convince you of these convictions as well. "Preachy" is often used as a pejorative description, yet I don't find the act of preaching to be negative at all. So, what is preaching? Well whether you've realized it or not, preaching is an undercurrent to this very blog (that is about art and religion). Most of the scriptures that I use are from the weekly Sunday liturgical lectionary, used by several Christian groups to aid in preaching through the Bible. Even for those groups that don't use a predetermined weekly readings, all (good) preaching shares similarities. These are similarities that parallel the work of Barbara Kruger. Preaching comes from the text of Scripture. It is an illustration, exposition and explanation of the thoughts of God that have been published into text over the millennia. The Art of Preaching sort of like advertising… but then it’s something different, isn't it? The grandiose proclamation and imagery of preachers are designed to be enormous because of their intended function. They are created to be public announcements of private convictions and queries. These are private convictions inspired by a personal God with a concern for the whole populace. Today we will look into three passages (from today's lectionary reading from the Old Testament, Gospels and Epistles) about diverse practitioners of preaching from the Old and New Testament.    

Message to the Nation






Barbara Kruger's flag at MOCA

Jonah 3:1-10 

"Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you.” So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three-day journey in extent. And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day’s walk. Then he cried out and said, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”
So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. Then word came to the king of Nineveh; and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying,
Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; do not let them eat, or drink water. But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God; yes, let every one turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who can tell if God will turn and relent, and turn away from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish?
Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it."

Barbara Kruger worked in the medium of her posted signs from th\e late 1970’s throughout the 1980’s. Then she embarked on composing an outdoor wall piece for the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles that would embroil her in controversy. Wikipedia describes it as

“In 1990, Kruger scandalized the Japanese American community of Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, with her proposal to paint the Pledge of Allegiance, bordered by provocative questions, on the side of a warehouse in the heart of the historic downtown neighborhood. Kruger had been commissioned by MOCA to paint a mural for "A Forest of Signs: Art in the Crisis of Representation," an 1989 exhibition that also included works by Barbara Bloom, Jenny Holzer, Jeff Koons, Sherrie Levine, and Richard Prince. But before the mural went up, Kruger herself and curator Ann Goldstein presented it at various community meetings over the course 18 months. Only after protests the artist offered to eliminate the pledge from her mural proposal, while still retaining a series of questions painted in the colors and format of the American flag: "Who is bought and sold? Who is beyond the law? Who is free to choose? Who follows orders? Who salutes longest? Who prays loudest? Who dies first? Who laughs last?". A full year after the exhibition closed, Kruger's reconfigured mural finally went up for a two-year run.”

The controversy of Kruger’s politically charged work didn’t just reside within its placement in the neighborhood of Little Tokyo. This flag mural was in Los Angeles, which markets itself as “The Entertainment Capital of the World.” The positioning of the artwork in this media center was critical as a message to the whole nation. Barbara Kruger was being preachy and her sermon was one of collective change. It was a call for America to be the America that it marketed itself to be in its founding documents. It was a visual message for the 1990’s that rhymed with a vocal message from the 1960’s. On August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr., stood in front of the Lincoln Memorial in the capital of the United States and made a similar plea. As weaved noted on this blog’s weeklong celebration of the sermons of Dr. King, he was indeed a preacher. This speech was indeed a sermon. In arguing for racial, social and economic justice, Rev. King not only referenced the nation’s founding documents and laws as his witness but he also cited the law of God cited in the biblical document. Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream speech didn’t just apply to the city of Washington D.C. This sermon was delivered in the United States’ central district of federal government. The positioning of the artwork in this power center was critical as a message to the whole nation. It’s coverage by the leading media (television, radio, newspaper) outlets in the leading Western country promised that it would also be a message to current and future generations to the world. Listening to Dr. King’s dream of a possible future reminds us of the visions preached by the prophets of old in Scripture. One of these prophets, a man named Jonah, found himself in a similar situation as Martin Luther King, Jr. We often miss the overall message of the book of Jonah because often times our focus is on the story of the fish who swallowed him. That point is important (Jesus even thought so), but it is just one example of the overall theme that the book presents. Jonah was called to preach to the city of Nineveh, capital of the Assyrian Empire. He was sent by God to tell them that their city would be destroyed. The tension in the plot of the book is that Jonah was an Israelite, a people that was oppressed by the Assyrian Empire. It would appear that an Israelite would relish in the opportunity to proclaim the coming doom upon the cruel Assyrian regime. Yet, both Jonah and the people of Nineveh both understood the terms of this message. They understood that the message of doom was conditional. For underneath this message of impending calamity was the offer of repentance. The message of Jonah, the message of Dr. King and the message of Barbara Kruger was the same. If we collectively repent of our wrongs then we can be saved. That is what good preaching does.

Image Appropriation





Barbara Kruger, “Untitled (Not Cruel Enough)

Mark 1:14-20
 

"Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”

And as He walked by the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. Then Jesus said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” They immediately left their nets and followed Him.

When He had gone a little farther from there, He saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who also were in the boat mending their nets. And immediately He called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants, and went after Him."



Now I don’t want to give you the impression that Barbara Kruger changed her working methods once the 1990’s came. Quite the contrary, with public recognition now blowing wind into her sails she floated onward with the same tools that she had come to master in the 1970’s. The greatest of these tools was the appropriation of the imagery of others. And not just any others, Kruger chose others that represented an iconic era or were iconic and icon makers themselves. I believe that the best example of this was her picture of Pop artist Andy Warhol , “Untitled (Not Cruel Enough). This image drips with irony like a leaky faucet. Andy Warhol was both famous and infamous for not actually doing his own artwork. Now a good many artists have employed the use of assistants from the old masters like Peter Paul Rubens  to the contemporary mega-artists like Damien Hirst. Yet Warhol may have outdone them all because his career-long quest was how to get others to do his work or completely remove the hand of the artist from the process (by the way, I happen to like Warhol). Andy also used popular cultural images, like Campbell’s Soup cans and Coca Cola bottles to create his universal imagery (hence the name Pop Art). At every level, Warhol was appropriating the imagery of others. So Barbara Kruger one-up'd him in death and appropriated his own image and myth. Touché’ Barbara, touché’! She created an image about image making and image makers. And since the Art Industry is very much so the Art Community then it became an image about image making and image makers for the image makers. In short it was a message to the messengers. One of my preacher buddies has made me aware of a similar phenomenon occurring in the world of religious messengers (preachers). Preaching itself has its own subculture that popular culture and even parishioners may be unaware of. I pride myself in attempting to learn about all Christian traditions, however, the preacher subculture that I am most familiar with is the one that Martin Luther King, Jr. was born into. This is the world of Black Baptist preachers. Not only was Dr. King a Black Baptist preacher but so was his father, grandfather, great grandfather, brother and one of his sons. I am most familiar with this group because I am also the son of a Black Baptist preacher. And even though the ministerial lineage continues into history past (like Dr. King), the denominational affiliation does not (my father’s father was a Methodist preacher, while my mother’s father was a Presbyterian minister who converted to a Quaker clerk of meeting… Touché’ Dr. King, touché’). So getting back to my story, my buddy (who is a Black Baptist preacher) informed me about a Black Baptist preacher named H.B. Charles. Along with being a pastor, quality expositional preacher, Southern Baptist and seemingly Reformed/Calvinist in his theological leanings (yet I can’t confirm this), H.B. Charles is a very active blogger and podcaster (The On Preaching Podcast). In addition to these endeavors, H.B. Charles' greatest contributions to contemporary preaching are the interviews that he does with preachers. You can pull up any of these videos on YouTube and get a peek into preacher subculture as he chats with the old greats of pulpiteering as well as promising young pastors. The interviews are quite candid, intimate and diverse in subject matter since they cover the wide array of experiences of preachers. One subject that has come up in the interviews and on the podcast is the single act that defines what preachers do the most: preaching. In watching these preachers discuss their craft you gain a greater appreciation for a preacher's second greatest tool. A preacher's first great tool is the word of God but his second greatest tool is the same as that of Barbara Kruger and Andy Warhol: cultural appropriation. Sure they may use different homiletical terms like illustrations and pop-cultural references, but in the end they are still taking imagery from the world at large and using it to paint the picture of the text of Scripture. So as H.B. Charles interacts with these professional homileticians you see a story develop. It is a story about preachers interacting with preachers about preaching. It is a narrative about messengers and their message. It is the contemporary reenactment of the scene that we see play out in the Gospel of Mark 1:14-20. We find ourselves in the midst of a story about John the Baptist, Jesus and the Apostles (Andrew and Simon Peter). The beginning chapter of this Gospel is yet another story about preachers. Specifically it is the end of the story of a preacher (John the Baptist), who prepared the way for another preacher (Jesus Christ), who was the culmination of all of the preaching that had been preached before (by the Prophets) and commissioned a new generation of preachers (the Apostles) to preach of the new age that had its foundation in his redemptive death. In initiating the call of Simon Peter Jesus appropriates an image from Peter's ordinary, daily life and paints a prophetic picture of his future destiny. Peter was a fisherman but in a clever use of wordplay Jesus promises to make him a fisher of men. He would be the one to cast the net of the Gospel abroad and gather a harvest of souls for the kingdom. But Jesus isn't the only one borrowing images in this story. The author of the gospel appropriates the repetitive imagery of the community of preachers that is all throughout the Old Testament (from Moses and Aaron to Elijah and Elisha all the way down to Jeremiah and Baruch). So what is the actual content that this imagery is being used to communicate? What is the message of the messengers? What is it that preaching actually tells us?

Changing the World



Barbara Kruger, L'empathie peut changer le monde (Empathy can change the world)



1 Corinthians 7:29-31
 

"But this I say, brethren, the time is short, so that from now on even those who have wives should be as though they had none, those who weep as though they did not weep, those who rejoice as though they did not rejoice, those who buy as though they did not possess, and those who use this world as not misusing it. For the form of this world is passing away."

Barbara Kruger's preachiness was not exclusive to this side of the Atlantic. In 1994 she brought her message overseas to the subways of Paris. Under the foundations of the City of Light, Kruger publicly announced  the illuminating foundation of hope. She posted her work entitled L'empathie peut changer le monde, which translates to "Empathy can change the world." Once again she was making a call for change to a corporate body but this time it was for more than one nation. Barbara Kruger was no longer in Los Angeles proclaiming that America must repent, she was now in Paris (arguably the cultural capital of the entire world) and she was inviting the world to change. It was indeed a message to the message makers. It also came with two underlying and unstated presuppositions. First was that everything must change. Secondly was that everything could change. And the agent of that change would be Empathy. The motivating factor for universal change would be compassion for others. Kruger isn’t the only controversial preacher of systematic change travelling throughout our cities. About a year ago I started to become familiar with another such figure. This was through a discussion with another preaching buddy of mine (but this one is a Catholic deacon). He asked what  As common custom in the preacher subculture we occasionally discuss whose sermons we have been listening to or books we have been reading. He mentioned a familiar name that had been influencing his thinking lately. The preacher that he referenced was not a Catholic at all but was an Evangelical like myself… but not without distinct and contentious differences.  It was a the Post-Modern, Emergent church, pastor/writer Rob Bell. I had definitely been familiar with Bell since about 2008 and had definitely been avoiding him ever since. I had seen some of his NOOMA videos in an adult Sunday School class and read his first book Velvet Elvis. He and his fellow Hipster Christians were asking a few new questions of the Church and publicly announcing that everything must change. They based their argument on the fact that we had officially crossed over into the Post-Modern era of thinking some time ago and that Modern and Pre-Modern approaches to Christianity would not reach the world. In short they were saying that everything about the Church must change because everything about the world around us had already changed. Now being the good, judgmental, non-thinking Evangelical that I am I initially headed the warnings of many fellow theologically conservative protestants and stayed suspicious of these guys. After all, it is always safe to be suspicious of everything before you have given yourself time to read it over and reason through it. And to be honest, Rob Bell does have a few nontraditional views on things like Hell and is at best vague and noncommittal on a few other key theological issues. Yet in spite of this I did start reading him more and listening to a few more sermons. Then I encountered a training series for preachers that he held (and captured on five videos) entitled “Poets, Prophets and Preachers.” These videos were a game changer for me. The change that it asked the church (specifically preachers) to embrace was rather more of a resurrection. This resurrection was a reclamation of the art of the sermon. The sermon was something to rethink, re-embrace and reinvigorate because we had formerly failed to appreciate what the art form truly was. Preaching is a means of God communicating his Word in spoken form. His Word (the Bible) is the textual representation of His Word (Jesus/God the Son). Jesus, the Word, was God communicating His Grace toward Mankind. So when a preacher can fully appreciate and communicate the intricacies of God’s communication to us, then he can aid in the transmission of God’s compassionate grace to the lives of individuals. A preacher helps place the foundational building blocks of the Kingdom of God in the hearts of men. For that foundation to be laid, and the Holy Spirit to work in a believer’s life all of the old must be torn away. Everything must change.  Alas long before Barbara Kruger and Rob Bell there was another controversial preacher who argued that everything must change (in us) because everything has changed (around us). This preacher’s name was St. Paul. In the epistle of 1 Corinthians 7:29-31he says that “the form of this world is passing away.” This is Paul’s way of saying that everything is changing and it is God who is doing it. Strangely enough Paul comes to this conclusion after answering a reader submitted question about abstinence and celibacy earlier in the letter. In true Pauline fashion, he finds a way to tie in every other issue facing the Church in his answer to the issue at hand. Paul appears to personally be an advocate of celibacy but he says that those who are married should stay married and submit to one another. Then he marches through several other examples and shows how in every possible station that one finds himself in life (married, single, slave. free, etc.), the response should be to live for others, live with compassion and live with empathy. All of our traditional ways of behavior and roles must be revolutionized in consideration of the life of Jesus. Everything must change for the sake of Christ: this includes our interactions with and considerations of one another. Everything has changed because of Christ: our interaction with God’s mercy and our disconnection to the guilt of our past sins. So what is it about Jesus that  changed everything? His empathy. It was Jesus’ empathy for our estate: his ability to understand and share our feelings that saved us. For it was because of his empathy that he not only shared our temptations and suffering but he also took upon the punishment of our sin. Christ’s empathy and compassion is what lead him to die for us on the cross. So what change must we make in gratitude? We must have empathy for others. We must submit to others in love because Christ submitted to the death of the cross for our love. We must relate to the trial and struggles of others of others because Jesus took upon our suffering and shame. We must seek to joy and benefit of others because Jesus gave up his riches in Heaven so that we might enjoy the eternal riches of God’s love. Jesus had empathy and it changed the world. This is the content of preaching.

Group Show

The above posted video is of the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C days and hours before August 20, 201. It is before any museum visitor walked in the door to be bombarded with Futura Heavy Oblique text enveloping them with questions and directions. The footage is of the scores of workers who laid out the vinyl posters that comprised Barbara Kruger’s public announcement. It may have taken one artist to conceive and design the artwork but it would take a team to implement the installation. That is the underlying truth beneath all of the Scripture readings for today: the preaching of the Gospel takes many participants. Through the Old and New Testament readings we have encountered many preachers of different positions. There were prophets, scribes, rabbis, apostles and evangelists all employed in the act of preaching. All of them worked together over time to fully reveal God’s public announcement. It was a public announcement of the offer of repentance: an invitation to change. It was a public announcement that you are called to a community of couriers: an appeal to be a messenger of mediation. It was a public announcement of the age of compassion: a proposition to live in and by Grace. Yet the public announcement is not complete if it does not have a viewer and listener to receive the message. And the receiver must decide if he will believe and act on the message. Most likely you are not a member of the preacher subculture that I have discussed in this blog post. Maybe you are not even a member of the Christian community at all. If so then you are the intended audience of God’s public announcement that he has sent through preachers throughout the years. He has created his greatest work of art just for you. Would you accept this free gift?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Martin Luthe King Week: Sermon #4

Michael Dickins and Dawn Martin Dickins. Martin Luther King 

graphite, charcoal, oil pastel, woodblock ink on wood panel

In the middle of the Gospel of Luke, the author shares a story about Jesus where he is was called to be the arbitrator of an inheritance. In response Jesus shares his own little story about a Rich Fool  :

Then one from the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” But He said to him, “Man, who made Me a judge or an arbitrator over you?” And He said to them, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.” Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’ So he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’ “So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”

Those of you who are familiar with Scripture may be used to Jesus using to literary tool of parables. Dictionary.com defines a parable as such

1. a short allegorical story designed to illustrate or teach some truth, religious principle, or moral lesson.

He did not invent them nor was he the only one to use them. They are even used by other figures in Scripture. However, Jesus is unique in that he doesn't always use them in conventional ways. Sometimes he publicly told parables and then explained their meaning, as to illustrate a truth. Sometimes he publicly told parables and did not explain their meaning to the crowd as a judgment. He would then explain the true meaning to his Disciples in private when asked. And still there are others where the author of a gospel doesn't share the explanation or gives a one line explanation to a whole elaborate story. This is one such parable. The author of Luke has Jesus explain the parable in the final line as “So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”

In all of these cases the job of explaining these stories has fallen upon the preachers, teachers and theologians over the centuries. That is the background to Martin Luther King, Jr.'s sermon "Why Jesus Called a Man a Fool." It is an explanation of Jesus' Parable of the Rich Fool. In exposing the text of Jesus' story, Dr. King also shares much of the story of the Civil Rights Movement and the story of his own sufferings. The theme of both the parable and the sermon are refusing to rely on oneself and recognizing our reliance on the Lord.  

Why Jesus Called a Man a Fool from Sweet Speeches on Vimeo.

Martin Luther King Week: Sermon #3

Tim Crawley, Martin Luther King, Jr. statue
over the west entrance of Westminster Abbey,
London, England, United Kingdom

In his poem "Harlem", the great Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes once wrote:

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up

like a raisin in the sun?

Or fester like a sore—

And then run?

Does it stink like rotten meat?

Or crust and sugar over—

like a syrupy sweet? 

 

Maybe it just sags

like a heavy load.

 

Or does it explode?

Martin Luther King, Jr. also wondered about dreams deferred, unrealized and unfulfilled. I am not sure if he was inspired by the text of Hughes' poem, however, I can confirm that he indeed was inspired by the text of Hebrew prose. Specifically Dr. King was stirred by the story of King Solomon's retelling of his father's (King David) dream to build a temple for God. Alas this was a dream that would remain unfulfilled for David. God did not grant him the opportunity. It was destined for his son Solomon to accomplish. Yet God did honor the intention of David's heart. That is the setting for Dr. King's sermon "Unfulfilled Dreams" that delves into our individual and corporate aspirations for good and great things... aspirations that never achieve manifestation. Yet God honors our frustrated yet earnest intentions. This is one of Dr. King's greatest expressions of the Scripture's grasp of Mankind's spiritual frustration. Enjoy!   

Unfulfilled Dreams from Sweet Speeches on Vimeo.

Martin Luther King Week: Sermon #2



Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, Lei Yixin 

Today's sermon from Martin Luther King, Jr., entitled the "The Drum Major Instinct", was delivered  Sunday, February 4, 1968 at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia. Though he was no longer a head pastor like his days at Dexter Ave. Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama (giving the thrust of his ministerial efforts to leading the national Civil Rights Movement) you can still see Rev. King's pastoral care in the construction and delivery of this message. Like the great religious orators of his era, King painstakingly typed out his sermons word for word on an old Angela Lansbury style typewriter  Even with being a "manuscript preacher", Dr. King delivered with a mixture of robust grandiosity, punctuated with intimate familiar charm that cannot be achieved while gazing at a script. This combination of meticulous preparation of dynamic delivery are the marks of a minister who not only cared about his message but also for his flock. This ladies and gentlemen is the grand art of homiletics. But what would homiletics be without sound hermeneutics? Good and Godly art must possess both style and substance (the style must carry the substance and the substance sanctifies the style). Which brings us to the content of his message. This is where the pastoral heart shows through. And bigger than that, this is where a true disciple's heart shows through. For the center of King's message about "The Drum Major Instinct" is taking the Gospel of Jesus Christ seriously. And if we take Jesus (the humble, peacemaking, sacrificing, servant of God) seriously, then we too must be humble, peacemaking, sacrificing, servants of God. Jesus believed that we can only achieve greatness when we chose to be the least for the sake of God and others.  


The Drum Major Instinct from Sweet Speeches on Vimeo.

Martin Luther King Week: Sermon #1

Martin Luther King, Jr., John Wilson          etching and aquatint with chine collé

This week began with the holiday celebration of the American Civil Rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr. Recently many have rightfully argued against diminishing his legacy by turning him into a safe, one dimensional, flat character. Dr. King was many things: a champion for racial equality, an advocate for peace, an activist for economic justice, a proponent of racial integration and interreligious cooperation. And yet all of these things are just parts of his primary calling: a preacher. Rev. King was a believer and practitioner of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In as much he attempted to bring his perspective of the genuine message of the Messiah to the masses of his age. This week I will be sharing a few speeches that shed light on Martin Luther King, Jr. as craftsman of sermons.
 

Movement



Jackson Pollock, August 8, 1949 Life Magazine

John 1:35-42

 

 

The August 8, 1949 issue of Life Magazine featured a story that would introduce Middle America to a rising Art phenom. Yet in his pop-culture debut, Jackson Pollock is shortchanged by the cynical intentions of the magazine editors. The writers of Life Magazine were not parading Jackson Pollock around as a savant but just a plain idiot. They were giving the Average Joe American a chance to laugh at the seeming foolishness of East Coast elite. The Art World was aloof and obscure and this article would set that truth in print. When the caption asked “Is he the greatest living painter in the United States?”, it did so to be provocative and rhetorical. It is set under the enormous, wall length, Action Paintings of Pollock that would be read as “chicken scratch” by the uninitiated average American. The intention is to get a resounding “No!’ from the reading audience. And why not? This was no Norman Rockwell that every flag waving, apple pie baking, baseball playing, red-blooded American could embrace. This new form of Abstraction was for more contemporary European tastes. And the rest of the article follows with this undertone. Yet that is exactly where it starts to get the story wrong and shortchange its readers. Jackson Pollock was doing something that was now decidedly American. His so called Action Painting was not only centered on movement but was also the byproduct of a Movement. He was in fact not a solitary madman but rather a member of a movement that was turning the world upside down. Jackson Pollock was an Abstract Expressionist and a member of the generation known as the New York School. These young radicals were moving the center of the Art World from Paris to New York… where it still resides. These aesthetic revolutionaries were known to gather in the Cedar Tavern bar in Greenwich Village, New York City where they celebrated the new future of Art history over drinks. A lot can be accomplished when a group of students set out change the world with revolutionary ideas. When men and women become moved by a substantive Movement, they themselves can be transformed to be movers and shakers. The book of Acts records a similar occurrence. People throughout the Roman Empire from Hebrew speakers of Palestine to the Greek speakers of Asia Minor all wondered about the students of a movement that had “turned the world upside down.” Wherever they travelled, these disciples were known to gather together and celebrate the new Kingdom of God through bread and wine. They were diverse students from differing backgrounds like Paul, Barnabas, Silas, John and Peter. None was a solitary religious guru but rather all were members of one school. What they shared in common was a movement: Christianity. When each sought to express themselves through writing (Gospel or Epistle) or speech, it was an effort to explain the story of the origins of their movement. When anyone asked why they were turning the world upside down, the answer was the same: Jesus.   

 

The Gate, Hans Hofmann

Push/Pull

Again, the next day, John stood with two of his disciples. And looking at Jesus as He walked, he said, “Behold the Lamb of God!”
The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. 

The story of New York’s rise as the capital of the Art World and America’s coup d'état in the Abstract Art World does not even begin with Americans. It begins with Europeans. First it begins with the old guard of Modern Art, ex patriots that settled in the United States due to the wartime turmoil in Europe. Figures like Picasso the Cubist and Dali the Dadaist could now be seen making the rounds amongst the New World’s intelligentsia, bourgeoisie and cultural elite. The young art students of New York took note. These were not the only European Modern artists to take up residency stateside. There were also others, like Hans Hofmann, who were less successful but apt to teach. Hoffman was a German who had learned and practiced the principles of Cubism. Hofmann is known for his own paintings but his greater impact on history was his teaching of the future Abstract Expressionists. Hofmann’s signature idea was that of the push/pull, described as so:

Blue on Grey, Hans Hofmann

“Hofmann believed fervently that a modern artist must remain faithful to the flatness of the canvas support. To suggest depth and movement in the picture - to create what he called "push and pull" in the image - artists should create contrasts of color, form, and texture.”

The painters of this generation were a mixed lot stylistically. There were Action Painters like Pollock, overly expressive painterly types like DeKooning but also Color Field painters like Mark Rothko and Helen Frankenthaler. The element that unifies the whole movement was the commitment to expression that did not fight against the flat surface. It was paint that was to be appreciated as paint and not an illusionistic medium of representation. The thing that unified Abstract Expressionists was found in the ideas of Hans Hofmann. It can be said that The New York School was the mind of Hans Hofmann. We can also make a similar argument of two rabbinic schools in first century Palestine. Whether they were disciples of John the Baptist or of Jesus Christ, the thing that unified both diverse camps was their subject. Both schools were directed to focus on the person of Jesus Christ. John the Baptist revealed that the Messiah and object of his preaching was Jesus. John had his own Hans Hoffman approach to his teaching… his own push/pull. He saw himself as a precursor to the Messiah: to push them towards repentance and preparation for the Messianic Age. When Christ appeared, he pulled those disciples to himself. It is critical that we understand this fact: the objective of Jesus’ ministry was to get his disciples to follow him because he was the actual content of his teaching and sermons. Everything that Jesus alluded to in his preaching was to be found in him. The Kingdom of God, faith, mercy, love, forgiveness… it all was to be found in him. Jesus believed this and John the Baptist believed this. The pull toward Jesus is a return back to God

Lee Krasner, White Squares,

The School

Then Jesus turned, and seeing them following, said to them, “What do you seek?”They said to Him, “Rabbi” (which is to say, when translated, Teacher), “where are You staying?” He said to them, “Come and see.” They came and saw where He was staying, and remained with Him that day (now it was about the tenth hour).

The student of Hans Hofmann that best exemplifies the diversity of the Abstract Expressionists (in one career) was Lee Krasner. This Brooklyn native and daughter of Russian Jewish immigrants would alternate between stages of creating painterly, expressive and almost patterned expressions (described as all over style) and then switch to more loose, liquid and free Color Field paintings.


Lee Krasner, Vernal Yellow (from Solstice Series),

Lee Krasner prides herself as knowing every painter that was painting in the Abstract style in New York in those days. In that idea we see how tight knit this diverse movement of artists that we loop under the umbrella of Abstract Expressionism really was. They were not just a generation of painters…they were a community. This informal, disparate community may have been varied in many things but they seemed to have been unified in their tutelage from Hans Hofmann’s ideas. Therefore we refer to them as a school: The New York School. We currently understand a “school” to be a solitary institution, housed in a building where individuals (often) pay tuition to be instructed by teachers. However the historical reality of schools has often been much different. In the artistic, theological and philosophical traditions a school may not have restricted to occurring in a solitary building. Sometimes it occurred out in the world in open air classrooms. It may have occurred in a boat, in a treasury or at a dinner party. Sometimes tuition was not collected or even required. Sometimes it repaid more than it cost. A school is an environment where learning is received from a mutually agreed upon authority. It is when a group recognizes and values the voice of one as a teacher. When Jesus turns to the (former) disciples of John the Baptist (who have been following him around), he asks them “What do you seek?” They responded “Rabbi”… as if to say “a Rabbi.” Now there are several reasons to seek out a rabbi, because rabbis fulfill many functions. They could have been looking for someone to perform a circumcision, marriage, share a sermon or any of several other tasks. But they were looking for a specific function of this clergyman. Noting that confusion may ensue as to their aims in pursuing Jesus as a rabbi, the author of the gospel translates the word Rabbi as a specific role. The narrator defines it as “which is to say, when translated, Teacher.” This group, along with several diverse others from this generation would follow Jesus, recognizing him as a teacher. It must be understood that the followers of Jesus were (and continue to be) a school. Christianity is a place of spiritual learning and practice. Following Jesus comes with the intention to do both. Following Jesus starts with the recognition of his authority over your life and your submission to his teachings.    

Blue Poles, Jackson Pollock

Transformational Meeting

One of the two who heard John speak, and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his own brother Simon, and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus.

Now when Jesus looked at him, He said, “You are Simon the son of Jonah. You shall be called Cephas” (which is translated, A Stone).

 

Lee Krasner was not just an interesting figure because of her connection to Hans Hofmann but also to Jackson Pollock. She was his family. More specifically she was his wife. When she introduced Jackson Pollock to Hans Hofmann he reportedly said (in near unintelligible German accent), “You do not work from nature. This is no good, you will repeat yourself. You work by heart, not from nature.” To which Pollock responded, “I am nature.” The initial meeting between Jesus and St. Peter went about the same way. The teacher walks into the room and promises to change the individual who is not yet his student. This is one of the accounts of the changing of Peter’s name from Simon to Peter

Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner

(or at least Simon Peter). Once again the narrator interjects to give us the original intention of the characters speaking despite the language difference. The writer shares “which is translated, A Stone.” Lee Krasner probably found herself in a similar circumstance as the gospel writer, playing interpreter. She later shared that although she signed up for Hans Hofmann’s live model, painting class, she could not understand a word of what he said for about six months. I imagine that Jackson Pollock also found it hard to understand Hofmann as well and relied on Lee Krasner, the student who understood the teacher’s intentions. And lo and behold that is why the gospels were written. The first generation of Christians, be they the Apostles or other disciples of Jesus, set out to explain the message of their teacher, Jesus, to others. And we as their modern-day listeners must also decide if we (just like) Simon Peter will chose to be transformed by our meeting with Jesus. Andrew was not just an interesting figure because of his connection to John the Baptist but also to Simon Peter (St. Peter). He was his family. More specifically he was his brother. The narrator tells us that when he introduced Simon Peter to Jesus as the Messiah, the Christ. The author once again does his restrictive translation because he understands that this is the only way to understand who Jesus was. And when you truly understand and follow Jesus as the Lord and Christ, it will transform you.   

Number 1, (Lavender Mist). Jackson Pollock

Movement

Jackson Pollock's paintings are not merely paintings...they are recordings. They are recordings of his every movement with paint. They are a testament to every drip, spill, pour and brush stroke. You may not like Pollock's artwork but you must admit that this is a man who was convinced of what he was doing. Jackson Pollock painted with so much bravado, courage and expression because he was a man who had been inspired. He was one of many who had not only been given a reason to turn the world upside down but also possessed the tools to do so. He had always been a man of dangerous and destructive tendencies but while he was yet inspired he channeled this energy into creative pursuits. It was only when he ceased to be inspired and stopped being creative that his dangerous pursuits turned lethal. So I ask you, if you are a Christian: do you feel the desire to turn the world upside down? You should, because you have been given the tools to do so. The same transformative teaching that the original disciples of Christ received is available to you today. The same inspirational presence of God that motivated them as unstoppable movement back then in here with you now. They committed themselves to learning the message of Christ and practicing the message of Christ. This message was that the Kingdom of God had come down to Earth. This Kingdom was dispelling the forces of darkness. However, this Kingdom could only be seen by the eyes of faith. Maybe our inability to see the Kingdom as they did is due to the fact that our eyes are closed. We are too busy dreaming of God taking us away to Heaven that we don’t realize that Heaven wants to rule the everyday Earth that we reside in. Maybe our inability to act as citizens of the Kingdom is due to our lives being entrenched in sin. It appears that this may be the lesson that we can learn from both Jackson Pollock and the early Christians. The followers of Christ continuously pursued creative channels to channel their faith. They stayed inspired, courageous and expressive of their belief in Jesus’ message. The great tool that their teacher had given them was the Movement based around his teaching. It was a Movement expressed in the transformational moves made in their lives and the world. And if you let it, the Movement will move you.