VIDEO: July's AOA Meetup? Oklahoma City

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By Ernest Disney-Britton

OKLAHOMA - The next AOA Meetup is in Oklahoma City, July 7-9 and features a visit to the largest exhibition ever on the Holy Bible. The Oklahoma Museum of Art exhibition, "Passages: Sacred Texts of the Bible" includes original materials and interactive robotics to bring the stories to life as never before. Other highlights of this month's Meetup include visiting the Oklahoma City Hindu Temple, Buddhist Monastery and the Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City; as well as a movie & coffee dialogue around the newly released film, "Tree of Life" staring Brad Pitt. To join the AOA Meetup in Oklahoma City, RSVP at meetup@alphaomegaarts.org(by July 5) and I'll send you the OKC schedule, or follow me @ErnestBritton on Twitter.

One of the 14,000-square foot maze of rooms at the OKC Museum of Art
created to take participants through centuries of Bible history.

Esther's Scroll

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Book Review: "Rome by Robert Hughes"

THE TELEGRAPH
By Mathew Sturgis

"Rome by Robert Hughes" (November 1, 2011)

ITALY - Robert Hughes made his first visit in 1959 as an ardent young Australian who had never encountered a proper piece of religious art. And, like Goethe before him, he felt born again. Now, 50 years on, he has produced a hefty book on the city: Rome. The suggestive monosyllable stands unencumbered by any subtitle, and prompts one to wonder which – or how many – of Rome’s myriad faces he will be writing about. A hotchpotch cultural history of the Eternal City would have been more convincing had it been briefer [link]

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Egyptian Artist, Shawky on Display at Liverpool Arabic Arts Festival

MIDDLE EAST ONLINE

Jerusalem’s ‘Al Masjed Al Aqsa’ mosque spinning on an axis.
The work deals directly with a number of complex religious issues.

UNITED KINGDOM - Wael Shawky, one of Egypt’s most prominent contemporary artists, will be displaying a selection of his work at the Walker Art Gallery from July 1 to August 29 as part of the Liverpool Arabic Arts Festival. Shawky has exhibited internationally, with shows at the Venice and Istanbul Biennales. His work is concerned with the complex relationship between politics and religion, fundamentalism and capitalism, religious ritual and the role of media. It examines transitional events in the medieval and modern history of the Arab world, such as the first Crusades of 1096-1099 and the 1981 assassination of President Sadat. These themes have come into sharp focus through the recent upheavals in Egypt and the Middle East. [link]

On display at Walker Art Gallery, from the Caberet Crusades Series

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Museum of Biblical Art's July Celebrations of King James Bible

AOA NEWS

NEW YORK - The Museum of Biblical Art and the American Bible Society are commemorating the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible by presenting a series of free events in July. Since its first publication in 1611, the King James Bible has become one of the most significant books in history. It was designed to be the common translation that united Bible readers everywhere. The KJB has become an enormous influence, not only on the English language, but also on churches and cultures throughout the world. All programs, unless otherwise noted, will take place at 1865 Broadway at 61st Street, in New York City. [More]

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Bay Area Artists Paint the Legacy of Quran as Peace

TRI-CITY VOICE

CALIFORNIA - American artists tracing their ethnicities from Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, China, Europe, Africa and the United States of America participated in an Art Exhibit, organized by a local non-profit, Islamic Art Exhibit. "We have so much diversity in the Bay Area Muslim community. In order to showcase their artistic talents and display the many characteristics of Islamic Art, we invited them to participate in an Art Exhibit based on the common theme of Peace," says Nabeela Sajjad, its founder. Providing a number of verses from the Quran for inspiration and a set of rules, 41 artists submitted 75 pieces of artwork. One hundred Muslim children from the Bay Area also participated. Their theme is based on a song called "A is for Allah" by Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens). [link]

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John 5:1-15 (Wilt Thou Be Made Whole?)

Todays verse for me is a good reminder that God is always working in our lives. We sometimes take a blessing as turn of good luck. We need to look deeper and know through our Savior all things are made possible and good!

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A&O Meetup to Evansville: June 18, 2011

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By Disney-Britton

"Spirit of Cain" by Thomas Henderson, collection of Evansville Museum of Arts

On June 18, I led our monthly A&O MEETUP, and this time we headed to Evansville, IN. The Meetup included stops at Temple Adath de Isreal, St. Marys Catholic Church and First Presbyterian Church as well as a tour of the Evansville Museum of Arts, History, and Science. Two highlights of the museum's collection (both below) were, "Spirit of Cain" (above) by Chris Thomas of Henderson, KY (inspired by Genesis 4:9-12) and "David Dances Before the Ark of the Covenant" (below) by Jan De Bray (17c). We capped off the one-day Meetup with an evening of jazz at the W.C. Handy Blues & Barbecue Festival with participants coming from as far away as Chicago.

"David Dances Before the Ark of the Covenant" by Jan De Bray (17c).

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Govt Consider's Rating System for Artworks in Galleries

THE ADVERTISER | HERALD SUN

"Only woman bleed" (2008) By Adam Cullen

AUSTRALIA - The visual arts industry is appalled by a proposal to apply a classification scheme to artworks exhibited in galleries across the nation. In 2008, the inclusion of [Adam] Cullen's "Only Woman Bleed" in the Blake Prize for Religious Art prompted one judging panel member to quit and another label his work "really offensive". Throughout his career Cullen, who in 2000 won the Archibald Prize for his portrait of actor David Wenham, has courted controversy with his works having been described as "crude" and "puerile" by detractors. The 200-page report, released late last week by the Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee, says the defence of "artistic merit" is not enough to allow some controversial works of art to be exhibited, particularly when it comes to those that depict children. [link]

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Masterpieces on Paper at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam

ARTDAILY

Claude Mellan, The veil of Saint Veronica, engraving, 1649.

DENMARK -As part of its Masterpieces on Paper series, the Rijksmuseum presents the exhibition The Secret of Lines. This minor exhibition features 18 masterfully crafted 16th - and 17th-century prints and drawings from the Rijksmuseum collection, which demonstrate the incredible artistic versatility of lines.  [link]

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Critic's Notebook: LACMA's Magical Ardabil Carpet

THE LOS ANGELES TIMES | Blog
By Christopher Knight

Ardabil Carpet, one of the two greatest Persian rugs ever woven

CALIFORNIA - Now's your chance: The breathtaking Ardabil Carpet, an incomparable 16th-century masterpiece that ranks among the greatest works in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's permanent collection, is on view at the museum through Labor Day. It's the centerpiece to "Gifts of the Sultan: The Arts of Giving at the Islamic Court," one of LACMA's big summer shows. This is just the fifth time the carpet has been displayed since its 1965 museum debut. [link]

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China's Ulan Bator is an Art-lover's Paradise

CHINA DAILY

The Monastery-Museum of Choijin Lama is a storehouse of jaw-dropping papier, mache masks and elegant bronze sculptures. Photos by Chitralekha Basu / China Daily

CHINA - At the heart of Ulan Bator is an art-lover's paradise waiting to be discovered. If you stood in front of Sukhbaatar Batbold's now cellophane-wrapped statue in Ulan Bator's central square and drew a circle with a 1-kilometer radius, you would be at the hub of a never-ending exhibition. A slice of the vibrant contemporary art scene in Ulan Bator could be sampled at the Mongolian National Modern Art Gallery in the Culture Palace and the Union of Mongolian Artists' Art Center across the road from National Academic Drama theatre. A slew of art galleries in and around Baruun Selbe Street exhibit and sell images done in oil, watercolor and felt. [link]

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Religious Art Stolen from Connecticut Church

NEWS 8 WTNH
By Tina Detelj

CONNECTICUT - Police in Colchester are looking for the crook that stole more than two-dozen color prints of religious figures and icons from a church. Police say the stolen items were pretty pricey, totaling more than $750. The religious icons were similar to a painting seen in the front entrance of St. Andrew's in Colchester. Religious images mounted on wooden plaques. "They're all from different saints. St. Augustine, or St. Francis," said Helene Soucy-Williams from the St. Andrew Church. [link]

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The Painted History of Carpets

CHRISTIES

UNITED KINGDOM - William Robinson, Christie's International Specialist Head of Islamic Art and Carpets, finds two rare Islamic carpets in portraits from Cowdray Park. Added as decoration and to underline the sitter’s wealth by the artist at the time of painting, these now provide a hugely valuable source of information for the history of carpet making. Contemporary Islamic miniatures did not aim for pictorial accuracy, so European pictures that include accurately represented carpets are absolutely vital to today’s understanding and chronology of carpets – known as tapetology. [link]

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Cross A Day | Day #30 (Final Day)

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By ERNEST BRITTON

My Garage Door Cross

Today's final photo is my "Garage Door Cross", but I may come back from time to time (If Tahlib permits?). I am grateful to Gerda Liebmann, a Christian and NJ artist who was the real inspiration for to do this 30-day project to find My Daily Cross.  It's time to start your own project. Go to Gerda's blog for her Daily Cross rules. She's in her 3rd month, and is doing it for a year!

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Video: Henri Matisse Gallery at the Vatican, Opens After 30 Yrs

GLORIA TV

Window of the Rosary Chapel in France

VATICAN CITY - It has taken roughly 30 years for this exhibit to open, but now the grand opening is finally here. This Vatican room holds a collection of works from the French artist Henri Matisse. It's based on the sketches he drew to adorn the Rosary Chapel in St. Paul de Vence in France. [link]

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Andy Warhol’s Electric Chairs Join the Cross in a Lutheran Church

THE ART NEWSPAPER

"Electric Chair" (1967) By Andy Warhol

FINLAND - In Finland’s medieval city Turku, this year’s European Capital of Culture, four pieces of Andy Warhol’s “Electric Chair” series (1971) have been hang up in an surprising location — the city’s Lutheran cathedral. The works, depicting the execution device from Sing Sing maximum security prison in upstate New York, are hanging in one of the church’s chapels. The display is part of a performance and art exhibition entitled “The Last Supper”, which runs until the end of July. “It might sound like an odd idea and actually the church officials disliked my suggestion at first,” said Perttu Ollila, who curated the show. “But Warhol’s religious side is not that well known by the general public and the empty electric chairs can be seen as an empty cross,” he added. Besides the four “Electric Chair” works, the show includes four works from Warhol’s “Last Supper” series. [link]

Warhol's work is displayed in a chapel of the medieval church (Photo: © Kantti/taloforum.fi)

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Aiming to Spread Judaism One Book at a Time

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Mark Oppenheimer

Todd Parr, at his home in Berkeley, Calif., was commissioned by the PJ Library to write a book.

MASSACHUSETTS - In 2004, Harold Grinspoon, a local real estate mogul, heard a story on National Public Radio about the Imagination Library, founded by the singer Dolly Parton to give free books to children in her native rural Tennessee. The PJ Library, a program of his Harold Grinspoon Foundation, made its debut in December 2005, sending 200 books with Jewish content to interested families, primarily those with young Jewish children. Initially, the books were sent to children in western Massachusetts. The program has grown every month since, and in July the PJ Library will mail 76,000 books to children in every state and across Canada. [link]

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Willie Mays Is No Surfing Madonna

NBC San Diego

Willie Mays may be forever enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame, but as the new face of Encinitas’ “Save the Ocean” campaign, he didn’t last long. An unknown artist recently spray-painted the baseball legend’s face on the same Encinitas wall that once hosted the Surfing Madonna, a popular mosaic that attracted controversy when a Leucadia man mysteriously placed it on public property in April. The Surfing Madonna read “Save the Ocean” in vertical blue tiles, and Mays carried the same message — “’Say Hey’ve the Ocean,” a play-on-words of May’s nickname, “The Say Hey Kid” — before a city worker painted over it Monday morning. [link]

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Vatican Portal Begins Aggregate Church’s News Today

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Associated Press

VATICAN CITY - The Vatican is leaping into the world of new media with the introduction this week of a news information portal that Pope Benedict XVI himself may put online with a click. Vatican officials said on Saturday that Pope Benedict had been following the development of the portal, which will for the first time aggregate information from the Vatican’s various print, online, radio and television media in a one-stop shop for news about the Holy See. The portal, http://www.news.va/, is to be introduced on Wednesday, the 60th anniversary of Pope Benedict’s ordination as a priest and a feast day in the church. [link]

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University Exhibit Showcases Pakistani and Muslim Art

DAWN.COM
By Staff

PAKISTAN - The students of National University of Modern Languages (Numl) displayed their artworks at an exhibition on the campus. Jointly organised by students and the faculty, over a dozen participants displayed almost 250 items of their artworks in different categories such as regional art and craft, miniature paintings and calligraphic works, oil painting, graphic designing, printmaking and flower arrangements. “The aim of this exhibition during summer course is to provide students a chance to showcase their artistic talents,” said student affair committee member, Shazia Rose. The participants showcased their works representing Pakistani culture, Muslim art and modern art. [link]

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Cross A Day | Day #29 (1 day left)

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By ERNEST BRITTON

Stone Path Cross

This is from a short path of stones in my backyard. I started to straighten them out but then I saw the cross in the alignment. After that, I decided to leave it as is. NJ artist, Gerda Liebmann inspired me to start this 30-day project. You can follow My Daily Cross project online or better yet, create your own. Go to Gerda's blog for her Daily Cross rules. She's doing it for a year!

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John 4:1-30, 39-42 (All People are his Flock)

4Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard, “Jesus is making and baptizing more disciples than John” 2—although it was not Jesus himself but his disciples who baptized— 3he left Judea and started back to Galilee.

4But he had to go through Samaria. 5So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon. 7A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8(His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) 9The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) 10Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” 13Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” 15The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.” 16Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” 17The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” 19The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. 20Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” 21Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. 24God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” 26Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.”

27Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you want?” or, “Why are you speaking with her?” 28Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, 29“Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” 30They left the city and were on their way to him. 39Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I have ever done.” 40So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. 41And many more believed because of his word. 42They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.”

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Inking Masterpiece Since the 16th Century in India

THE HINDU

Intricate and ornate: A 47 feet by 11 feet Kalamkari painting. Photo: P.V. Sivakumar

INDIA - This eighth century art continues to be popular even today. Once patronised by the Mughals, Kalamkari now has a niche market. The art of painting on cloth dates back to the Indus Valley Civilization and ancient Greece. Kalamkari, which means work done with a pen, a kalam, is an ancient art of India. There is archaeological evidence of this resist-dyed painting done in the eighth century. The Mughals, especially during the time of Akbar, patronised this art in the Coromandel coast and the Golconda region. [link]

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Marc Chagall's Jewish Lazarus

THE HOUSTON CHRONICLE | ICONIA
By Menachem Weker

Marc Chagall. Resurrection of Lazarus (1910).
Courtesy of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

PENNSYLVANIA - Marc Chagall (1887-1985) included two peculiar elements in his painting of the risen Lazarus. According to Michael Taylor, Muriel and Philip Berman curator of modern art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where Chagall’s Lazarus is on exhibit in Paris Through the Window: Marc Chagall and His Circle, Chagall’s decision to render Lazarus in a Jewish context was absolutely intentional. “Chagall reminds the viewer that the tale concerns a Jew,” writes Taylor, who recently accepted the position of director of Dartmouth’s Hood Museum of Art, in his catalog essay. “A key transitional work, Resurrection of Lazarus anticipates the haunting series of Jewish cemetery paintings that the artist would begin later that decade.” [link]

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30th Anniversary of the Apparitions of Mary in Bosnia

ALLVOICES
By Catspirit

BOSNIA - Today [6/24] is the thirtieth anniversary of the first apparition to six youngsters in the Bosnian village of Medjugorje. While still not accepted as a true miracle by the Catholic Church, believers and pilgrims flock by the thousands this week to bear witness to what they believe is a thirty-year, ongoing miracle.  In 1981, the country of Yugoslavia held the small hamlet of Medjugorje. The country divided, the site of the alleged visitations by the Virgin Mary is in Bosnia-Hercegovina. The ongoing “miracle” has continued every day since June 24th, 1981. [link]

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Rana Riaz Ahmed's Solo Exhibition of Paintings on Islamic Art

PAKISTAN OBSERVER

PAKISTAN - The solo exhibition on Islamic art exploring Muslim heritage by Rana Riaz Ahmed concluded here Sunday at National Art gallery. The show portrayed a collection of 32 exquisite calligraphy paintings presenting a mosaic of technique, style and color to provide the art lovers with opportunity to enjoy the glimpses of the heritage of Muslim Ummah. The exhibition entitled “Dot to Design” featured beautiful calligraphy which serves as the art of writing which earned a unique status in the creative sphere. The artist also donated an exquisite piece of his calligraphic art to the National Art Gallery of Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA). Rana Riaz Ahmed is amongst those practitioners of calligraphic painting who are known for their distinct and convincing expression. Though, he has been in the sphere for quite some time but it was only in 1990s when he took it up serious and devoted himself to excel and introduce a technique “Pointillism” never viewed before in the art of calligraphy. [link]

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Methods of Historiography in Islamic Art

IRAN BOOK NEWS AGENCY

IRAN - Iranian researcher and university professor, Sadegh Rashidi has compiled "Methods of historiography in Islamic art". According to him the book is the first research work which seriously criticizes and studies the methods of Islamic art historiography. Firstly the book presented the historiography methods as 3 styles; descriptive, analytical and historical and then discusses the methods in the Islamic art. He underlined:" In fact the book holds a main question; what were the ups and downs of the Islamic art historiography, which was firstly presented by western historians and what kind of gaps and deficiencies existed in the process." He added:" I believe that knowing the Islamic art and its historiography requires knowing the Islamic culture and civilization. Thus due to the ignorance some western historians have studies the Islamic art with a positivism approach, on the other hand the book somehow evaluates the history of Islamic art historiography." [link]

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Brad Pitt is God in "Tree of Life"

WALL STREET JOURNAL
By Dennis Nishi

CALIFORNIA - Fox Searchlight recently arranged an invitation-only screening in Los Angeles, Calif. for “The Tree of Life,” the fifth film by director Terrence Malick that is set for wide release on July 8. The story is set in Waco, Texas during the 1950s and Malick uses a tragic death in the central O’Brien family to frame an exploration of grace and nature. The studio also invited a multi-denominational panel of religious leaders and writers to offer their theological insights about the film and its director. [link]

Prior to July 8, the film be viewed in the following select cities, including Indianapolis, New York City and Oklahoma City (All Movies)

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Cross A Day | Day #28 (2 days left)

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By ERNEST BRITTON

Glass block Cross

NJ artist, Gerda Liebmann inspired me to start this 30-day project. You can follow My Daily Cross project online or better yet, create your own. Go to Gerda's blog for her Daily Cross rules. She's doing it for a year!

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Catholic "Treasures of Heaven" in England

THE INDEPENDENT
By Adrian Hamilton

Reliquary pendant from the Holy Thorn (c.1340)
Treasures of Heaven, British Museum, London WC1 (020 7323 8181) to 9 October

ENGLAND - To hold an exhibition of sacred Roman Catholic relics in a country with quite so secular and Protestant a history as Britain's was always going to be a delicate affair. Which poses the question for any museum: do you present them as art objects, things of beauty and fascination in their own right, or do you display them as spiritual vessels helping us to understand and feel what the thousands who once pressed to view them believed? "I think it's fair to say that in America the display veered towards the artistic side," says the British Museum's curator, James Robinson. "Here we're trying to be more balanced in both directions – art and devotion." That may owe something to the personality of the British Museum's director, Neil MacGregor, a Roman Catholic with a long-held interest in religious art. [link] Treasures of Heaven, British Museum, London WC1 to 9 October

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Sacred Spaces: Inside DC's Hindu Temple

CNN
By Anthony Umrani

Hindu temple with corresponding dieties

MARYLAND - On a cool spring evening just outside Washington, a steady stream of worshipers arrive at Sri Siva Vishnu Temple for prayers. People are dressed in a mixture of colorful Indian attire and customary Western clothing. In this residential Maryland neighborhood about 12 miles from downtown, the temple stands out with a striking white exterior adorned with statues depicting Hindu gods. In India, a temple is typically dedicated to one particular god, but the Sri Siva Vishnu Temple has many gods to accommodate the diversity of Indian people in the area. "We have a wide variety of congregation and each one of them says, 'I want this god' or 'I want that god,' " said S. Krishnamurthy, one of the founder/trustees of the temple. [link to video]

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Valley of the Lost Scrolls of Dunhuang, China

THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
By Joyce Morgan

Temple Grotto in the Mogao Caves of China

CHINA - The main reason to visit the oasis [Gansu Province of Dunhuang] is to see the nearby painted Buddhist caves. The Mogao Caves, or Caves of the Thousand Buddhas, are a network of sacred grottoes hand-carved into a cliff face about 15 kilometres outside Dunhuang. They contain the world's greatest gallery of Buddhist art. Set in a river valley, the caves, with their precious artwork, are today protected by metal doors. Nearly 500 caves remain, created between the 4th and 14th centuries, each different in size and decoration. Some are tiny meditation cells, just big enough for a lone monk. Others have high ceilings and were able to hold a couple of hundred worshippers. [link]

FAST FACTS

Getting there

• Air China has a fare to Dunhuang from Sydney for about $1200 return including tax. You fly non-stop to Beijing (12hr), then Dunhuang (3hr 15min); Melbourne passengers connect in Sydney. Australians require a visa.
• The author flew to Dunhuang from Shanghai and returned by train, via Lanzhou and Xian, which was booked at the Dunhuang railway ticket office. The two-day journey in a soft sleeper carriage costs $US138 ($130) for a lower berth.

Touring there

•  The author arranged a camel trek and one-day minibus trip to the Jade Gate and surrounds through John's Information Cafe, Mingshan Road, Dunhuang. Most hotels will organise trips.

Staying there

•  The Silk Road Dunhuang Hotel, about four kilometres south of town on Dunyue Road, resembles a traditional fort. Its rooftop bar is a good place to sink a beer at sunset. Double rooms cost from $78.
• Dunhuang Binguan, 14 East Yangguan Road, is a comfortable high-end hotel with double rooms from $110.
• Feitian Hotel, 22 Mingshan Road, is a mid-range hotel in the centre of town with rooms from $40.

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Methodist Youth Ministry Links Art & Faith in Indianapolis

AOA NEWS
By Ernest Britton

INDIANA - Founded by Free Methodists, LYNhouse offers a summer arts program that links art & faith to inspire under priviledged youth in Indianapolis. The LYN House ministry is a multi-age summer youth program called, "Express Yourself." During this program, the students are being challenged to learn about their "God-given strengths and talents" by creating a group mosaic which will retell significant events of their lives. An Open House for the general public will be held on July 11 entitled, "Capturing Inno-sense" which will also include a short performance piece.

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Book Review: "Long Gone"

THE MIAMI HERALD
By Jeff Ayers

Long Gone. Alafair Burke. Harper. 368 pages. $24.99

FLORIDA - Alafair Burke delivers her best book to date with her first stand-alone thriller, Long Gone. In it, Alice Humphrey has landed her dream job: running a Manhattan art gallery. Drew Campbell, who hired her, says the artist of the new photography displays wants to stay out of the spotlight. Though the pieces offend her, Humphrey agrees. Everything is going well until she arrives at the gallery one morning and finds Campbell’s body. The art is gone. The day before, a religious group had protested the photo images. Did the leader of that group have something to do with his murder? [link]

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Cross A Day | Day #27 (3 days left)

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By ERNEST BRITTON

Mat Cross

This one might be a bit abstract but I am see the cross in this floormat outside a neighbors home. NJ artist, Gerda Liebmann inspired me to start this 30-day project. You can follow My Daily Cross project online or better yet, create your own. Go to Gerda's blog for her Daily Cross rules. She's doing it for a year!

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Cross A Day | Day #26 (4 days left)

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By ERNEST BRITTON

Sewer Drain Cross

I was inspired by Gerda Liebmann's comment, "my heart sees the cross everywhere." This sewer cross has multiple meanings, and thanks to Gerda I can feel its power in new ways. You can follow My Daily Cross project online or better yet, create your own. Go to Gerda's blog for her Daily Cross rules. She's doing it for a year!

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RELIGIOUS ART | TALK OF WEEK

AOA NEWS
By Tahlib

AOA PICK OF WEEK:

Controversial artist, Enrique Chagoya's gift of a painting about Jesus as Love to a Colorado evangelical church is among the most talked about religious art stories of the week. Today, you can "comment online" about it (Sunday only). Americans are also talking about:

1. Are recent auctions of Hindu and Islamic artworks a sign of the return of interest in religious art? (Comment online)
2. Is the future for Christian art to be on eBay? (Comment online)
3. Should the city council in Encinitas, CA have forced the "Surfing Madonna" artist to remove the city's most popular mosaic? (Comment online)

Below are the week's best in religious art news. The stories are grouped by the five largest faith traditions, with an additional category for "other".

BUDDHIST ART:

• Ai Weiwei Released from Chinese Police Custody (The Guardian)
• The Naxi of Ancestral China at Rubin Museum of Art, Thanks to a Roosevelt (New York Observer)
• The Buddha: The Story in Manga and Art, Tokyo National Museum (Financial Times)

HINDU ART:

• Birmingham Museum of Art Exhibiting Hindu Deities (The Daily Hindu)
• The Art at Hinduism's Tamil Temple is Deteriorating (North India Times)
• Symbolism in Saffron Clothes or Robes Worn by Hindu Saints (Hindu Blog)
• Green Hindu Goddess Sold for $1.3 Million at Auction (Bloomberg)

ISLAMIC ART:

• Iconography in Islamic Art: Defining Islamic Art for Westerners (Islam Online)
• Three Pages of Koran Woven into Carpet (Tehran Times)
• Islamic Art, Pick of the Month (Muslim Matters)
• Recently Discovered Islamic Art Masterpiece to be Displayed at Pergamon Museum (ArtDaily)

JEWISH ART:

• Final Days for the "Art of Marriage" at NYC's The Jewish Museum (AOA News)
• NYC's Jewish Art Salon Panel Discussion: Diversity in Jewish Art (AOA News)
• $100 Million Face lift Transforms the Israel Museum (The Jewish Chronicle)

CHRISTIAN ART:

• Chagoya's Original Painting, Music Surprise Father's Day Worshipers (Examiner)
• Evangelical Church Accepts Painting from Controversial Artist (The Denver Post)
• Artist, Chagoya's "Uncorrupted" Jesus Unveiled at Church (The Coloradan)
• Video News: 60 Artists for Pope's 60 Years of Service (Rome Reports)
• Serbia's Icon Painting Nuns (AFP)
• Vatican Offers iPODS to Reduce Tourist Noise (The Washington Post)
• ABC's Nightline News to Profile America's Only Marian Shrine (WBAY)
• Unknown Caravaggio's St. Augustine Discovered in Great Britain (Guardian)
• Review: Treasures of Heaven at the British Museum (London Evening Standard)
• Blackstone’s Studzinski Backs British Museum Show of Relics (Bloomberg)
• Jesus Chair for Sale on eBay for $25,000 (Huffington Post)

OTHER ART:

• Cultural Entrepreneurship in Indianapolis (Indianapolis Star)
• The Immovable Surfing Madonna Removed in 2-Hrs Unharmed (Associated Press)
• Artist to Pay all Costs for Removing Surfing Madonna (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• The Solstice isn't what it used to be...or is it? (The Independent)

Do you want to get a daily dose of religious art news? Join me on "Facebook.com" and/or "Twitter.com". Tumblr is coming soon too! The "Sabbath Art News" is a weekly project of Alpha & Omega Project for Contemporary Religious Arts, "connecting artists, faiths and communities" through art.

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Green Hindu Goddess Sold for $1.3 Million at Auction

BLOOMBERG
By Pratish Narayanan

"Untitled (Kali)" by Tyeb Mehta

UNITED KINGDOM - A painting of a Hindu goddess sold for more than three times its estimate at a $4 million online auction by a Mumbai-based company as demand for Indian artworks is boosted by the country’s growing number of billionaires. The green goddess picture fetched $1.3 million, beating a top estimate of $402,300. Rival collectors pushed 53 percent of the lots above high estimates, with 72 percent of the items finding buyers, the Saffronart auction house said on June 21. [link]

*Also read story in Indian Art News

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Music Video: "I Lost, You Win" by @Aoedemuse

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Cross A Day | Day #25 (5 days left)

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By ERNEST BRITTON

China Cabinet Cross

You can see me in the reflection of this image. It's from an oak china cabinet that's for sale, and sits in my garage. It's the first time I saw in it something of value. NJ artist, Gerda Liebmann inspired me to start this 30-day project. You can follow My Daily Cross project online or better yet, create your own. Go to Gerda's blog for her Daily Cross rules.

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New York Makes it 6 States With Freedom to Marry

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Nicholas Conferssore and Michael Barbaro

NEW YORK---Lawmakers voted late Friday to legalize same-sex marriage, making New York the largest state where gay and lesbian couples will be able to wed and giving the national gay-rights movement new momentum from the state where it was born. Just five states currently permit same-sex marriage: Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont, as well as the District of Columbia. same-sex couples could begin marrying in New York by late July. [link]

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Review: Treasures Of Heaven at The British Museum

THE LONDON EVENING STANDARD
By Brian Sewell

Pied noir: reliquary of St Blaise, a 4th century Armenian bishop, c.1260

UNITED KINGDOM - By 1387, or then about, driven by unquestioning belief that the bodily remains of the righteous were lively conduits of the spiritual power that they exercised in Heaven, pilgrims turned to them for the forgiveness of sins and the curing of ills, and were prepared to suffer the physical and often even mortal hazards of journeys on ship, horseback and foot that might take many months to complete. The British Museum's summer exhibition, "Treasures of Heaven," is an astonishing accumulation of these things, beautifully displayed, the soaring dome of the Reading Room seeming suitably ecclesiastical. [link]

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$100 Million Facelift Transforms Israel Museum

THE JEWISH CHRONICLE
By Dina Kraft

Tim Hursley, courtesy of the Israel Museum, Jerusalem

ISRAEL - A tawny sandstone sculpture of Nimrod, an ancient Hebrew warrior and hunter figure with a razor-straight back and proud stare, sits at the intersection between modern Israeli art and native art from Africa and the South Pacific at the recently renovated Israel Museum. The 1939 sculpture by Israeli artist Yitzhak Danzinger is an example of the kind of cultural and aesthetic contextual links that James Synder, the Israel Museum director, hopes to evoke in the reopening of the museum following a $100 million facelift he calls a "renewal." [link]

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'Jesus Chair' For Sale On EBay For $25,000

HUFFINGTON POST
By Eliza Fisher

California couple sells their chair

CALIFORNIA - There's a new object to add to the list of oddities offered on eBay--a chair with the face of Jesus. Lou Balducci of Mission Viejo noticed the image on an old rocking chair in February, reports NBC. He had been planning on throwing the chair away, but instead sent pictures to local news outlets and began showing it to family and friends. Now, after about four months of enjoying the sacred image, he has decided to part ways with it. Balducci and his wife have listed the chair on eBay, at a starting price of $25,000. The hefty price was suggested by an eBay expert, reports NBC. [link]
 

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Blackstone’s Studzinski Backs British Museum Show of Relics

BLOOMBERG NEWS
By Farah Nayeri

UNITED KINGDOM - John Studzinski, senior managing director of Blackstone Group LP (BX) and a cultural philanthropist, is sponsoring the British Museum’s new show on the art of the Christian relic. The exhibition, which features elaborate containers for sacred human remains from 1000 to 1500 A.D., runs through Oct. 9. Highlights include reliquaries said to contain pieces of the Crown of Thorns and the Virgin Mary’s breast milk. “So much of philanthropy is being part of a tribe,” he said. “People do want to be a part of the tribe: They have to decide what tribe they want to be a part of.” [link]

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Cross A Day | Day #24 (6 days left)

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By ERNEST BRITTON

Saturn Cross

Who says a cross has to be perfectly horizontal and vertical? This shot of my car emblem (Saturn) was inspired by a church I saw in Evansville, IN whose cross on the church facade was wrapped around it in a similar fashion. I didn't visit but I would like to one day. NJ artist, Gerda Liebmann inspired me to start this 30-day project. You can follow My Daily Cross project online or better yet, create your own. Go to Gerda's blog for her Daily Cross rules.

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The Immovable Surfing Madonna Taken Down in 2-Hrs Unharmed

SACRAMENTO BEE
By Associated Press

For updates, "click here"

CALIFORNIA - Crews have removed the popular but illegal Surfing Madonna mosaic from the wall of a railroad bridge underpass near San Diego. The San Diego Union-Tribune reports the removal began at 9 p.m. Wednesday and was completed about two hours later. Patterson says the piece was not damaged when it was taken down. [The artist, Mark] Patterson says he will now focus on finding a permanent home for the Madonna. [link]

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Art Review: Artist's Work Removes Man's Interpretation from Religious Text

PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE
By Mary Thomas

Ms. Aylon's "Self-Portrait: The Unmentionable."

PENNSYLVANIA - After considerable thought, Ms. Aylon came to the realization that it was not God's voice that was exclusionary, misogynistic, militaristic -- but man's interpretation over time of that voice. She saved the religion. But she challenged the patriarchy that she believes sullies it. The work that both carried out and represents that save -- simultaneously action and metaphor -- is at The Andy Warhol Museum through Sunday [6/26], part of a 2011 exhibition series in which contemporary artists explore texts of the world's great religions. "The Word of God: Helene Aylon's The Liberation of G-d and The Unmentionable," like the artist herself, has soft insistence fueled by a fire within. But the exhibition's more significant achievement is to reacquaint visitors with Ms. Aylon and is best understood within the context of her life's work. [link]

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The Buddha: The Story in Manga and Art, Tokyo National Museum

FINANCIAL TIMES
By Mure Dickie

Illustration for “Buddha” vol.3 from Osamu Tezuka Manga Complete Works,
1983, BB Kent paper, watercolor, 38.1 x 27cm. Credit: Tezuka Productions

JAPAN - Mounting an exhibition that matches some of Japan’s most precious Buddhist sculpture with the work of a comic book artist might sound like an exercise in going from the sublime to the ridiculous. Not so. Though Buddha: The Story in Manga and Art, which runs until Sunday at the Tokyo National Museum, is certainly an unusual cross-genre exercise, it offers some intriguing parallels between the work of late artist and author Osamu Tezuka and more classical Buddhist iconographers. Nor would many Japanese see anything silly or sacrilegious in this unprecedented exercise in putting manga, as comics are known here, on a level with sacred art. Thanks in no small part to the work of Tezuka – who died in 1989 but is still revered as the “god of manga” – comics and animation are now almost  universally seen as part of mainstream Japanese culture. [link]

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The Naxi of Ancestral China at Rubin Museum of Art, Thanks to a Roosevelt

NEW YORK OBSERVER
By Maika Pollack

Ritual Card; Northwestern Yunnan Province, China

NEW YORK - Chances are you haven’t heard of the Naxi (pronounced NAH-shee), a group of 300,000 people living on the east end of the Himalayas at the boarder of Sichuan, Tibet and Burma. Their religion is a hybrid resulting from this crossroads: Dongba blends Buddhism, Tibetan Bon, Taoism, Confucianism, Mongolian shamanism and local cults. At age 19 Theodore Roosevelt’s grandson, wrote what remains the sole academic dissertation on Naxi art in Western scholarship. He went on to amass the most significant group of Naxi artifacts outside of China. His holdings, mainly those acquired on a 1939 trip through China’s Northwest Yunnan Province, make up this first-ever exhibition of the material. [link]

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NYC's Jewish Art Salon Panel Discussion: Diversity in Jewish Art

AOA NEWS

"Finding Home#89 Vashti (Fereshteh)" by Sonja Benjamin

NEW YORK - On Monday, June 27 at 7pm, The Jewish Art Salon hosts an evening discussion entitled "Jewish Diversity in Art" centering around the works of artist Sonja Benjamin. Benjamin's work is currently on exhibit at The Laurie M. Tisch Gallery at the Jewish Community Center. The event is free. Benjamin's work presents the multi-dimensional identities of Jewish people and she will be part of the panel discussion. Other panel members will include Matthew Baigell, Professor Emeritus of Art History at Rutgers, and author and editor of over 20 books on American and Russian art; and filmmaker Lacey Schwartz. The panel will be moderated by Yona Verwer, president of the Jewish Art Salon. [link]

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Symbolism in Saffron Clothes or Robes Worn by Hindu Saints

HINDU BLOG

HINDU SAINTS generally wear saffron colored clothes. Today saffron color is associated with holy men of other religions too. White is another preferred color by Hindu saints. The choice of saffron robes by Hindu saints has a deep symbolism associated with it. Saffron symbolically represents Agni or fire. Agni is light. A saint ushers in the light of knowledge and leads a person from darkness into light.Another quality of Agni is that it accepts anything and transforms it. A saint similarly accepts everything and purifies and absorbs it. The saint leaves out all that is bad and gives out pure knowledge. [link]

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Do U Text @Church?

UNITED METHODIST REPORT
By Joey Butler

MISSOURI - Most pastors would be upset if they looked up from their sermon notes to find most of the congregants texting on their phones. For the Rev. Mike Schreiner of Morning Star Church in O’Fallon, Mo., that’s just part of weekly worship (http://twitter.com/mscwired). Schreiner invites churchgoers to text him questions during his sermons, be it clarification of a point he made or some other topic. [link]

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Cross A Day | Day #23 (7 days left)

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By ERNEST BRITTON


Horse Cross #23

The small horse farm down the street has a beautiful fence surrounding it. It is sturdy, smooth and unyeilding. The perfect cross reminder. NJ artist, Gerda Liebmann inspired me to start this 30-day project. You can follow My Daily Cross project online or better yet, create your own. Go to Gerda's blog for her Daily Cross rules.

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Ai Weiwei Released: 'Life is never guaranteed to be safe'

GUARDIAN
By Tania Branigan

"Zodiac Heads" By Ai Weiwei,
On display in NYC through July 15

CHINA - Chinese police have released detained artist Ai Weiwei on bail after he confessed to tax evasion and because he suffers from a chronic disease, according to the state-run news agency. Beijing police said they released him on bail "because of his good attitude in confessing his crimes" and because he has a chronic illness, Xinhua news agency reported. No mention was made of his whereabouts. Ai's detention on 3 April sparked an international outcry. He vanished after he was detained by police at Beijing airport. [link]

'Life is never guaranteed to be safe'
~ AI WEIWEI (March 2010)

• Reports: Chinese artist Ai Weiwei freed  (Aljazeera)
• Ai Weiwei Release, "Not Linked" to Chinese PM's visit to Europe (The Guardian)
• Dissident Chinese Artist Is Released (The New York Times)
• Artist Ai Weiwei released, Chinese police say (Christian Science Monitor)

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