What does it mean to talk about religion in art today? Throughout the twentieth century, many art critics and art historians helped define modernism in Europe and the United States without any reference to religion. Concurrently, a great deal of modern and contemporary art practices engage with religious and spiritual themes. Through the different perspectives of a theologian, an artist, and art historians, this symposium explores the interdisciplinary relationship of art and religion and reopens the meanings of modernism in relation to the conditions of cultural and religious life within which it emerged.
Speakers:
James Elkins, E.C. Chadbourne Chair of the Department of Art History, Theory, and Criticism, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Paul Pfeiffer, Artist
Anthony B. Pinn, Agnes Cullen Arnold Professor of Humanities and Professor of Religion at Rice University
Pamela Smart, Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Material and Visual Worlds, Binghamton University
Moderated by Donato Loia, 2019–20 Vivian L. Smith Foundation Fellow at the Menil Collection and PhD candidate in Art History at the University of Texas at Austin.
This program is free and open to the public. Seating is available on a first-come first-served basis. Further information regarding accessibility and parking can be found here.