Culture is
what holds us together, preserving language, thought patterns, ways of life,
attitudes, and symbols. It is celebrated in arts, music, drama,
literature and life. It constitutes a collective memory of the people, a
collective heritage which will be handed down to generations to come. (
The World Council of Churches-Vancouver Conference in 1983)
One of my
favorites is by the Lithuanian artist Antanas Kmieliauskas (b.
1932), which shows people surrounding the Mother and newborn Child, most
probably people he knew well. I love the subtle, almost pastel
colors. Antanas was a professor of Vilnius Academy of Arts, National Prize
winner of Lithuania,
and one of the most comprehensive Lithuanian painters of the 20th C.
He worked in many media from painting and sculpture to graphic art.
The bulk of his art, particularly the works of his religious
art, has been undeservedly ignored over a long period of time. The artist's
original creation based upon both fundamental classical and Modern European art
traditions is a significant part of the fine arts of Lithuania as well as of Lithuanian
culture on the whole.
Another
interesting and very different work is by the Aboriginal artist Greg
Weatherby (b. 1942). “A daring, original work
that sets Jesus Christ’s birth in the Central Australian outback. In bold,
earthy colors native emus, goannas (lizards), kangaroos and Dreamtime Beings
pay homage to the new-born Child. Millions of stars illuminate the Great
Ancestor’s omnipresent hands while presenting the divine Gift to Aboriginal
Spirit parents near legendary Uluru”.
Greg is one
of the most renown of Aboriginal painters. His work uses a kind of hatching and
dot painting that is very common there and was traditionally painted onto skin
for ceremonial reasons. The method itself is significant, as it reputedly
withholds or encodes information in the dot patterns.
Greg’s Aboriginal
heritage is Walbanga from the far south coast of New South Wales, and his tribal totem is the
shark.
The Japanese artist Yo (Hiroshi) Iwashita (b. 1917) was basically a stencil and wood block artist known for his rich textile patterns of a type of folk art, often using humor. I love how the Virgin Mary seems to have her hand on Joseph, as if acknowledging his protection of her and the Child.
Cesar Torrente Legaspi (1917-94) was a Filipino National
Artist in painting. He was also an art director prior to going full-time in
his visual art practice in the 1960s. A pioneer “Neo-Realist” he is remembered
for his singular achievement of refining cubism in the Philippine context.
Legaspi belonged to the so-called “Thirteen Moderns” and later, the
“Neo-realists”.
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| C. Legaspi |
His distinctive style and daring themes contributed
significantly to the advent and eventual acceptance of modern art in the Philippines. He made use of the geometric fragmentation technique, weaving social
comment and juxtaposing the mythical and modern into his overlapping,
interacting forms with disturbing power and intensity.
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| S. Raj |
Solomon Raj
from India (b. 1921) uses batik and
woodcuts, cheap materials that are readily available. He depicts Jesus amidst
the refugees and suffering people.
Rooted in
his love for the Gospel and his appreciation for his Indian heritage, he has
spent a lifetime telling us to see and to believe. He is a master at
intercultural communication taking stories buried in his heart of faith and
openly sharing them through his unique creative vision.
He has
written: We know that the concept of culture is very complex indeed and
it includes many things such as the community's language, its religion and
ritual, its arts and crafts etc. Culture is a community's world
view, of its hopes and fears, its expectations and shared values. Culture
is like a mass of computer data into which every individual of that community
can draw from. It is a community's collective memory and its stored
heritage which every generation passes on to the next.
