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Visual Arts These articles relate to the role of artwork and architecture in city renewal. The Future of Science . . . Is Art? Jonah Lehrer examines the relation, both historical and current, between science and art. Industrial Gothic An old industrial building in downtown Chicago haunts the historical imagination of author David Gruesel. He asserts that the "architecture of industry" has devolved from thoughtful, humanizing designs to cheap, efficient diagrams built with nothing more than practicality in mind. This, he says, illustrates the uninspiring and culturally negligent effects of 20th century America's darling worldview, Pragmatism. Click here to read more.
Art Museum: Cathedral or Cancer Gruesel asserts that "with the eclipse of religion in the West, the art museum has replaced the cathedral as the building type with the greatest architectural, social, and spiritual significance in a community." He further asserts that their modernist architecture, represented in recent museum additions in Denver, Kansas City, and Toronto, revealing an "unprovoked hostility" toward traditional buildings . Yet it is those more traditional buildings which provide human scale, common purpose, beauty, order, and proportion.
The mad rush to hire of avant-guarde architects has resulted in buildings which are unwelcoming, disorienting, even jarring. Gruesel maintains that a return to more hospitable public buildings will only come as we humbly receive the cultural achievements of the past as gifts rather than as mortal enemies. CRR believes that this sort of internal humbling writ large can only come as a result of spiritual awakening to God's gracious redemption in Christ. The Protestant Reformation, though marked and flawed by the zeitgeist of 16th century Europe, suggests such windows of light. Click here to read Gruesel's article at the Work Resource Foundation web site. [After reading the article, please post your response in our "Forum" section. Perhaps some local public buildings come to mind as you read Gruesel's descriptions. Click here and let us know what you think.] Civic Art and the City of God – Traditional Urban Design and Christian Evangelism by Matthew Alderman (First Things, February 2008)
Matthew Alderman reviews The Architecture of Ralph Adams Cram and His Office by Ethan Anthony, which catalogues the work of 20th century architect Ralph Adam Crams, whose work embodies the Renaissance approach of going back to the sources to revive the artistic imagination of his day. In designing college campuses, for example, Crams looked to the monastic ideal of communal living to remedy the isolated, alienating way of life in modern higher education. “[F]inding beauty in unexpected places and significance in things once discarded,” Crams exhibits a redemptive, humanizing vision that points to the good news of the gospel. Click here to read Alderman's review at the First Things web site.
Giants and Business Parks
A poem on high rises, cathedrals, and the values reflected in modern lifestyles.
Blessedly Unnecessary: The Art of Gregory Blackstock.
by Barney & Worth, Inc. / Regional Arts & Culture Council (Allied Arts of Chattanooga)
* Choral Arts At The Hunter Museum - A Good Idea by Bart Whiteman (The Chattanoogan, March 2005) (* indicates article with local focus)
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