Where Art Thou, ART?

I had the opportunity of going to the J. Paul Getty museum. For any of you who know me, it comes as no surprise when I say that my favorite thing there was the August Sander photography exhibition. He took amazing portraits of people from twentieth century German society. I am an aspiring photography portraitist, so his work was tremendously inspiring. It was lovely walking through the museum and studying paintings, photographs, and other works of art.

Walking through the video portion I was at times intrigued. But more often than that I was irritated, appalled, conflicted, or sometimes just plain baffled. At the time, I'm not sure that I even realized why some of these "works of art" caused me to feel this way.

David had previously sent me a link to the blog named Desiring God. The link was to an entry entitled 9 Reasons I'm a Photographer. It talks about The Gospel of Jesus Christ being the ultimate source of inspiration for an artist. Makoto Fujimura dives deeper into this subject in his essay Ten Commandments For Artists. In it he says, "art is a gift from God and therefore needs to be honored." This statement made me think of why I was so troubled by some of the things I saw at the Getty. Whether in a subliminal or blatant way, simply put, these works were not honoring God. All too often I hear people excusing an action because "it is art". But really, it isn't at all. How could a person call something art if it is not at all God-honoring?

God gave us the imagination, creativity, and individuality to have the capability of being artists. Why then should we create something that is not of Him and for His glory? Art must be a means of inspiring godliness, liveliness, and change. If it is tearing souls and minds down, it cannot be called art.