Faith in modern art

Forget crucifixes, angels, and visions of Mary.

Think, instead, of a grainy photo-montage of sports products superimposed on a Wheaties cereal box. Or a pop-up book depicting a crumbling tower surrounded by discarded cat litter, coffee cans, and other trash.

Not exactly the images one might expect to see in a collection of Judeo-Christian art. But perhaps that's the point, according to Gloucester painter Bruce Herman, one of the artists whose works are featured in a provocative exhibition at Gordon College in Wenham called ``The Next Generation: Contemporary Expressions of Faith." The exhibition is part of a larger show, now on tour, from the Museum of Biblical Art in New York City. ``Contemporary artists -- sculptors, painters, photographers -- are wrestling with the ancient themes that Christianity and Judaism addressed," said Herman, 53, a high-voltage professor who heads the art department at Gordon, a Christian liberal arts college, and a leader in the Christian art world. Herman recently received an appointment to an endowed chair for his work in the arts, the first such appointment in the college's history.

``Why are we here? Why are we at war? What's the meaning of my life? Religion tries to answer those questions, or at least respond to them," he said.

And contemporary faith-based art attempts to capture that struggle.

Herman's painting in the exhibition is called ``Annunciation," but it bears little resemblance to the traditional Biblical image of the archangel Gabriel telling Mary that she will bear the son of God. Instead, Herman's version is a striking turquoise, gold, and silver scene, stretched over two panels, with a pensive-looking Venus de Milo figure sitting amid rubble. Observers could just as easily interpret the work as depicting a woman's life in a bombed-out city, such as Baghdad, as they could the story of the Virgin Mary, Herman said. Both involve the timeless themes of life, death, and hope.

Said Herman, ``I want my art to speak to my generation."

Increasingly, contemporary faith-based art is reaching a wider audience, according to museum curators.

``I do see more and more artists dealing with this subject matter, because it's become more and more a part of our culture. It's in the air," said Nick Capasso, curator of the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park in Lincoln.

``The Christian world and the Islamic world are at war," Capasso said, adding that faith ``circumscribes our culture, so it's no surprise to me that artists are taking it on. Artists always take on the important themes of our time."

In 1999, the DeCordova added a Herman painting, ``Embrace, to its collections. The work, of two figures embracing, contains no religious icons or obvious Biblical themes.

``We know the context he places his work in is a Christian context, but as far as we are concerned, it's neither here or there," Capasso said of the Herman painting. ``We collect and exhibit work by significant contemporary artists who live and work in the New England region."

Herman's work, Capasso added, is significant. His paintings can be found in museums and collections far beyond New England, including the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles and the Vatican Museum of Modern Religious Art in Rome.

James Elaine, a curator at the Hammer Museum who works mostly with emerging artists, said he, too, is seeing more work that is apparently faith-based.

``A lot of artists are not direct -- they are not using the iconography we are used to, but there is a lot more spirituality happening in the work that may not be as readily apparent . . . it's in the undercurrent," Elaine said.

For Herman, that undercurrent goes back decades. The New Jersey native grew up in a family that went to church on Sundays but was not otherwise particularly religious. But he can vividly remember an incident when he was 6 and home sick from school. The family was living at the time in Virginia, and he remembers looking at dust particles dancing in a ray of sunlight through the window.

The light was like God, he remembers thinking.

``It was like that was our planets and our stars floating around. And I felt peaceful," Herman said. ``My first language was not words, it was pictures."

Soon, Herman will have a lot more time to create a lot more pictures.

After 22 years teaching at Gordon College, building the art department from scratch, the married father of two grown children will step down as department chairman in January for a one-year sabbatical, followed by six years of teaching just one course a year.

The new endowment -- the Lothlorien Distinguished Chair in Fine Arts -- will pay his salary over the seven years, and Herman said he is crackling with ideas for his next works. But his wife -- ``my best friend," Herman said -- and his colleagues are advising him to go slowly, to think, reflect, pray, and read.

``I tend to be impulsive," he said. ``I have been painting for 30 years. I feel very much alive. It's a great time to be an artist."

``The Next Generation: Contemporary Expressions of Faith" through Oct. 14 at Gordon College's Barrington Center for the Arts. Monday-Saturday, 9 a.m.-7 p.m. 978-927-2300, ext. 4414, or www.gordon.edu/arts_music/ gallery.htm.