SACRED ART IN CONTEMPORARY CULTURE

The aim of this course is to encourage a reflection on Contemporary Sacred Art, avoiding preconceptions, trivializations, hasty judgments and identifying possible ways of personal research.

Starting from the main documents of the recent magisterium (from Vatican II to St. John Paul II, from Benedict XVI to Pope Francis), the course deals with the challenges faced by Contemporary Sacred Art.

The first lessons highlight the basic ideas of Christianity towards art, ideas found in Evangelii Gaudium (Pope Francis), in the Letter to artists (John Paul II) and in other documents of the recent magisterium.

Later we will analyze the relationship between the Church and recent history (Vatican II) in a liturgical key. The themes of Enculturation and Ecumenism (relationship with the Orthodox and Protestants) will be dealt mostly in relation to the Contemporary Catholic Sacred and artistic culture.

We will look at the artworks of well-known contemporary artists who use different styles (Abstractionism, Conceptualism, Figurative Art), as concrete proposal to solve the current artistic and cultural conflicts.