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![Sanctuaries: Recovering the Holy in Contemporary Art, Part One](/mocra/_img/Sanctuaries-I-installation-toward-nave-560.jpg)
Sanctuaries: Recovering the Holy in Contemporary Art, Part One
February 14, 1993 to April 11, 1993
MOCRA’s two-part inaugural exhibition features more than 100 works from an wide-ranging roster of artists working in styles ranging from traditional Western figuration to minimalist and geometric abstraction. The artists, generally in their 30s, 40s, and 50s, tend to be disillusioned with the celebrity mentality prevalent in the art world today, and in response are seeking the “spiritual.” Their faith or religious practices are not always particularly orthodox, and in fact many draw from various beliefs and philosophies. While pervasive, the movement is not organized, and for the artists the pursuit is risky, personally and professionally.
MOCRA Founding Director, Terrence Dempsey, SJ, notes that, "For some of them, having faith is tough. They have to struggle. These are not commissioned works-they are the work of an artist pursuing personal vision or questions. . . .These artists have often been met with indifference and sometimes suspicion by religious and cultural institutions. Yet they have pursed this exploration even when it was financially unwise. They have done so because they perceived something was in danger of being lost: a sense of mystery, ritual, tradition—a sense that a major dimension of being human was being ignored."
The title "Recovering the Holy" in part alludes to the rediscovery by many contemporary artists of the power of art with a spiritual dimension to engage the viewer affectively. Their art is compelling precisely because of the struggle.
Artists in Part One include:
Seyed Alavi | Lita Albuquerque | Craig Antrim | Frederick J. Brown | Nick Boskovich | Michael David | Stephen De Staebler | Eleanor Dickinson | Donald Grant | Steven Heilmer | Tobi Kahn | Frank LaPena | Charlotte Lichtblau | Stephen Luecking | Bernard Maisner | Ann McCoy | Jim Morphesis | James Rosen | Susan Schwalb | Daniel Smajo-Ramirez | Kazuaki Tanahashi | Michael Tracy | Brian Tripp
Sanctuaries offers an overview of a movement that gained momentum in the 1980s and has grown in strength in the early 1990s. A generation of artists have begun to renew their interest in the religious and spiritual dimensions of art, and within the last dozen years or so they have achieved recognition in the mainstream art world for the spiritual concerns which form the substance of their work. | Terrence Dempsey, SJ
above:
Installation view of Sanctuaries: Recovering the Holy in Contemporary Art, Part One at MOCRA, 1993. Photo by Cheryl Ungar.
Related programming
Episode 6: Ralph Peterson and Jane Daggett Dillenberger
Episode 10: MOCRA Memories - The Early Years
Episode 14: MOCRA Memories - Berkeley
Episode 15: MOCRA Memories - Sanctuaries
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Exhibition |
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![]() Georges Rouault: Miserere et Guerre |
![]() Erika Diettes: Sudarios |
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![]() Calligraphic Art of Salma Arastu |
![]() Thresholds: MOCRA at 20 - Part Two, The Second Decade |
![]() Rebecca Niederlander: Axis Mundi |
![]() Jordan Eagles: BLOOD / SPIRIT |
![]() Thresholds: MOCRA at 20 - Part One, The First Decade |
![]() Archie Granot: The Papercut Haggadah |
![]() A Tribute to Frederick J. Brown |
![]() Patrick Graham: Thirty Years – The Silence Becomes the Painting |
![]() Adrian Kellard: The Learned Art of Compassion |
![]() Good Friday: The Suffering Christ in Contemporary Art |
![]() James Rosen: The Artist and the Capable Observer |
![]() MOCRA at Fifteen: Good Friday |
![]() Michael Byron: Cosmic Tears |
![]() Miao Xiaochun: The Last Judgment in Cyberspace |
![]() MOCRA at Fifteen: Pursuit of the Spirit |
![]() Oskar Fischinger: Movement and Spirit |
![]() The Celluloid Bible: Marketing Films Inspired by Scripture |
![]() Arshile Gorky: The Early Years – Drawings and Paintings, 1927–1937 |
![]() Andy Warhol: Silver Clouds |
![]() Junko Chodos: The Breath of Consciousness |
![]() DoDo Jin Ming: Land and Sea |
![]() Rito, Espejo y Ojo / Ritual, Mirror and Eye: Photography by Luis González-Palma, Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, and Pablo Soria |
![]() Radiant Forms in Contemporary Sacred Architecture: Richard Meier and Steven Holl |
![]() Daniel Ramirez: Twenty Contemplations on the Infant Jesus, an Homage to Oliver Messiaen |
![]() Avoda: Objects of the Spirit – Ceremonial Art by Tobi Kahn |
![]() Tony Hooker: The Greater Good – An Artist's Contemporary View of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study |
![]() Andy Warhol: Silver Clouds, an encore presentation |
![]() Andy Warhol's Silver Clouds: A Fortieth Anniversary Celebration |
![]() Lewis deSoto: Paranirvana |
![]() Robert Farber: A Retrospective, 1985–1995 |
![]() Bernard Maisner: Entrance to the Scriptorium |
![]() Tobi Kahn: Metamorphoses |
![]() MOCRA: The First Five Years |
![]() Steven Heilmer: Pietre Sante | Holy Stones |
![]() Utopia Body Paint Collection and Australian Aboriginal Art from St. Louis Collections |
![]() Manfred Stumpf: Enter Jerusalem |
![]() Frederick J. Brown: The Life of Christ Altarpiece |
![]() Edward Boccia: Eye of the Painter |
![]() Consecrations Revisited |
![]() Keith Haring: Altarpiece – The Life of Christ |
![]() Ian Friend: The Edge of Belief – paintings, sculpture, and works on paper, 1980–1994 |
![]() Eleanor Dickinson: A Retrospective |
![]() Post-Minimalism and the Spiritual: Four Chicago Artists |
![]() Consecrations: The Spiritual in Art in the Time of AIDS |
![]() Sanctuaries: Recovering the Holy in Contemporary Art, Part One |
![]() Body and Soul: The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater |
![]() Transformations: Highlights from the MOCRA Collection |
![]() Georges Rouault: Miserere et Guerre |
![]() Georges Rouault: Miserere et Guerre |
![]() Georges Rouault: Miserere et Guerre |
![]() Georges Rouault: Miserere et Guerre |
![]() Visible Conservation |
![]() Highlights from the MOCRA Collection |
![]() Highlights from the MOCRA Collection |
![]() Highlights from the MOCRA Collection: The Romero Cross |
![]() Highlights from the MOCRA Collection |
![]() Highlights from the MOCRA Collection |
![]() Highlights from the MOCRA Collection |
![]() Highlights from the MOCRA Collection |
![]() Highlights from the MOCRA Collection |
![]() Highlights from the MOCRA Collection |
![]() Highlights from the MOCRA Collection |
![]() Sanctuaries: Recovering the Holy in Contemporary Art, Part Two – Three Major Installations |
![]() Beyond Words: Three Contemporary Artists and the Manuscript Tradition |
![]() MOCRA: 25 |
![]() Gary Logan: Elements |
![]() Gratitude |
![]() Surface to Source |
![]() Quiet Isn't Always Peace |
![]() Tom Kiefer: Pertenencias / Belongings |
![]() Double Vision: Art from Jesuit University Collections |
![]() Lesley Dill: Dream World of the Forest |
![]() Jordan Eagles: VIRAL\VALUE |
![]() This Road Is the Heart Opening: Selections from the MOCRA Collection |
![]() Vicente Telles and Brandon Maldonado: Cuentos Nuevomexicanos |
![]() Open Hands: Crafting the Spiritual |
![]() Selections from the MOCRA Collection |