A while ago, I received an IM (that’s an instant messege from those who don’t know) from a person that I do not know. He seemed to be simply trying to find someone to talk to, asked me my interests and of course the conversation turned to art.
He claimed to be a Christian and after discussing a few different art forms commented something to this effect: all art that does not give me a better outlook of the world is trash.
I calmly told him that I thought that that idea was surreal, and naive.
I have been reading a book called State of the Arts by Gene Edward Veith, Jr. And in this book he states that “Art, therefore, should challenge the viewer’s complacency about the ‘real world.’”
I tried to explain to the anonymous IMer that the Bible depicts “less than perfect scenes.” Murder, rape, adultery…many things that show us how horrible man can be. So therefore, to me, something like Picasso’s Guernica showing the horrors of war seems to follow along Biblical lines. He is not condoning sin, but showing it’s effects in a horrifying way.
As Christians we should not be content with this world, and art should show that. Yes, we can show beautiful things, but only showing the beautiful and good and neglecting the bad does an injustice and brings man up to a perfect level to which he does not belong.