- December 22, 2024
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Church of the Redeemer isn't anti-museum, emphasizes Rev. Charleston Wilson.
However, he said, the church believes sacred art is meant for the soul, as did Japanese printmaker Sadao Watanabe (1913-1996).
He said that is why the church was excited to receive a donation of 24 of Watanabe's works from member and attorney Hugh Culverhouse Jr., as the church announced Sept. 13.
“We're over the moon about it," Wilson said. "He's a really collectible artist, and (his) story is just beautiful, and it fires on so many cylinders for us."
Yet these works are a departure from conventional Christian artwork; Watanabe's stencil prints depict biblical scenes in mingei, or the Japanese folk art style, and in the context of Japanese culture.
Works by Watanabe hang in the permanent collection of the Vatican Museum, and according to Church of the Redeemer, have been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the British Museum in London.
Wilson said the church's collection of Watanabe's works, which features both original paintings, and prints created by the artist, may be the largest in the world, surpassing the Vatican's.
The public will be able to experience the artwork with the planned transformation of a hallway in the church's Robinson Center into a permanent gallery.
“I don't know if we're going to get all 24 there, but we're going to try,” Wilson said.
He said in addition to the paintings themselves, the story and context behind them is significant as well.
Watanabe’s father died when he was just 10 years old, after which point he began working in a factory dyeing clothes. After a neighbor invited him to church, he was baptized at age 17.
He attributed his recovery from tuberculosis at a young age to the grace of God, and resolved thereafter to devote his life to sharing his faith.
His prints, which he created with dye on handmade mulberry paper, made him one of Japan's most successful artists of the latter half of the 20th century.
His works translate biblical scenes into a Japanese context. For instance, one of his prints portrays Jesus and his disciples seated around a table of sushi and sake during the Last Supper.
“I think it's always important for us to remember that God is for everyone, that the the Gospel is meant to reach the ends of the earth, and that includes every race, nation and culture under the sun,” Wilson said. “It gives us also the ability to recognize that everybody is precious in the sight of God, every race and nation and culture. Every human being is made in the image of God, and so when we see art in a different idiom, it renews that sense of appreciation.”
Wilson said the gallery will do justice to the medium, with lighting that brings out the wrinkled texture of the paper.
"One of the challenges in displaying this art is really getting getting the framing so you can appreciate the texture,” Wilson said. “You've got to frame it in such a way that the viewer feels like he or she has touched it.”
The church has a long tradition of members and friends donating artwork, which extends back at least 75 years, Wilson said.
For instance, a painting by Peter Paul Rubens, depicting the The Holy Family, hangs in the church’s sanctuary.
The painting was left to the church by the mother of Arthur Everett Austin Jr., who was the first curator of the Ringling Museum.
Its counterparts can be found at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, and at Windsor Castle, Wilson said.
Another work found in the sanctuary is a small-scale reproduction of "Ex Nihilo," the sculpture by Frederick Hart overhanging the entrance to Washington National Cathedral.
Wilson is glad to see these new works joining its collection.
"(Watanabe) is on record as saying he wanted his art to hang in places where people routinely met, where ordinary people went, and with with frequency," Wilson said. "So what better place than a church where people come on a frequent basis, for his art to hang?”
