Art vs. Entertainment

Yesterday, I listened to an enlightening podcast from The White Horse Inn titled “God in the Gallery.”  Their guest, Daniel Siedell, is an art historian, professor, critic, and curator, and authored a book by the same title. I don’t know how many of you are into art history, but I love the topic. It is one thing that attracted me to the writings of Francis Schaeffer, and I was intrigued to hear Siedell discuss the significance of art from a Christian perspective. I loved his article in the July/August 2013 issue of Modern Reformation, “Listening to the Scream,” and I wrote an article reflecting on it. Siedell’s passion and good discerning eye make me want to learn more from him. And so I was thrilled that The White Horse Inn had him on for an interview. …which of course led me to reflect again. One issue they discussed is our cultural obsession with entertainment. We tend to want everything to capture our attention in an entertaining way so that even the news has become a source of entertainment. When it comes to paintings, music, poetry, and other mediums of art, has our market-driven, consumeristic mentality swallowed up the distinction between art and entertainment? Is there a distinction? Siedell says that a key distinction is a sense of future. Fine art looks behind and forward, whereas entertainment is just satisfying a need for the moment. He goes on to say that fine art is an acquired taste, it challenges us with meaningfulness. Rather than filling our urge for the moment, fine art pushes us. Siedell continues,

High culture is future oriented…What high culture does is it receives from the past and it passes on to the future, and that connection between the past and the future is crucial for high cultural practices. Whether those high cultural practices are traditional or more avant-garde, it establishes that connection between a past and a future through the present expression. And in a culture in which we live eternally in todays, with no sense of yesterday and tomorrow, I think that value of thinking about the past and the future in relationship to the present, which is crucial to understanding high art, is crucial for us as human beings, and as Christians in the church.

He makes the connection, “We go to church, and it’s not just to feed our desires at the moment, we’re connecting with the past, and we’re also looking forward to the future.” Michael Horton concedes that there is a place for entertainment in art, but that is not the objective. Is there something more? Fine art affects us in a way that sticks with us. Have you ever walked away from a painting, a song, or even a sermon, knowing that you have been changed by that encounter? Siedell and Horton talked about how our gadgets are interfering with this experience so that we are always “actors instead of being acted upon.” The big question is: What is art? What does it do? Seidell emphasizes how the “encounter and experience” of art remains with us after we walk away. We are changed by it. Challenged by it. Whereas, the “entertainment framework is disposable.” We don’t remember last week’s status updates, YouTube videos, and even many movies we have soaked in. He highlights the distinction that entertainment points to everyone “out there” but fine art, no matter the medium, points the finger at us. “We’re the problem…And within that context, that’s where beauty comes.” Seidell leads us to the image of Jesus’ broken body on the cross as undermining every human assumption of what is beautiful. In critiquing and admiring art, we know that even though the artists themselves may not be Christians, they are illustrating the human condition in a way so that we don’t just put our interpretation into the art, we are discovered by it. Fine art is like an unveiling of ourselves and the world. "Who are we? What has value?" These are revealing questions. The glam and power of entertainment deceive us. Rather than the theology of glory, Siedell discusses how modern art reflects a theology of the cross that  “opens up a theological space to think about who we are as human beings.” Reflect on that for your weekend.