What future for the fine arts?

I have written before of the work of my friend Bob Booth and his venture into Christian art, particularly of his triptych of Descent, Crucifixion and Resurrection.

Bob has bucked the trend described above and has now produced a series of works based on biblical narrative. While recognition from public galleries has been predictably wanting, the church is in the process of embracing him.

The triptych will be hung in the refurbished St Mary’s Cathedral in Perth during lent 2011 and Servite College has bought his “I am your neighbour.” Since the Church exists to proclaim the gospel narrative it finds itself in a prime position to lead the way not to a return to an old aesthetic but to a resurgence of religious painting that has learnt from the progress in painting brought about in the last century and a half.

Bob’s religious paintings do not ape past works although they do share subjects. They are rather an application of the insights of impressionism to traditional subjects to bring about a depth of feeling long absent in contemporary art.