According to the organisers of the exhibition, artists did not abandon religion after the birth of the modern movement - around 1900 - but were, in fact, quite often preoccupied with religion, if only sometimes in order to attack it.
The exhibition, appropriately, is being held in a cruciform space in the large Gothic Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam's Dam Square. All the works are on loan from the city's Stedelijk Museum of Modern Art - which is currently closed for renovation - and they would otherwise not be on view at all.
So the exhibition is doing the public two favours: it is allowing us to see the art and it is inviting us to look at the art in a new context. How interesting, for example, to stare into a 'Harmony in Blue' (RE10) by Yves Klein and at the same time read in the guide book that the artist was interested in Rosicrucianism and Alchemy. We are also told of Piet Mondriaan's interest in Theosophy, of Marc Chagall's Hasidic heritage, and of video artist Nam June Paik's desire to turn television into a medium of meditation.
Unmistakably the work of Dutch artist
Piet Mondriaan
The organisers point out that this is the first time the Stedelijk has devoted an exhibition to religion and that this links up with the growing interest in issues related to religion in our society today. But this approach is bound to spark off some discussion.
Vague definition
For one, the organisers use the words 'religion' and 'spirituality' interchangeably. This is rather annoying, for it is inaccurate. Religion is vaguely defined to include "the five established world religions" and even love of nature, as well as a nebulous number of "western esoteric beliefs" including hippy New-Age, Kabbalah and Freemasonry.
Televisual meditation - artwork by Nam June Paik
Hence a rider on horseback in a watercolour by Kandinsky is supposed to refer to ancient Russian shamanism, and a drip abstraction by Jackson Pollock "inevitably recalls" the ecstasy of Native American dance rituals. The suggestion that Jeff Koons' 'Ushering in Banality' is a satire on the entry of Christ into Jerusalem is truly far-fetched.
In every stroke
Most people can see that Damien Hirst's skulls might have something to do with relics, but this exhibition sees religion in every brush stroke. Art is a spiritual force on its own, and its authority does not depend on or derive from religion. It is true that religion has been a major source of inspiration for art, but art has also enriched religion, and the age of secularism has consistently produced deeply spiritual art.
Shaky wonder
This exhibition might have a shaky premise, but just the same it is wonderful to see these works again. The Stedelijk has been closed too long, and it is refreshing to revisit the Gilbert&George, the Bill Viola, the Joseph Beuys and so many excellent works that deserve to be appreciated in their own right.
And after the exhibition, the visitor can choose a memento: a Buddha, a dashboard Jesus, or 'Zen hand and body lotion', for example, all on sale in the museum shop at the Nieuwe Kerk.
Marijke van der Meer
Radio Netherlands
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The new exhibition Holy Inspiration - Religion and Spirituality in Modern Art, currently being held in Amsterdam, challenges the notion that there is a natural conflict between religion and modernism in the arts.
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