The Ark

Unlike the Blake Prize, the Mandorla Art Award specifically promotes Christian art. Well-known artists like John Coburn and Julie Dowling are past winners.

Transcript

This transcript was typed from a recording of the program. The ABC cannot guarantee its complete accuracy because of the possibility of mishearing and occasional difficulty in identifying speakers.

Catholic priest Fr Chris Ross discusses the origins of the Award and its connection to the Church of the Annunziata in Florence.

Rachael Kohn: Australians often go to Europe to look at religious art, but back home there's very little of it around.

Hello, I'm Rachael Kohn and on today's Ark we hear from someone who's trying to raise the profile of religious art in Australia.

Catholic priest Father Chris Ross is a committee member of the Mandorla Art Award, based in Perth, for which I had the honour of being a judge in 2002.

Now you might be thinking of the circular design that symbolises the universe found in many religions. That is a mandala. A mandorla is something different, as Father Chris explains.

Fr Chris Ross: Oddly enough the word mandorla means an almond, and it refers to an almond-shaped halo or aura which we find around many of the mediaeval images, and Christian art has been limited in the Middle Ages to images of Jesus Christ and Mary the mother of Jesus, not found in the saints, but you'll find it in many of the mediaeval cathedrals. If you look above the door you'll have something of the resurrection of Jesus or the ascension or maybe the assumption of Mary, and you find this almond-shaped halo which engulfs the entire body. You'll find it in the Orthodox icons, the Russian and Greek icons, again limited to Jesus and Mary.

Rachael Kohn: So in a way it really announces this prize as a Christian art prize. How did the Mandorla Art Prize actually begin?

Fr Chris Ross: Well it began with a couple of people who had already started a group called the Mandorla Centre of Inner Peace. It didn't start with the Art Award.

It began with this group of people who felt that they wanted to do things that other people hadn't been doing. And so they started some meditation groups, discussions and retreats and things like this, and within a year or two they came up with this idea of an art exhibition, because one of the members in particular, in going to several art exhibitions of various kinds around Perth and perhaps elsewhere, I don't remember, but anyway he noticed that there was just about every kind of art except religious art in the contemporary galleries, and yet if you go to Europe you see that three-quarters of the galleries are religious art, from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance and so forth, so he felt what's happening is no-one is sponsoring and endorsing and encouraging artists to paint religious art. So hence was born the Mandorla Art Prize.

Rachael Kohn: So it really is an effort to raise awareness of Christianity in the popular sphere?

Fr Chris Ross: That's right, and given the group of people that it was without putting down anybody else, it was specifically a Christian art exhibition.

Rachael Kohn: And was that first group the Mandorla Centre of Inner Peace, was that an ecumenical Christian group?

Fr Chris Ross: Basically Catholic, but not Catholic by definition. There would be no reason why they would have to be. There are some other people on it now and who are working with us and who are on the committee or assisting the committee who are not, but everyone has at least enough of a Christian conviction to want to actually put the effort and the work into this.

Rachael Kohn: And wasn't it the Anglican Primate, the Archbishop, Peter Carnley, who actually launched this year's Mandorla Art Prize?

Fr Chris Ross: Yes, he was our guest speaker. He gave a wonderful talk at the opening.

Back in 2000, we had kind of floundered for a while; in 1996 we weren't able to put on an exhibition in 1998 for financial reasons, and by the year 2000, we felt we must do something for the Millennium. And so we chose the subject, The Incarnation, the Birth of Christ, for our exhibition in 2000, and I approached the two Archbishops, the Anglican Archbishop Peter Carnley, and the Catholic Archbishop of Perth, Barry Hickey, and said to them, How about making a contribution to be the sponsors of this art exhibition this year, and they agreed to that.

They had both already accepted the position of being patrons, and so they were our sponsors in 2000. And they've remained our patrons; both the two Archbishops remain to this day, they remain our principal patrons.

Rachael Kohn: Now you've mentioned a passage from the New Testament, and in fact that's been the key thing which has distinguished the Mandorla Art Prize it seems, a focus on the New Testament as an inspiration for art.

Fr Chris Ross: I have to correct that slightly. Emphasis on the Bible, because some of our passages have been from the Old Testament, but they have been of course usually seen in the context of Christianity.

One of the early ones was from the Psalms; there was another one I think that actually was from the Old Testament. But yes, basically I think one of the things that is unique to the Mandorla in distinction to let us say, the Blake Prize, which is so well-known, is that we select a passage from the scripture, then we usually publish a bit of a reflection to get artists started, then we invite them to paint on that theme.

However we don't go any further than that, we don't indicate any way in which they have to express that. And we do find that basically we find some artists that take the theme fairly literally and others that are quite abstract, and even to the extent that some people viewing for example this year's exhibition which is hanging now at the Moore's Building, people say, Well how does that express the theme? It's just a cross. The artist says it expresses the theme.

So that is, I wouldn't say a difficulty but it is part of this whole way of approaching, and we say Here is something for you to think about; now present us with a work of art that reflects on that from your point.

Rachael Kohn: Now how was this year's passage selected?

Fr Chris Ross: It was selected the same way that all of them are selected: the committee, which runs the Mandorla Centre of Inner Peace, sits down not long after we finish the exhibition, so within the next half of the year we will be sitting down and working out for the year 2006 what we want our theme to be.

Different members bring in their suggestions, we talk them over, we argue with each other about what would be the most meaningful passages, and eventually come to an agreement that yes, for this coming exhibition such will be our theme.

Rachael Kohn: And this year's was?

Fr Chris Ross: This year's was Matthew 25, the passage where Jesus sits on his throne and all the sheep and the goats before him, and he says to those on the right side, I was hungry and you gave me to eat, and so forth, I was thirsty; and then to those on the left, I was hungry and you did not give me to eat. That whole passages, which is called The Last Judgment, and we then condensed that into the punchline, so to speak, which is, Whatsoever you do to the least of them, you do to me. Or the way we've translated it using one Bible we found, Whatsoever you do for the least of them, you do for me.

Rachael Kohn: Well this year we could have all sorts of rather direct political overtones, were you flooded with submissions?

Fr Chris Ross: I thought we would be literally flooded with them and we weren't. We certainly have some. We have one work for example which is two children with, I think it's an Iraqi or Pakistan flag behind them, and they're walking through a doorway which has the Australian flag at it. So it's certainly expressing something about refugees. But there was a bit of political expression but not as much as I thought there would be. We would have welcomed that, that's what we would like to hear people say, how it applies to our own day.

Rachael Kohn: Well religious art in the past has had a strong popular appeal and also popular functions like the genre paintings of Mary that protected communities from the bubonic plague. Is popular appeal an important element in choosing the winners?

Fr Chris Ross: If by popular appeal you would mean the work that most people say Oh, I like that, I know what I like and I like that, no, it wouldn't be, because the very judges that we have are people who are very qualified in their field, and we had three artists and a theologian, the Dean of Theology at Notre Dame University who was also quite interested in art.

One of the things that goes on during the exhibition is that everyone coming to see the works can vote for their favourite, which is called The People's Choice, and my remembrance is that it's never been the winner.

Rachael Kohn: Well who have been some of the winning artists?

Fr Chris Ross: We've had a couple of very big names, probably the biggest name we've had was John Coburn who won back in 1996 when we had as our theme, The greatest of these is love. And John Coburn submitted a very small work for him, usually his works are quite large, and this was quite small, blue and white. It was called Blues for faith, hope and love. And then we also in 2000, when our theme was the birth of Christ, the incarnation, we had Julie Dowling who within the year was voted the most collectable artist in Australia. So those have been two of the bigger names we've had.

Brian McKay is a well-known artist here in Perth and Nigel Hewitt. Nigel Hewitt has won two times and so has Brian McKay. So Ron Gomboc runs a very well-known studio here as a sculptor and he has won once, and had a work in this exhibition as well.

Rachael Kohn: And of course sculpture does come into it as well, it's not just paintings.

Fr Chris Ross: Yes. The first years we didn't have that, although we never had said anything, and this year we actually have a very large number of three-dimensional works and many of them were selected among the 30 pieces, which go to New Norcia.

Rachael Kohn: Yes indeed, that connection with New Norcia is interesting, the Benedictine Abbey about 200 kilometres north of Perth. Tell me, when did they become involved?

Fr Chris Ross: Right back in 1985, the original team; I joined with them for the second exhibition, I only came to know them during the first exhibition. And they made that connection right away.

New Norcia as you know is very well-known especially in the West here, it's a regular tourist place, and a place of great interest, religiously as well as just historically in Western Australia. So it was right from the beginning they made this connection with the monks that the exhibition would hang after hanging in Perth, would also hang there.

So yes, it goes right back to the very beginning, and continues right up to now. For example, after two weeks here hanging in the Moore's Building, the 30 chosen pieces will go up to New Norcia, and the People's Choice will be awarded at that point, it won't be known who it is up until that point, so it gives a bit of excitement to the opening in New Norcia, and then the works chosen by our judges will hang there for the next two weeks before it all closes down.

Rachael Kohn: Now Father Chris, you're a member of the Servite Catholic order, isn't it playing a special role in the prize this year?

Fr Chris Ross: Yes, the group of us here in Australia are connected by foundation with our American Servites, and as you know I'm an American myself by birth. I solicited funds from them in America and us here in Australia, and together, last time in 2002 and this time in 2004, our Servite order put in $10,000 for the first prize.

Rachael Kohn: Isn't there an Annunziata Award ?

Fr Chris Ross: The Annunziata Prize is the prize that the Servites award. It's named after our church in Florence.

The Servite order was founded in 1233 by seven merchants, kind of contemporaries of St Francis of Assisi, from almost the same kind of background that he himself came from, merchant and commercial families, and these seven men came together and began our order in what is today the middle of Florence.

In those days it was on the outskirts of the city walls. But our church where the order began is just down the street called the Via dei Servi, the Street of the Servants, or the Street of the Servites, right from the back of the Duomo in Florence, so if any of our listeners are familiar with Florence, off to the left-hand side of the back of the church you find the Via dei Servi.

And the church back there is called the Annunziata, which is honouring Mary at the time of the Annunciation. So we called it the Annunziata Prize, not only because it's so much connected with our order but it's also connected with the art world.

In the cloister, one of the several cloisters in the immense monastery that we have there, the government owns most of it now, but in this cloister there's a chapel called The Chapel of the Painters and a lot of work was done there by a group of artists who gathered there regularly and buried in there is the famous Vasari, who wrote his famous histories and biographies of Renaissance artists. In our church is buried Benvenuto Cellini, and so our Annunziata has a long history with art. In the church itself are several works of Andrea del Sarto, who was a contemporary of Michelangelo and Raphael and so forth, and Masaccio and a few other famous artists.

Rachael Kohn: An illustrious lineage there.

Fr Chris Ross: Yes, very much so.

Rachael Kohn: Now I gather this year there was an unusual outcome for the prize.

Fr Chris Ross: Yes, our judges could not make up their mind which of two works to give the award to, and we abide by the decision of the judges. So then we came to the conclusion that we would give the award to both artists, and they agreed to split it. It's the first time it's happened, but we do expect to be able to give a $10,000 prize to a winner normally.

Rachael Kohn: Father Chris Ross is on the committee of the Mandorla Art Award which this year was won by Michael Cane Taylor, and Leah Kuhaupt. To find out more about the Mandorla Art Award, just go to our website.

Next week on our program, the stone crosses of Kerala in South India, where St Thomas, the doubting apostle, is said to have gone.

That's on The Ark, with me, Rachael Kohn.

Guests

Fr Chris Ross O.S.M.
is a Catholic priest in the Order of Friar Servants of Mary, also known as the Servites. He is based in Western Australia.

Further Information

Order of Friar Servants of Mary
http://www.servite.org/austral.htm

Mandorla Art Award
http://vianet.net.au/~mandorla/