Summary

In the early twentieth century Ortega y Gasset observed that what was beginning to evince itself as art's predominant trend was what he called "dehumanization", i.e., a peculiar stripping of the depicted world of its realistic traits, a stepping beyond the realm of reality and toward the "extrahuman". In the case of that art which strove to remain reflective of the religious impulse, this tendency assumed the form of so-called "iconoclasm", a phenomenon known from religious history. The shattering of images, taking place in an atmosphere of a divorce between art and religion, has in consequence led to what Czesław Miłosz refers to as the enfeebling of religious imagination.

What does the religious art of today look like? Are we still in need of visible images of God? This is the central question of our latest issue. Artur Grabowski, whose "Apology of the Visible" opens Znak's June issue, contends that it is high time sacred art reverted to the injunction of tangible imagery, in keeping with which "it is better portray God poorly than not portray Him at all". In Grabowski's opinion modern artists should press themselves to dare "see". He argues that they ought to harness their power of imagination to formulate their own response to the God's Word. Wiesław Juszczak argues against such a standpoint, reflecting that art is not tantamount to faith. For Juszczak, Grabowski's injunction that artists exercise direct visual representations reeks of what he labels an "obsession of visibility". Thereafter, Tadeusz Boruta and Elżbieta Wolicka sketch the history of the theological-artistic dispute over divine imagery. Aldona Mickiewicz, in turn, points to the impossibility of escaping all realism in religious works while stipulating that said realism has to have bounds placed upon it, as was the case with the famous "Noli me tangere". This section closes by turning the floor over to contemporary artists who answer the question of how personal religious experience influences their work.

Readers are also invited to read Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz's "Diagnoses" on Russia's new imperial policy, Barbara Chyrowicz's philosophical essay on the nature of ethical dilemmas, Piotr Kłodkowski and Janusz Poniewierski's regular columns, the "Society of the Caring" pages, Znak's new supplement edited by 20-year-olds entitled "1984", plus a number of reviews of newly published books.

POCZĄTEK STRONY