About the Arts
"Expressions of Divine Beauty" at D'Alessandro Fine Art
By Rose Safran
YORK - York artist/gallery owner Anthony D'Alessandro is on the board of directors of The Marial Museum of Sacred Art, a St. Augustine, Fla., museum operated by the Order of St. Mary, the Virgin of Augsburg.The order was founded in 1988 of the European Lutheran High Church Movement. The museum was established to provide a spiritual space for the order's collection of sacred art, which has been growing. Its mission is to bring "... people of different cultures, philosophies and points of view together, of working towards consensus and cooperation instead of conflict."
Although the order is Paris-based, it was decided to establish its museum in America to obtain a broad, multi-cultural audience, according to Bishop H. W. M. Tajra, who was present at the opening.
An objective of this relatively new museum is to renew the ancient tradition of the sacred arts by stimulating public interest in such art through outreach. To accomplish this, the museum mounts occasional exhibitions by contemporary artists who produce religious themed art; this exhibition, "Expressions of Divine Beauty," organized by D'Alessandro, carries out that mission.
In addition to inviting national and international sacred art artists to exhibit here, D'Alessandro invited local artists to submit works with a religious or sacred art theme. Hence, the exhibition encompasses art by Seacoast area artists such as Michael Walek, Roz Fedeli, Edouard Langlois and Gloucester's Bruce Herman along with work by artists from great distances. Only one work, a small fragmented 18th-century icon, has been brought from the museum's own collection - representative of the collection, itself.
This, then, is a wildly diversified exhibition in which subtlety meets boldness, brilliant colors join soft toning, gentleness abuts harshness, modernity contrasts with classicism.
Certainly a departure from art normally encountered in coastal southern Maine, this sacred art exhibition includes diverse art styles and religious subjects. Among the latter are spiritual landscapes, portraits and figures of saints, a suggested sanctuary.
Noted were a portrait by Jean Troemel of the late Pope John Paul II, many interpretations of the Virgin Mary and Child, including Linda Brand's symbolic mother and child encased in a white web, Byzantine-style icons created by Columbian artist Fernando Arango Fernandez, small icons in the Russian tradition by New Hampshire artist Marina Nazarova Forbes and a mini-shrine with altar, saints including St. John the Baptist and the little Indian, Lily of the Mohawks - a "blessed," not yet a saint - created by New Hampshire theatre-director/producer Edouard Langlois, who specializes in creative figurines and masks.
These, along with other contemporary approaches to sacred art, offer a new and diversified look at this ancient art tradition. Additionally, the beautiful setting of the sweeping marshland landscape beyond the gallery-barn offers a spiritual experience in itself. The show runs through Sept. 4 at D'Alessandro Fine Art, 270 Cider Hill Road. Hours are Thursday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
