Religious art steps out of the shadows in new exhibition

A COLLECTION of modern religious art hailed as one of the most important outside the Vatican will go on show in Edinburgh this weekend.

The free exhibition at Edinburgh University's New College on The Mound features works by 20th century greats such as Graham Sutherland, Elisabeth Frink, Peter Howson and Eric Gill, from the renowned Methodist Art Collection.

They will be on display for the next four weeks alongside works by contemporary Scottish and Scottish-based artists John Bellany, John Byrne, Ken Currie, Paul Martin, Robert Powell and Adrian Wiszniewski.

And the exhibition, entitled Shadows of the Divine, also includes one of Scotland's rare first editions of the 1611 King James Version of the Bible, the 400th anniversary of which is being marked this year.

The Methodist Art Collection was started in the 1960s and the paintings were bought or commissioned with money given specifically for that purpose. Most of the pictures depict scenes from the life and teaching of Christ. This is the first time it has come to Edinburgh. Around 25 of the 40 or so works in the collection will feature in the exhibition.

Monique Sliedrecht, curator of the exhibition, said: "This is a brilliant opportunity to view some of our most inspired and inspirational artworks. The chance to see pieces responding to what has been dubbed 'the greatest story ever told' alongside a rare first edition of the King James Version of the Bible, which has done so much to affect the nature of our society, is too good to miss.

"Lovers of great art as well as church people will learn much and will go away from the exhibition hugely stimulated by what they will see."

The paintings reflect a wide variety of styles from Elizabeth Frink's drawing Pieta, depicting a strong, physical Jesus to the twisted agony of the crucifixion in Theyre Lee Eliot's Crucified Tree Form.

Ceri Richards' painting The Supper at Emmaus shows Jesus with "the worried face of a man wrestling with some kind of inner disturbance".

And The Deposition by Graham Sutherland is seen as a comment on Nazi atrocities, showing a figure who could be Jesus or any Jew being lowered into a tomb in "concentration camp like" surroundings.

The exhibition also marks the start of a three-year research project by the university's Centre for Theology and Public Issues on Peace-building Through Media Arts.

The exhibition at New College, Mound Place, runs from May 14 until June 11.

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