Ninth International Conference on Religion & Spirituality in Society

Abstract

This paper will explore what could be desribed as an “apophatic attitude” encountered in painting. It can be seen within Expressionism and later Absract Expressionism but in this paper the focus will be on contemporary painters such as Ian McKeever and particularly Gerhard Richter. This apophatic sensibility could be seen as a form of thinking which has been present in many cultures and periods of time (as charted by William Franke). It is easily recognizable in negative theology and characteristic traits can be seen within aspects of postmodernism. Writers and theorists such as James Elkins have helped to promote discussion around aspects of painting which may be termed ‘spiritual’ or more acceptable to the artworld - numinous. It is this loss of a collective language for this experience of meaning which may previously have been termed religious or spiritual that this paper wishes to address. When considering the way a number of painters and theorists describe how they experience painting as a way of working with what may be unsayable or unknowable it begins to become apparent that there may certainly be some form of shared experience occurring even if the language for this experience is fragmented. The paper would attempt to begin to establish a language for this experience which acknowledges both the historical precedents in religion and spirituality but also takes into account the complexity of this experience (and its articulation) within the often indifferent and sometimes even hostile world of contemporary art.