We are honored to be opening Templeton Hall’s Merriman Family Art Gallery with new artwork from two of the most significant Christian artists of the past 50 years, Edward Knippers and Bruce Herman. Their joint show, “The Body: Broken | Falling | Rising,” will open with an Artist Reception on Saturday, August 30, 4:00-6:00pm, which is open to the public.
The theme of this show draws together threads that have been woven throughout their respective bodies of work for decades. Knippers writes, “The human body is at the center of my artistic imagination because the body is an essential element in the Christian doctrines of Creation, Incarnation, and Resurrection. Disembodiment is not an option for the Christian. Christ places His Body and His Blood at the heart of our faith in Him. Our faith comes to naught if the Incarnation was not accomplished in actual time and space – if God did not send His Son to us in a real body with real blood.”
Similarly, Herman writes, “In Western traditions the body of Christ is often depicted as weak and broken — scourged and dying on the Cross or dead and entombed. In that tradition, showing the Savior as weak and broken goes to the heart of a new covenant: God is no longer presented as distant, perfect, unappeasable, unreachable — but as very present to and in solidarity with suffering humans. The idea of a distant Deity pairing its fingernails as humans and animals — nature herself — suffers and groans is gone. … But perhaps more surprising is the beauty released through that suffering and weakness taken on by the God of the Bible — redeeming the seeming meaninglessness of our pain. As an artist I am drawn to the paradox of ‘power made perfect in weakness’ (2 Corinthians 12:9).”
Bruce Herman’s art has been shown in more than 150 national and international exhibitions, and is featured in many public and private art collections including the Vatican Museum (Rome); The Cincinnati Museum of Fine Arts; The Grunewald Print Collection of the Hammer Museum; and in many private collections, colleges, and universities throughout the United States and Canada, including The Templeton Honors College. He was the founder and chair of Gordon College’s Art Department and held the Lothlórien Distinguished Chair in Fine Arts for 15 years until his retirement. He is the author of the recent Makers by Nature: Letters from a Master Painter on Faith, Hope, and Art and co-author of Through Your Eyes: Dialogues on the Paintings of Bruce Herman.
Likewise, Ed Knippers is a nationally exhibited artist known primarily as a figurative painter of biblical subjects. Knippers has had over 100 one-man and invitational exhibitions including shows at the Los Angeles County Museum, the Virginia Museum, the University of Kentucky, and the University of Oklahoma, among many other colleges, universities, and galleries. Knippers’s work has been published widely, and is found in numerous public and private collections including The Vatican Museum (Rome); The Armand Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; the University of Oklahoma; the Billy Graham Center; and The Templeton Honors College. Among the many books and articles published by and about Knippers are Art of Edward Knippers: Prints and Drawings, and the major work, Violent Grace: A Retrospective, a monograph on his paintings introduced by Templeton MAT professor Gregory Wolfe, founder of Image Journal.
Both artists will offer reflections on their joint show at the opening of The Merriman Family Art Gallery on August 30 at 4:00pm in Templeton Hall. “The Body: Broken | Falling | Rising” will be on display until December 19.
