From birth to crucifixion and resurrection the life of Christ has been celebrated in art. Passion Week, beginning Palm Sunday and ending with Easter Sunday, has inspired artists since time immemorial with its intense events portraying suffering, agony, betrayal, faith and glory. It continues to do so. Contemporary art interprets them in new context and in novel mediums with fresh craft. Tempera moves on to oil and acrylic. Terracotta gives shape to figures along with metal and fibre. Expressions change, visages go local, white turns black and the times and life of Christ receives topical and far reaching catholicity.
Closer home artists revel in reinterpreting and recasting iconic works like Leonardo Da Vinci’s ‘The Last Supper’, Caravaggio’s ‘The Taking of Christ’, Rueben’s ‘The Descent from the Cross’ and so many such strikingly beautiful compositions.
Thiruvanamalai bred and Chennai based artist Benitha Perciyal K. conceptualises and creates powerful sculptures inspired by her Christian background and the story of Jesus. In ‘The Fires of Faith’, shown at the recently concluded KMB she presented insightful depictions of the Palm Sunday Walk, the Crucifixion and The Last Supper. ‘In Still and Still Moving Life’ currently on at Art’ry Gallery in Fort Kochi, The Pieta, a simulation of a mother carrying an invisible dead son, is a super rendition of a sorrowful Mary. Benitha uses frankincense and spices to create biblical atmospherics. “I was brought up in a Christian family and I am aware of the stories. I use them as reference in my work; for me religion is practising what is preached.” She says. Her ‘The Last Supper’ is made up of people whom she came across as part of work, labourers at site. “Knowingly, unknowingly all heads became one community,” she says. Her story of search for figures and the oft told tale of Da Vinci’s hunt for suitable faces for ‘The Last Supper’ find common quest of an artist looking for the perfect expression. Benitha’s armless Christ, “a wounded God” unfit for worship but fit for trade raised in her the question- what do we follow or practice?
If Benita looks at social issues through the life of Christ for sculptor-photographer Vivek Vilasini, The Last Supper and the betrayal of Christ has been an endearing image to comment on politics. His Last Supper- Gaza (2008), showcased at the KMB1 hit out at the internecine war in Palestine. “For me The Last Supper has a ‘performative’ action to it. The city of Gaza where all this activity happened is once again having a major problem of betrayal,” he says. Vivek’s work was displayed at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Spain, where the remains of the apostle Saint James are buried. Kahthakali figures in his The Last Supper(2005), is about vernacularised Christianity- Japanese or an African Christ. “I use a lot of images from religion but I am spiritual,” he says.
Francis Kodankandath’s First Supper won the Kerala Lalitha Kala Academy award in 1993, after which the artist has painted a series –Decoding Da Vinci(2003-4). This series will be displayed at the Florence Biennale in October later this year. “The Holy Week images- washing of the disciple’s feet and kissing, the way of the cross, the crucifixion and the resurrection- are powerful inspirations. Salvador Dali’s Crucifixion is from a completely different angle and done in modern style,” says Francis. His series of works, explicitly and methodically, deals with the geometry of Da Vinci’s masterpiece. Sara Husain has been painting The Last Supper’ religiously for the many churches in the city. It gives her great pride to work on the classic but adds her personal touch. The personal finds overtones in Priti Vadakkath’s Fragmented Allegories where memories of her first Holy Communion and the larger context of a Christian upbringing blend with current realties.
Prof Ajayakumar, Principal Fine Arts College Thriuvananthapuram speaks about the universality of the pre Renaissance and classical images.
“During Renaissance art was highly patronised by the church and was dominated by religious and political images, until realism challenged it. The Last Supper is a celebrated image. The renditions by A. Ramachandran, M.F. Husain and Krishen Khanna, F.A. Souza are well known. Contemporary art that blends different mediums and styles-classical, kitsch, paint, photography, digital and newer mediums reworks on them.”
These new interpretations continue to stir the collective consciousness especially during the ongoing Holy Week.
