Continuum: Figuration and Abstraction in the MOCRA Collection

screenprint; ed. 67/200  |  MOCRA collection

Considered one of the most creative and original visual artists of the 20th century, Romare Bearden was a powerful social critic and advocate for young African American artists. He worked in many media, including collage and photomontage, and his projects included designing sets for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre. 

Bearden drew on personal memories, African American cultural history, and literature to situate the African American experience within the context of universal themes. In this screenprint, Bearden lays colorful blocks of ink over a grayscale photo reproduction of the “Virgin of Vladimir,” a famous 12th-century Byzantine icon that is considered one of Russia’s national treasures. Bearden’s reworking prompts us to think about the way that sacred figures are depicted in the art seen in museums and houses of worship. How does our perception shift when these images challenge the constraints of culture, era, geography, or faith tradition?

• Have you ever made a spiritual or religious practice your own? 

photogravure with chine-collé and silkscreen, with mahogany and oak frame  | MOCRA collection

Gabriel García Roman was born in Zacatecas, Mexico, raised in Chicago, and lives in New York City. He works in a range of media and creates images and objects that explore identity. In 2019 he was commissioned to present 100 queer icon flags as part of the World Pride march.

García Roman’s Queer Icons give visibility to underrepresented populations and draw inspiration from historical portraiture. The artist sees these individuals as heroes and honors them accordingly. Elements of traditional icons are merged with photographs and texts — authored by the portrait’s subjects — to offer keener insight into each individual’s story. Each portrait is distinguished by the use of chine-collé, a special printmaking technique in which papers of different colors or textures are bonded to the printing paper during the printing process. Custom framing completes the portrait’s formal presentation.

García Roman notes:

The subjects in the series are drawn from many facets of the gender and queer spectrum, and these images give visibility to a population that’s generally under-represented in the art world. Finding inspiration in portraiture styles of Renaissance, Flemish and Christian Orthodox paintings, the series aims to elevate these multi-dimensional, powerful and proud contemporary figures.

• What does family look like to you? 

ink, paper, and thread on Tyvek-backed fabric  | MOCRA collection

Brooklyn-based artist Lesley Dill works at the intersection of language and fine art in printmaking, sculpture, installation and performance. She is deeply interested in faith and spirituality, and the possibility of awakening viewers to the physical intimacy and power of language itself. This recent addition to the MOCRA collection reflects Dill’s exploration of the lives and writings of American poets, speakers, religious visionaries, and abolitionists. Combining imagery with stenciled words, these works elicit themes of contradiction: excess and ecstasy, activism and terrorism, stillness and chaos, repression and freedom, madness and sanity.

The visionary words of Anne Hutchinson, a central figure in an early American religious and political conflict in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, radiate from this intimate work. Outspoken and unafraid to court controversy, Hutchinson convened weekly meetings at her home at which she articulated theological positions that put her at odds with the colony’s religious and political leaders (and also challenged the patriarchal social order). Put on trial in 1637, she asserted that her knowledge came directly from God, saying, “So to me by an immediate revelation ... By the voice of his own spirit to my soul.” Hutchinson was banished from Massachusetts; she died in 1643 in New Netherland (now New York) in an attack by the indigenous Siwanoy.

• For you, what are sources of authentic spiritual or religious authority? 

Dill discusses her work in the MOCRA Voices video “Artist, Poet, Curator: A Conversation with Lesley Dill, Tom Sleigh and Rene Paul Barilleaux.”

Watch the Conversation

large-format Polaroid  |  MOCRA collection

Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons is a leading artist of the Afro-Cuban diaspora. Her work in a variety of media is found in important public and private collections, and she had a major, critically acclaimed installation in the 2013 Venice Biennale. Recurring themes in her work include maintaining ties with the people and land of Cuba, the special character and role of women’s discourse in society, and the nature of family communication.

This exuberant work is part of a series titled The Calling. “¡Cia Cará!” is an exclamation uttered in the Cuban religious tradition of espiritismo (Spiritism). Often accompanied by an abrupt gesture, it is usually exclaimed when a medium experiences a jolt or current in their body that indicates the presence of a spirit or spiritual force. In some instances, the exclamation and accompanying gesticulations may precede spirit possession.

Clothing, adornments, and objects found in Campos-Pons’ images carry multivalent meanings and are often connected with orishas (traditional Yoruban deities who are syncretized with Christian saints in Santería and other blended religions in the Caribbean). 

• How do you experience and express moments of intense spiritual feeling? 

Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons discusses her work in Episode 7 of the MOCRA Voices podcast. You can also hear her deliver the 2013 Kristen Peterson Distinguished Lecture in Art and Art History, titled "Rituals and Spirituality in the Performative Photographic Work of Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons."

Listen to the Podcast 

Watch the Artist's Lecture

hand-ground rock and earth, ink on canvas  |  MOCRA collection • a gift of Margaret Dagen

Pablita Velarde, also known by her Pueblo name, Tse Tsan (Tewa for “Golden Dawn”), was born at Santa Clara Pueblo, located along the Rio Grande near Española, New Mexico. As one of the few formally trained female indigenous artists at the time, Velarde pushed against cultural expectations, eventually becoming one of the most successful Native American artists of her generation. Velarde utilizes flat fields of color and narrative storytelling, a style that reflects Pueblo murals, pottery and hide paintings. Her work also draws inspiration from Navajo sandpainting, a sacred practice that involves creating specific images with colored sands for healing rituals. She is known for her “earth paintings” which she created by grinding pigments from rocks and minerals, using a traditional metate (stone tool used for processing grains and seeds) to create her paints.  

This painting depicts a kosa, or ritual clown. A typical kosa has their body painted in horizontal black and white stripes and wears a loincloth and moccasins, along with bands on their arms and legs and a cap adorned with corn husks. Kosas serve important social functions, both sacred and profane. They personify supernatural spirits, giving them powerful associations with fertility, sun, and rain. Kosas also reinforce societal behavior norms: during communal ceremonies they act in ways that might be considered unacceptable or even obscene, parodying the audience or directly ridiculing them. The performance may be humorous, but kosas are ultimately respected as protectors of cultural customs.

We thank Ben Chavarria, Tribal Historic Preservation Officer & Director of Rights Protection Office, Santa Clara Pueblo, for assistance in interpreting this work.

• Are there communal practices, traditions, and stories that are important to you? 

gelatin silver photograph  |  MOCRA collection

Hailed as one of today’s most important photographers, Dawoud Bey was born and raised in New York City and resides in Chicago. Represented in major museums in the United States and abroad, he first gained national attention with a 1979 exhibition at the Studio Museum of Harlem of candid photographs of the diverse people who call Harlem their home. Bey states, “the most important thing about the work I’ve made over the years is that it engages issues and subjects in the real social world in a way that foregrounds those things and heightens our engagement with them . . .”

Combing Hair highlights a defining element of Black life in America. In traditional African cultures, hairstyles could communicate geographic origin, ethnic identity, religion, marital status, wealth, and community standing. As the most elevated part of the body, hair was imbued with spiritual significance, serving as the conduit between the soul and the divine. Social bonds were strengthened by the lengthy process of creating elaborate styles. Braiding hair was an art form taught by the most senior female members of the family, and hairdressers were among the most trustworthy members of society.

The slave trade brutally disrupted these traditions, but Black folk adapted and innovated. Into the present day, social currents and the advent of new haircare products continue to influence the way Black Americans relate to their hair. Complying with accepted standards of beauty can entail psychic and emotional stress, as well as enduring the physical pain caused by lye-relaxers, hot combs, weaves and wigs. Perhaps this explains why the girl in Bey’s photo looks away distractedly, anticipating the end to this process. Her eyes are glossy, maybe with tears, suggesting she is “tender headed” (a term for someone who has a sensitive, easily irritated scalp).

Bey’s composition suggests an intimate bond between the girl and the young woman styling her hair. Even in her discomfort, the child leans back in the woman’s lap, sheltered under her arms. The woman seems unbothered by the child’s disposition and instead smiles directly and confidently at the camera. Bey’s glimpse of an intimate and unguarded moment prompts reflection on beauty on several levels: the beauty of relationship, the beauty of embracing who you are in your natural state, and the sometimes painful work entailed in achieving certain standards of beauty.

• Are there traditions and practices important to you that other people have not understood or devalued? 

acrylic and collage on wood  |  MOCRA collection

The work of painter, printmaker, and illustrator Sister Helen David Brancato carries themes of justice, peace and homelessness. For 14 years she was involved in the Southwest Community Enrichment Art Center on South 46th Street in Philadelphia, bringing art to a poor neighborhood.

This work was selected for inclusion in Jesus 2000, a juried competition sponsored by the periodical National Catholic Reporter, which sought contemporary images of Jesus at the turn of the millennium. David drew her inspiration for this work from a newspaper photograph of Guirlande Louis, a Haitian woman who lost five members of her family in a ferry accident off the coast of Port-au-Prince. This work encompasses several dimensions of suffering: Louis, her arms outstretched in a cruciform posture; people in the boat in danger of drowning; and a standing priestly figure conveying empathy and support.

Brancato visited Haiti in 1989 and recognized “the ongoing passion of Christ,” especially in the faces of women. She says, “This is a universal image depicting the suffering of women in our world and a reflection on Jesus’ solidarity with women. Jesus has truly entered our suffering.”

• Can you think of a time where you’ve sensed a deeper level of meaning in an experience? 

(incorporating works created 1977–1992)
oil and wax/oil emulsion on canvas  |  MOCRA collection

Spanning a six-decade career, James Rosen’s work demonstrates a keen understanding of art history, mastery of form, and an ability to imbue canvases with mystery. He was deeply read in art history and theory, literature, philosophy, and theology, all of which are synthesized in his work. Rosen frequently engaged in a form of dialogue with past images, which Jewish scholar Josephine Milgrom likened to a “visual midrash” that reinterprets the artwork for the present generation.

Rosen had a deep affinity for the art of the Renaissance and painted a number of grand homages to favorite artists. The source painting for this work is found in the collection of the Louvre. Rosen’s layered veils of wax and oil mute the colors and emotions of the powerful scene of raw grief. We join St. John (supporting Christ’s head), Mary Magdalene (bearing a jar of unguent), and the source painting’s donor (kneeling on the left) in a contemplation of mother and son and the mystery and reality of suffering, grief, and love.

• Are there moments in your life that you view differently now that you have some distance from them?

James Rosen reflects on his work in Episode 1 of the MOCRA Voices podcast.

Listen to the Podcast

leather, sweat, wood, copper, felt, and plexiglass  |  MOCRA collection

In the early-to-mid 1990s, San Francisco artist Daniel Goldstein created a body of work concerned with mortality and transcendence in the face of AIDS. For his “found-object” Icarian series, Goldstein acquired discarded leather covers from the exercise benches at The Muscle System gym in San Francisco’s Castro district. Goldstein mounted the leather “skins,” unaltered, in cases that serve as shipping crate, display case, and reliquary. The images suggesting human forms and faces were created completely by the perspiration and physical presence of the many men who used the benches. Goldstein notes,

"These marks on the leather were left by men trying to stay alive. They were made by living men on the skins of dead animals. They were marks made by men, many of whom were already dead."

The name of the series comes from the name of the company that made the bench covers, but also alludes to the young man in Greek mythology who flew too close to the sun, only to fall back to earth.

• How do you remember people and places that are important to you? 

Daniel Goldstein discusses his work in Episode 17 of the MOCRA Voices podcast, MOCRA Memories – Consecrations, Part 1.

Listen to the Podcast

photographs and paper mounted on aluminum  |  courtesy of the artist

Born in Hong Kong and based in Portland, Oregon,  Horatio Law is an installation and public artist who focuses on making creative projects with communities. The core of his art stems from his Asian-American identity and his experience as an immigrant. His work tackles weighty subjects with ephemeral and unexpected materials, creating quiet, conflicting, meditative and evocative works. His projects often include a strong community process, and explore the effects of our current culture of consumption and the invisible foundations of a community—identity, memory and history. Recent projects include The AMP: AIDS Memorial Pathway in Seattle and the Urban Studies photographic series.

Burnt Offerings is part of a series of mixed-media portraits of Syrian refugee children that meditates on war’s physical and psychological toll as well as their hopes and dreams during their flight in search of safety with their parents. Images of the children, collected from news media on the Internet, are printed on origami paper and folded into butterflies. The origami are then singed to create unique patterns and shapes that reflect the trauma these young refugees endured.

• How might we respond, alone or together, to help heal situations of pain and suffering?

Law speaks about his work in Episode 17 of the MOCRA Voices podcast, MOCRA Memories – Consecrations, Part 2.

Listen to the Podcast

oil, charcoal, and collage on wood panel  |  MOCRA collection • a gift of the artist

Since the 1980s, Jim Morphesis has been one of the most influential members of the expressionist art movement in Los Angeles. Drawing on his Greek Orthodox upbringing, Greek mythology and culture, and art historical references, his paintings convey a deep concern with the human condition.

Noted for his large assemblage paintings with salvaged lumber and thick applications of paint (such as Morpheus I on display in the nave gallery), Morphesis also has produced paintings and works on paper that highlight the nude human torso. They call to mind fragments of classical Greek statues as well as the drama of Baroque religious paintings. With its outstretched arms, this male figure suggests Christ on the cross. It also recalls the Greek myths of Icarus (the mortal who soared too close to the sun on wings held together by wax and fell to his death) and Prometheus (the Titan who stole fire from the gods and gave it to humanity, then was punished with eternal torment).

Since the narrative is unclear, this powerful heroic form becomes like an icon, existing in an eternal present, transfigured and striving to bridge the gap between the human and divine.

• What stories inspire you, and where do you see yourself in them?

Morphesis reflects on his work in Episode 10 of the MOCRA Voices podcast, MOCRA Memories – The Early Years.

Listen to the Podcast

watercolor and vegetable dye on handmade paper  |  MOCRA collection

Born in Lahore, Pakistan, Shahzia Sikander emerged onto the international stage with the 1997 Whitney Biennial. In 2006 she was named a MacArthur Fellow (the “genius grant”). Valerie Fletcher writes that Sikander’s art “is about complexity, contradiction, and synthesis—about past and present, Asia and America, self and society, reality and perception.”

Sikander’s work inventively adapts the techniques of Persian miniature painting in which she was trained, from the intimate scale of her early drawings and paintings to her more recent digitally animated manuscripts. Fluent in a variety of artistic media, she infuses personal symbolism into sources as varied as the religious traditions of Buddhism, Jainism, Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity; Persian legends; and Western fairy tales. Her work contends with migration, trade, colonial history, and climate change, but especially with female power and the cultural treatment of women. She says, “My work is about wanting not to be boxed in to any stereotype ... My desire is to escape imprisoning representations.”

In this work, three images are superimposed over texts in Urdu and English. Prominent is a blue form that appears frequently in Sikander’s work, one that she describes as “an emblem of the erasure of the feminine from religion and history.” Curator Ainsley M. Cameron describes it as:

"a figure of empowerment and strength — referencing her own experience but also that of the feminine encounter more broadly. A self-sustaining figure, self-reflective, and self-referential, but one who is hindered and isolated from experience."

This form hovers over a chappal, or sandal, drawn by artist David McGee, and an undulating white form that refers to Ananta, also known as Shesha. In Hinduism, Ananta is a multiheaded, hooded celestial snake floating on the primordial Ocean of Milk, on which the god Vishnu reclines.

• What stereotypes box you in? How do you push against them?

oil on canvas  |  MOCRA collection

Charlotte Lichtblau was born in Vienna and attended art school in Austria before fleeing to the United States in 1940. She was strongly influenced by the German Expressionists of the first part of the twentieth century. Expressionism is identified with the distortion of color, line, and form to reveal inner emotion. Lichtblau wrote,

"[Expressionism] was meant to strip away the academic and baroque overlays of moralizing and mythologizing. It brought with it a clear emphasis on form - the absolute cognition of what is - which is to say a commitment to finding such truth as one can, whether in depictions of contemporary life or in pictures of historical or biblical subjects.

What this came to mean for me is that images and narratives should be shaped by inquiry rather than by sentiment. Some of these works are about biblical themes and subjects. My concern in them has not been to illustrate the Bible, nor have I wanted in any way to predetermine the impact of its troubling claims and tales. Instead, I have tried to let the works speak to the viewer directly about essential matters of life and death, love and sorrow, joy and despair."

Lichtblau’s images often touch on themes of exile, suffering, sacrifice, and all-embracing love. In this work we find countless souls crowding into the foreground and seeking the arms of God, whose tripartite profile suggests the Trinity. Two souls are already enfolded into the embrace, while a striking, almost fetal figure in red draws our attention as the only one with discernible features. Lichtblau’s palette is dominated by greens and blues, colors denoting renewal and new life. Indeed, at first glance the figure of God is reminiscent of a pregnant woman. The alternate title for this work, The Other Shore, may lend some clues about the blue background and boat-like shapes.

• How do your beliefs about what may come after death shape how you live your life?

hydrocal with circuitry and copper; ed. 2/15  |  MOCRA collection • a gift of the artist

A native of Detroit, Tim Liddy earned his MFA from Washington University in St. Louis and has taught at Webster University and Fontbonne University. Working in painting, drawing, and sculpture, Liddy builds a strong foundation for context, narrative, and social/cultural philosophy. He is an accomplished craftsman and elegant draftsman whose work focuses on process, appropriation, and a nuanced understanding of art history — often leavened with incisive word games and playful juxtapositions.

Combining art historical imagery with circuitry, Angel is a form of contemporary icon, a meditation on what happens when faith encounters technology. Can time-honored symbols and metaphors adapt (or be adapted to) contemporary concerns and sensibilities, or will they be consumed and eradicated as new technology emerges as the dominant “religion”?

• Do you perceive a tension between spirituality and faith on the one hand, and a scientific worldview on the other?

oil and acrylic on wood  |  MOCRA collection

Brandon Maldonado was raised in Albuquerque, where he grew up on the graffiti art of his barrio surroundings. His work embraces the history and culture of New Mexico, with its ties to Mexico and its mestizo legacy. He is perhaps best known for his Dia de los Muertos-themed images, which he has explored and evolved for over two decades.

In recent years Maldonado has immersed himself in research on santos and their makers, notably José Rafael Aragón (ca. 1795–1862). The practice of making and venerating santos (painted or sculpted images of saints) originated in Spain and was carried to territories that fell under Spanish colonial rule. New Mexican santeros (makers of santos) diverged from the models they found in imported oil paintings, statues, and devotional prints, to develop distinctive approaches to creating retablos (panel paintings) and bultos (statues). The Santero tradition flourished from the mid-eighteenth to late-nineteenth centuries before falling into a period of decline. Yet it recovered and thrives today, responding to the needs of both religious devotees and art aficionados. Santos continue to be essential to the devotional practices of families and communities, but they are also appreciated as art objects.

Maldonado notes,

This piece employs a Cubist style that I have developed for the past decade. It is a depiction of a santero or saint-maker typical to the Northern New Mexico villages such as Cordova and Truchas. The aesthetic style of the works of New Mexico santeros ... has a simple yet beautiful visual vocabulary of line, pattern, texture unseen in other parts of the world. At the core, there is a love for abstraction and simplification by its practitioners, nearly a century before Picasso and abstraction came into vogue. The composition of this piece is broken up into several small panels, which form the overall image. The assemblage attempts to mimic a cluster of retablos (panel paintings) in the way they are commonly hung.

• What influences have the places where you grew up had on your life?

Maldonado discusses his work in Episode 26 of the MOCRA Voices podcast, Vicente Telles and Brandon Maldonado.

Listen to the Podcast

oil, ink, and damar on canvas  |  MOCRA collection • a gift of Helen Du Bois in honor of Peter Du Bois

Bernard Maisner is regarded internationally as one of the greatest contemporary masters of calligraphy and manuscript illumination. An accomplished painter as well, Maisner brings together materials and design in unexpected ways. He engages texts from diverse, sometimes surprising sources, and arrives at a vibrant compositional and scribal expression rooted in the past but conveyed with a fresh contemporary visual vocabulary. His search for meaning through his art takes him in the direction of the infinite, of opposites, of things mystical and unanswerable.

In the early 1990s, Maisner began to work on a much larger scale, blending oil painting with the techniques of manuscript illumination. The late art historian Dore Ashton noted that two motifs recur often in these larger works: an hourglass shape, and variations on spiral forms. Ashton associated these with multiple references — the spiral with scrolls and banners, the hourglass with the passage of time and infinity, but also the biological process of cell division. 

This work features a grid of 108 squares, each containing a unique form in black. Some might serve as ideograms (symbols that represent some idea or concept), while others seem like abstract doodles. The recurring symmetry of the marks may call to mind the inkblots used in the familiar Rorschach test. The grid itself resembles a much-enlarged version of a checkerboard patterning technique called “diapering” used in manuscript illumination.

• Do you feel drawn more to the grid or to the hourglass shape in this work?

Maisner reflects on his work in the MOCRA Voices video “The Hand Acts Out a Joyous Dance”: Celebrating the Art of Bernard Maisner.

Watch the Panel Discussion

oil, magna, wood, cloth, paper, cardboard, and gold leaf on wood panel  |  MOCRA collection

Since the 1980s, Jim Morphesis has been one of the most influential members of the expressionist art movement in Los Angeles. Drawing on his Greek Orthodox upbringing, Greek mythology and culture, and art historical references, his paintings convey a deep concern with the human condition. 

In this work, Morphesis alludes to both Christian and mythological sources. Skulls have long appeared in art as a form of memento mori, or reminder of our mortality. According to the Gospels, Jesus was executed on Golgotha (“Skull Place”). While traditional representations of the Crucifixion often include bones scattered on the ground, in this work the skull is the sole image. The title Morpheus alludes to a Greek god associated with sleep and fashioning dreams that bore messages to the dreamer.

The dramatic and gestural handling of paint on a ground of splintered wood causes the image to break down the closer the viewer approaches, echoing the process of decomposition. Morphesis notes, “It is important for me that a work be very physical and not just look physical. I employ used pieces of wood because they come with their own history and their own character.” The subtle use of greens and blues suggests a possibility of transformation and renewed existence. 

• How many different colors and materials can you identify in this painting?

Morphesis reflects on his work in Episode 10 of the MOCRA Voices podcast, MOCRA Memories – The Early Years.

Listen to the Podcast

from The Life of Christ Altarpiece
oil and mixed media on canvas  |  MOCRA collection • a gift of the Enid and Crosby Kemper Foundation, UMB Bank of St. Louis, and UMB Financial Corporation

Frederick J. Brown drew on many sources for his paintings, including his African American and Choctaw ancestry, his religious upbringing, and the folklore of the South. He referenced religious, historical and urban themes in his work, but was especially noted for his numerous portraits of jazz and blues artists. His work shows the influence of the German Expressionists and the American Abstract Expressionists, especially that of his mentor and friend, Willem de Kooning. 

In 1992, Brown offered to execute a large, multi-paneled altarpiece based on the life of Christ for the soon-to-open MOCRA. The resulting Life of Christ Altarpiece was completed in 1995 and is comprised of a central triptych (The Baptism, The Descent from the Cross, and The Resurrection) and two side panels (The Madonna and Child and The Descent into Hell)

Madonna and Child is the hallmark piece of this set. The strong, iconic Mary emerges out of a long tradition of portraying Mary as Theotokos (“God-bearer”) and Sedes Sapientiae (“Seat of Wisdom”). She embraces the child Jesus, the most naturalistic of the figures in the altarpiece. The child has a melancholic expression that indicates, even at this early age, an understanding of all that is to come.

According to tradition, just prior to his resurrection, the spirit of Christ entered into the realm of the dead and released the spirits of the important figures of the Old Testament so they could participate in the Resurrection. Christ’s spirit then rejoined his body for his own Resurrection. For Brown, the idea of a “descent into hell” had modern and even personal resonances, a deeply felt understanding of what it is to look into the abyss and to be overwhelmed by the various struggles of life. His return to the style of Abstract Expressionism that he used in the 1970s and the removal of all figural elements heighten the sense of vast, even limitless despair. Yet, there is also a sense of triumph over those difficulties, expressed through the spirits that are ascending. It is the culmination of a significant, modern treatment of the life of Christ.

• What do you notice about your responses to the more figural work in comparison to your responses to the more abstract work?

These works are discussed in the MOCRA Voices series “Meditations: Black Creativity, Abstraction, and the Spirit.”

Explore the Series

unique color aquatint  |  MOCRA collection • a gift of Jack and Mary Lou Rutberg, Los Angeles

French artist Georges Rouault was a fervent Catholic reacting to the strange new world of the early twentieth century: new technologies, new modes of transportation and communication, and the unprecedented destruction of World War I. His work addresses the suffering and the wickedness of the world, often paralleling these with the suffering of Christ. Apprenticed in his youth to a stained-glass maker, he incorporated the heavily-outlined look of stained glass into both his paintings and prints.

MOCRA owns one of the few complete sets in the United States of Rouault’s most famous series of prints, Miserere, made between 1914 and 1927. The project was conceived as a set of 100 large etchings to illustrate a two-volume work titled Miserere et Guerre [Mercy and War]. Various factors left the project unrealized, and 58 images were finally published in 1948. Even so, Miserere represents a landmark achievement in the graphic arts and in the religious art of the twentieth century.

Qui ne se grime pas? is the eighth plate in the series. This print, however, is a unique proof outside of the edition of Miserere, made before the cutting down of the plate and alteration took place. Unlike the final series, which was printed in black and white, this print is in color. The model for this clown face is Rouault himself, lending an autobiographical dimension to the question posed by the title.

• What masks do you wear in your daily life?

Learn more about Rouault in the MOCRA Voices video episode “Georges Rouault and the Art of Sacred Engagement.”

Watch the Lecture

pigment and wax on panel  |  MOCRA collection • a gift of Zita Rosenthal

Michael David is best known for his use of the encaustic technique, which incorporates pigment with heated beeswax. He notes,

My work has its roots in three great schools of art to emerge out of New York City: Abstract Expressionism, the great jazz of the 1950s, and early 1970s punk rock. For me, the commonality between these three art forms consists of a direct, intense physicality borne of improvisation; a desperate search for content created out of materiality, gesture and process ... I believe painting is a secular spiritual practice and at its highest levels speaks to our better nature. The more the artist is transformed by their process, the more one 'lets go' of control, the more open the experience and the greater the record of that transformation. This experience actualizes the state of being part of something larger than ourselves, something we feel and know but don’t fully understand — something greater than oneself.

The surface of Missing in Action is covered with irregular chunks of red encaustic wax. Described by one commentator as a “red badge of courage,” this work may be perceived by some viewers as being covered with red flowers. But, horrifyingly, the wax can also appear to be human flesh. This work bears witness to the unspeakable suffering of Jewish communities during periods of persecution, especially the Holocaust. Yet in its grand scale, it also testifies to a spirit of perseverance, resilience, and even hope in the face of such evil.

• What symbols hold power for you?

acrylic on panel under tempered glass  |  MOCRA collection • a gift of the artist

The late Bay Area artist Donald Grant worked in ceramic, mixed media, and painting. He often incorporated references to the human figure in his art and explored the interconnection among people, mortality, and the possibility that spirituality offers for transcending the pain of being human.

Vessel alludes to themes of epiphany, destruction, vulnerability, receptivity, and transformation. This vessel floats in space like an idealized Platonic object whose calm waters are disrupted where something new and unexpected has been poured in. The suddenness of change is magnified by the shattered glass affixed to the painting — one of the most stable and permanent, yet fragile, of materials explodes in a lively play of light on its facets. We might read this as a metaphor for impermanent human bodies that are temporary containers for a universal and eternal spirit.

• Can you recall a moment of insight that changed your life?

Grant speaks about this work in Episode 17 of the MOCRA Voices podcast, MOCRA Memories – Consecrations, Part 2.

Listen to the Podcast

mixed media  |  MOCRA collection

From his childhood, Patrick Graham had a remarkable talent for academic drawing and painting. Exposure to German expressionist art opened up new doors of possibility for him even as it triggered disillusionment with the limitations of the art he had been trained in, leading to a period of artistic and personal crisis. He eventually emerged from that darkness, and is credited by critics and art historians with changing the face of painting in Ireland.

Graham produces grave and complex paintings that are distinguished by his unabashed exploration of difficult, personal subject matter and dissection of its psychological, spiritual, and aesthetic implications. The works reference Irish culture and landscape, Roman Catholicism, Graham’s complicated upbringing and personal battle with chemical dependency and mental illness, and his love for his son, Robin.

With nail holes in the figure’s feet, the suggestion of a crown of thorns, and a halo, Rising and Falling alludes to the crucifixion, entombment, and resurrection of Jesus. The side-by-side placement of the two figures allows the artist to evoke and contrast different psychological and emotional states. An arm enters the painting from the right. Reminiscent of “Hand of God” images found in Medieval Jewish and Christian art, it suggests the power of outside intervention and the possibility of renewal and transformation. 

• Have you experienced moments of profound transformation in your life?

Learn more Graham in the MOCRA Voices video “Breaking Boundaries: A Conversation about the Art of Patrick Graham.”

Watch the Panel Discussion

cast iron  |  MOCRA collection

Stephen Luecking is a Chicago-based artist equally gifted in the fields of painting and sculpture. His expansive fields of interest include the history of art and mathematics, prehistoric engineering, and the application of mathematics and semiotics to his art.

Christianity teaches that there is one God who exists in three distinct persons — the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ) and the Holy Spirit — sharing one divine nature. Ultimately, this proposition of God as Trinity cannot be proven or fully comprehended, only assented to in faith. But preachers and artists have proposed numerous metaphors to help make it more accessible.

Triune is an elegantly simple visual metaphor for the Trinity: three distinct spherical realities, all touching, are embraced within one larger circular form. The circle is universally understood as a symbol of eternity and never-ending existence, and as such has served as a metaphor for God. The bowl’s square base suggests the four cardinal directions, and hence, the terrestrial realm. Taken together, the bowl and base indicate that the divine comes to interact with the mortal.

• Have you ever used a metaphor to convey a complex or abstract concept?

acrylic and paper on canvas  |  MOCRA collection

Trinidadian-American artist Gary Logan explores our unique relationship with the Earth and its elements, drawing visual and conceptual inspiration from both Taoism and the Romantic tradition in painting. Through landscape imagery and the language of the Sublime, he navigates the complex terrain of identity and human nature. His work speaks to universal concerns such as oppression, freedom, race, sexuality, healing, and renewal, as well as his concerns for the health of our planet. For instance, Logan links this painting to the experience of walking through a volcanic lava field in Northern Iceland, a natural manifestation of creativity and rebirth from destruction.

Dark Matter blends science, history, and self-identity to explore concepts of decolonization and “Blackness.” Logan connects the hypothesis that “dark matter” accounts for about 85% of all matter in the universe, with his discovery that exactly 85% of his DNA is derived from African ancestors. The painting’s matte background, representing the negativity of a past devastated by slavery and oppression, contrasts with glossy masses that symbolize a vibrant Black identity resulting from the conjoining of oppression and rebirth. Logan says the painting is “also inspired by the Taoist concepts of balance, movement, flow, duality, and metamorphosis as a result of embracing the painful as well as the vibrant aspects of my racial heritage.”

• What would you like to know about your heritage that remains a mystery to you?

Logan discusses his work in the MOCRA Voices video “A Conversation with Gary Logan.” Dark Matter is featured in the “Artful Being” video series.

Watch the Artist Talk

Watch the Artful Being Video

acrylic on canvas  |  MOCRA collection

Salma Arastu was born in the northern Indian state of Rajasthan, home to sites sacred to both Hindus and Muslims. A major turning point in her life came when Arastu married her husband, a Muslim, and converted to Islam from the Hindu tradition in which she was raised. Eventually the couple settled in the San Francisco Bay Area, where Arastu continues to create work in a variety of media, including painting, drawing, printmaking, and sculpture.

In this work, Arastu brings the beauty and elegance of Arabic calligraphy into dialogue with Western modern art movements like Abstract Expressionism and Color Field painting. Her text is a passage from the Quran, one that she believes reflects a positive, universal message:

. . . Who listens to the (soul) distressed when it calls on Him, and who relieves its suffering . . . (Al-Quran 27:62)

• How might your response to this work be different if you were able (or not able) to read the calligraphic text?

Arastu discusses her work in the MOCRA Voices video “So That You Know Each Other: Intercultural Reflections on Art, Beauty, and Islam.”

Watch the Panel Discussion

acrylic on paper  |  MOCRA collection • a gift of Leslie and Ronald Ostrin

New York artist Tobi Kahn is a painter and sculptor whose work has been shown in over 40 solo exhibitions and over 60 museum and groups shows since he was selected as one of nine artists to be included in the 1985 Guggenheim Museum exhibition, New Horizons in American Art. Works by Kahn are in major museum, corporate, and private collections. He teaches and lectures extensively.

Kahn writes, “In my paintings and sculpture, I am trying to distill the complex beauty of the world into its elemental forms, while evoking at the same time the mystery beneath such simplicity.” Kahn is interested in the interaction between memory and place. The forms in his paintings register as landscapes, although with ambiguous, shifting relationships between the foreground and background. As in his finished paintings, Kahn achieves the subtle, dense colors in this study by applying acrylic paint first in vibrant, opaque layers, then translucent washes. Kahn’s titles are invented words, ambiguous but evocative, inviting us to make associations, just as the painted images jog recognition.

• Are there places that have a special resonance in your memory?

Kahn reflects on his work in Episode 11 of the MOCRA Voices podcast.

Listen to the Podcast

unfired clay, lead, laminated redwood and walnut  |  MOCRA collection
ceramic, laminated wood, beeswax, plaster |  MOCRA collection • a gift of Terrence Dempsey, S.J.
ceramic, laminated wood, beeswax  |  private collection, St. Louis

Multidisciplinary St. Louis artist Jeffrey Miller is equally accomplished in visual art, performance, and design. He is fascinated by the inextricable relationship between image and container, inside and outside, thing and the space it occupies.

The central shape in each of these works is inspired by the multitude of icons Miller observed on a trip to Greece. In the absence of an image of a saint, the shape defines a place of emptiness, gravity, and density. It also relates to train tunnels and boot heels, images that appear frequently in Miller’s work. Train tunnels serve as a symbol of passage to other realms, while the heel of a boot or shoe evokes sacred sites where the footprint of a holy person is impressed into the ground.

Miller is attuned to the materials he uses in his works. His icons include materials that are often undervalued or discarded but have transformative potential. For instance, lead is transmuted through alchemy into gold, while wax is indispensable in the process of casting metal sculptures.

• Do you ever find yourself focusing more on a container than on its contents?

papercut  |  MOCRA collection

The tradition of Jewish papercutting dates back to at least the fourteenth century, and it became an important folk art among both Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews. The art form almost disappeared in the first half of the twentieth century, due both to emigration and to the Holocaust. During the last fifty years, however, papercut art as a means of Jewish expression has been revived. Israeli artist Archie Granot goes beyond the traditional bounds of classic motifs and styles with his asymmetrical works built up of multiple layers of interlaced designs, creating a three-dimensional relief in what is usually a two-dimensional medium.

This work presents the Biblical passage Psalm 148:1–4:

Hallelujah! Praise the Lord from the heavens; praise him in the heights. Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his host. Praise him, sun and moon; praise him, all you stars of light. Praise him, heavens of heavens, and you waters that are above the heavens.

• What difference does it make to see words and letters as shapes and forms in and of themselves, in addition to being information carriers?

Granot discusses his work in Episode 4 of the MOCRA Voices podcast.

Listen to the Podcast

paper sculpture  |  MOCRA collection • a gift of the artist

A working artist for over 20 years, Madison, WI-based Michael Velliquette creates exquisite, meticulously crafted paper sculptures that transform meditative practice into three-dimensional form. The works’ intricate designs draw inspiration from surface embellishment and architecture, while each sculpture employs a monochrome palette that removes it from the real world.

All of the paper used in Velliquette’s sculptures is hand cut with straight edge scissors or X-Acto knives. On average each paper sculpture takes between 300 to 500 hours, and he produces about three to four works per year. For his enigmatic titles, he draws on a variety of sources, including poetry, philosophy, and theology. Now heaven’s river drowns its banks, and floods of joy have run abroad takes its title from a work by the Indian mystical poet Rabindranath Tagore.

Velliquette notes,

Throughout this period my work became increasingly abstract and, for me, the process of making the work became a kind contemplative exercise — keeping my mind present and concentrated on the cutting, gluing and arranging each piece of paper. I began to think of them as kind of three-dimensional mandalas of sorts.
. . . 
It’s very slow and deliberate work, it’s about concentration and awareness. They are contemplative objects in the sense I intend for viewers to lose themselves in the experience of looking at them.

• Are there activities or practices that help you enter into a contemplative state? Do you find they inspire a creative response?

unique gelatin silver photograms  |  MOCRA collection • a gift of the artist

Dean Kessmann teaches at the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. He has exhibited widely in solo and group exhibitions and his work is found in major public collections. His work explores questions about perceived and actual reality. He writes, “The intersection of art, religion, and science offers an unending list of questions to answer and answers to question.”

In the Wafer and Wine series, Kessmann offers a meditation on the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation that holds that, in the sacrament of the Eucharist, bread and wine become truly (if not necessarily apparently to the senses) the body and blood of Jesus. Through evocative images derived from communion wafers that were saturated in wine, the artist probes whether scientific, measurable certainty is capable of giving undeniable confirmation of the truth that spiritual, faith-based understanding gives believers. Are these blood corpuscles, or perhaps stars and planets?

Kessmann notes, “Seeing is not always believing, just as believing should not always require seeing.” With these works,

a dramatic transformation has taken place. These substances have become something other than what they once were. These are objects for contemplation. They will not provide any undeniable proof, but if given time, they just might help us to answer that which they initially had refused to reveal.

• Do you hold any beliefs, things you know to be true, even when others might consider them to be irrational?

screenprint, ed. 100  |  MOCRA collection • a gift of Jane and Jerry Garbutt

Ada Bird Petyarre was born in the Utopia region in Central Australia. She was one of seven sisters who all became notable artists, and as a senior elder of the Anmatyerre people, was deeply respected for her cultural role and artistic talent. Her work, characterized by fluid linear designs and bright colors, has been exhibited worldwide.

In the late 1970s, the women of Utopia were introduced to batik and other dying and textile painting techniques, and Petyarre became one of the founding members of the Utopia Batik Group. The art of Utopia gained swift prominence and highlighted the influential role of female artists and their distinct themes in Aboriginal art. Petyarre and the others frequently adapted designs used in body painting for Awelye (women’s ceremonies) for their batik work and later in other media such as painting. The ceremonies begin with the women painting each other’s bodies in designs relating to a particular woman’s Dreaming.

“The Dreaming” is a term applied to a complex of Australian Aboriginal beliefs. It is most commonly understood to express a creation time when ancestor heroes traveled the land, creating sacred sites and sometimes becoming one with the landscape. However, it also implies unbroken continuity with Aboriginal people today, guiding their relationship with the land, shaping moral codes, and transmitting cultural knowledge. An Aboriginal person may “own” a specific Dreaming, becoming its custodian and transmitting the Dreaming to future generations.

Petyarre was a custodian for many Dreamings, including Arnkerrth, the Mountain Devil Lizard, a central figure in the Anmatyerre Dreaming that symbolizes the creation of the desert landscape. This Awelye silkscreen makes reference to that Dreaming and the ceremonial designs associated with it.

• Are there parts of your heritage that you share with others? Parts that you keep within your family or community?

Learn more about contemporary Australian Aboriginal art in Episode 8 of the MOCRA Voices podcast, featuring Mary Reid Brunstrom.

Listen to the Podcast

silver, gold, copper, tin, aluminum, platinum, and black gesso on wood  |  MOCRA collection • a gift of the artist

Susan Schwalb is one of the foremost figures in the revival of the ancient technique of silverpoint drawing in America. A silverpoint drawing is made by dragging a silver rod or wire across a prepared surface. (Other metals can be used as well, referred to generally as metalpoint). In contrast to the traditional use of silverpoint for figurative imagery, Schwalb’s work is resolutely abstract, and her handling of the technique is highly innovative.

Schwalb tells us that her Harmonizations series is inspired by the Jewish legend of the Lamed-Vav Tzaddikim,* or 36 righteous Jews. According to this tradition, in every generation there are thirty-six righteous Jews living in the world. These lamedvavniks have no acquaintance with each other, and do not themselves know that they are one of the 36. It is said that they only emerge when needed to save Israel, the Jewish people, or the world. For the sake of these 36 hidden saints, God preserves the world, even if the rest of humanity sinks into depravity. If the number ever goes below 36, tragedy will strike the Jewish people and the world. One implication of the story of these anonymous saints is that every Jew should act as if he or she might be one of them, leading a life of humility and holiness for the sake of others — the world depends on it.

While Schwalb was reading about this legend, a dear friend who survived the Holocaust began to die. She reflected that if she had ever met a lamedvavnik, this man was one. This led to making works using 36 squares. One is left blank to symbolize a saint whose life is ending, and the moment in which a new saint might emerge to preserve the world.

* In Jewish tradition, each letter of the Hebrew alphabet is assigned a numerical value. The value of Lamed ל is 30, and the value of Vav ו is 6. 

• How do you remember or honor people who have had a positive impact on your life?

Schwalb discusses her work in Episode 15 of the MOCRA Voices podcast, MOCRA Memories – Sanctuaries.

Listen to the Podcast

acrylic on canvas scroll, wooden dowels  |  MOCRA collection

Artist, writer, and peace and environmental worker. Kaz Tanahashi was born in Japan and resides in the Bay Area. This painting was made with a single brush stroke, a technique Tanahashi is known for. He notes,

The East Asian ideograph meaning “One” is pronounced yi in Chinese and ichi or hitotsu in Japanese. It is the first character in the Chinese or Japanese character dictionaries, and is regarded as mother of all strokes in East Asian calligraphy. It is the most basic as well as the most common sign, consisting of a single stroke drawn in a decisive manner. Creating an artwork by a single stroke is a challenge I sometimes face.

One is a record of intention and the energy expended to make the mark, of a gesture which imparts meaning. The white paint vividly rends the black void of the canvas, suggesting the powerful forces unleashed by the creative act. The red mark in the lower right corner is the artist’s hanko, or seal.

• How are you making your mark in the world?

collage with Japanese paper and gold leaf  |  MOCRA collection

German artist Lore Bert has created more than 125 installations on nearly every continent, including a major work installed in the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana in St. Mark’s Square for the 2013 Venice Biennale. Bert integrates her sculptural works into different spatial environments in order to explore a variety of possible meanings and dialogues. Since the 1980s, she has created collages and reliefs, and has experimented with transparencies in sculptures and installations.

Bert has traveled extensively, incorporating both the materials and the essences of various locales into her work. Especially stimulating for her has been the dialogue/dialectic between East and West, and her works often utilize papers from Japan and other Eastern origins. This floor plan for an imagined sacred space invites the viewer to the practice of contemplation as a path to inner perfection and appreciation of beauty. The red mark is a Korean stamp of Bert’s name.

• How might you visualize the building that has this floor plan?

gold leaf and bole on wood  |  MOCRA collection

Michael Tracy died on June 15, 2024. He was an artist, author, and advocate for historic preservation in San Ygnacio, TX, where he made his home. Constant throughout his incarnations were his restless intellect, his humanism and passion for social justice, and his keen sense of the power of art and ritual in unmasking the deeper currents of history and society. Since the earliest years of MOCRA, visitors have encountered his grand Triptych and, in recent years, his searing Romero Cross. Read more about Michael in the wall text accompanying those works in the nave gallery.

This work is a model for the 18-foot-wide Retablo de la Paz Sagrada [Altarpiece of Sacred Peace] located in the subterranean Emmanuel Chapel in the Crypt of the Bishops at the Catholic cathedral in Corpus Christi, TX. It is a remarkably understated work with simple, clean geometric lines. Squares of gold leaf are applied irregularly over a reddish clay underpainting, called bole, that enhances the golden tone of the leaf. While perhaps Tracy wasn’t concerned for precisely positioning the gold leaf on this model, the effect does suggest a metaphor for the meeting of the mortal (clay) and the divine (gold) that takes place in a sacred space such as a chapel.

We invite you to compare this triptych (three-panel painting) with Tracy’s monumental 11th, 12th, and 13th Stations of the Cross for Latin America: La Pasión in the sanctuary gallery.

• What places bring you in touch with a sense of the divine or an inner peace?