Modern Art and the Church
Dr. Karlfried Froehlich, Princeton Theological Seminary
Lecturer in Theology and Communication

The Church has been reluctant to embrace Modern Art forms for the decoration of its worship space because of the secularization of art and artists in the “Age of Reason.”  Dr. Froehlich describes an experiment to integrate Modern Art into a church building which Fr. Devémy, a former patient and later the local priest of a Sanatorium community at Plateau d’Assy high in the French Alps, planned in the 1930s.  Together with Fr. Couturier, a Domican friar, he asked eminent artists such as Fernand Léger, Georges Rouault, Paul Bonnard, Henri Matisse, and Marc Chagall to contribute original art works.  The result was surprising.  The decoration of the finished church shows how Modern Art can indeed become the vehicle of the Gospel, and how the confrontation with the Christian faith can in turn be a spiritual challenge for modern artists.

To see Pictures of this beautiful church, click HERE while listening to Dr. Froehlich's presentation to visit an internet site which includes many of the works of art he describes.