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Columbus Ledger-Enquirer
Richard Serrin's work can be found in local churches
and homes
Shock.
Grief. Death. And yes, even joy.
Communicating the magnitude of the Holocaust, in which
6 million Jews died at the hands of the Nazis during World War II, would be a
monumental task.
Yet after about seven years, Italy's Richard Serrin has
translated large scale into small with a new painting that brings the
devastating genocide closer to earth, by depicting reactions of six people in
the last moments of their lives.
You don't see the person or group doing the killing.
Instead you see, from left to right, a woman with a look of hilarity or joy;
another woman with a look of shock. Then two men and another woman and a child
in front. Some show bullet wounds.
They are all dignified looking, and well-dressed. The
contrast between the deaths they're enduring and their clothing is one obvious
difference. And then there's the laughing woman, the only blonde in the piece,
who faces her killers with raucous joy.
"It sets a tone of some kind of humanity the Germans
could not destroy," Serrin said in a visit to Columbus in December.
Serrin, 79, was in town to deliver another of his
paintings to a collector, and also took time for a signing at The Sanctuary. The
visit also gave him a good excuse to see his best friend of 61 years, Allen
Kerr, a retired Bradley Center psychotherapist. From here, Serrin traveled to
see family in Pennsylvania for Christmas, as he and his wife Dorothy do most
every year. The Serrins have lived in Florence since 1964.
His work is represented in many public and private
collections throughout the U.S., including several homes and churches in
Columbus.
Other collections are in New York City, Chicago,
Atlanta, Virginia Beach, Va., Sanford, Fla. and Minneapolis.
Richard Serrin was in Columbus about a year ago to make
presentations at First Presbyterian Church and at St. Luke United Methodist,
where Allen Kerr and his wife, Char, are members.
Serrin finished the Holocaust piece, which Kerr
considers among his best, several months ago. It did not consume his work for
all of the seven years, but was something he came back to, off and on, between
other pieces.
"It's always a question of refining," he said, "to say
exactly what you want it to say." For instance, the heads on these characters
seemed to take most of his time, perhaps because each face contains so much
expression. As he searched for inspiration for the lone blonde, he happened to
see a movie poster that featured a joyful Sandra Bullock. That was it.
"Although she was dead," Serrin said of the blonde
woman in his painting, "I wanted her smiling."
Only in recent years has Serrin made reproductions
available of his work. In 50 years' time, with a couple of exceptions, there was
nothing available for collectors. "We now have nine different Serrin
reproductions of his art in two sizes for interested collectors and churches,"
said Kerr, who has essentially become a publicist for Serrin in the U.S.,
especially in this area. The reproductions are copyrighted from the copyright
office in Washington, D.C.
FAITH IN HIS ART
continued from previous page...
Richard Serrin's work can be found in local churches
and homes
One reproduction is "Encounters of Christ with
Children," painted on wood, which St. Luke commissioned about a decade ago for
its Early Learning Center. The wooden models with its sketched trilogy panel
laid fallow since. A local pastor suggested Serrin try commissioning these
pieces, acting as one, to a hospital or children's ward in a hospital, Serrin
said.
The middle panel shows Jesus tossing a child into the
air. "Fathers universally toss up their children," Serrin said. A second panel
shows Jesus reaching out, crouched, to a child; and the third shows Jesus
standing beside a child with his hands on the little one's shoulders.
"Richard is enormously talented, but he is shy and that
is where I helped him by developing and pursuing leads," Kerr said before his
friend's visit here in 2006. Serrin would have preferred to maintain his quiet
artist's life in Florence, but Kerr has helped get the word out.
"We made a good tag team for several years together and
I have continued to promote his art as a classical painter," Kerr said.
Serrin was born in 1928 in Evanston, Ill. Early on, he
developed a fascination for the masters of the 16th and 17th centuries,
particularly Rembrandt. Serrin and Kerr met as high school students in Evanston.
After receiving his M.F.A. from Cranbrook Academy of
Art, Serrin traveled in Mexico, Europe, and earlier, with the U.S. Army, in
Japan. After marrying in 1963, Richard and Dorothy moved to Amsterdam, and in
1964 to Italy, where their two daughters were born.
Serrin's last retrospective in the United States was in
2000 at the Newington-Cropsey Foundation, Hasting-on-Hudson, N.Y.
In addition to his Columbus connections, Serrin has an
Atlanta one. He was artist-in-residence at Oglethorpe University from 1989-1991.
He was also a visiting professor at Hillsdale College, Hillsdale, Mich., from
1992-1995.
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| St. Simeon holding
up the Christ Child |
Biblical themes are prominent in Serrin's work,
according to his Web site, richardserrinart.com. They stem from his own
preoccupation with God, whose presence, he believes, has been marginalized in
contemporary life for many reasons -- some justifiably intellectual, and some
from what he calls "a less justifiable hedonistic nihilism."
In 1974, Serrin began work on four paintings of
Christ's Passion, measuring 36 square ft., and 10 years later, two more
paintings completed the series. In 1986 these paintings were given to R.C.
Sproul, the founder of Ligonier Ministries and were later installed in Saint
Andrews Chapel in Sanford, Fla.
Most people, Serrin has found, don't have an interest
in the great works from the 16th and 17th centuries; and that Americans'
tendency to look forward rather than backward leads to an ignorance of art
history.
"We don't really look backward more than two weeks," he
said.
He has called himself "a maverick Christian -- simply a
follower of Jesus," and he is, considering the heavy Catholic influences of
Italy.
In part because he has many Jewish friends, Serrin said
he was particularly moved to paint this one scene of the Holocaust. Serrin
sought to make a very intimate translation of the last seconds of six people's
lives. Six deaths that resonated around the world.
Among Serrin's influences was Francisco de Goya, the
18th-century painter who seemed in his own work to foreshadow dark and systemic
brutalities such as the Holocaust. Like Goya, Serrin aims to put a human face to
humanity's dark capabilities.
"These are personal encounters with murder and I wanted
to show these people alive, facing this murder," he said.
Seeing it, especially in large scale, you can't escape
the expressions, or the painting's broader meaning.
And, being the painting's creator "requires a certain
amount of giving yourself over to them," Serrin said. "You begin to feel the
emotion of the people in the painting." |
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Columbus Ledger-Enquirer
Inspired Art
Italy’s Richard Serrin coming to Columbus
to discuss his decades of work.
(12/30/2006)
By ALLISON KENNEDY
Staff writer
The father cradles his son’s head in his arms. The son wears a bit of a
surprised look on his face. The father’s face nearly shouts compassion. The
Prodigal Son story, one of the most oft-quoted from the New Testament about
welcoming home a wayward child, comes into full relief in a portrait by Richard
Serrin of Italy, who
visits Columbus next week for three talks about his art and his life.
His first and strongest influence is Rembrandt, the 17th-century
Dutch artist. He
received his first book about Rembrandt when he was 16, and counted him as a
mentor for more than 25 years.
"It’s taken me a good 25 years to evolve a technique," Serrin said in a
recent
interview from Pennsylvania, where he was visiting family.
Another steady influence has been Allen Kerr of Columbus, a retired therapist
from the Bradley Center and a member of St. Luke United Methodist Church. The
two men have been friends more than 60 years, since their high school years
in
Evanston, Ill., where Serrin was art director of the school yearbook. Kerr
has taken a professional role too, finding shows for Serrin and promoting his
work. Among them: Serrin was artist-in-residence for two years in 1990’s at
Atlanta’s Oglethorpe University.
For his part, Serrin said he would be content painting in his studio in
Florence, Italy – where he does about five works a year – but Kerr would rather
his friend’s work be more well-known.
"Richard is enormously talented, but he is shy and that is where I helped him
by
developing and pursuing leads," Kerr said. "We made a good tag team for
several
years together and I have continued to promote his art as a classical
painter."
Kerr’s first career was in the printing business, and he has returned to it
in Columbus. He recently set up a web site to promote and sell Serrin’ work
(www.askpublishingcompany.com). His company is able to make Serrin
reproductions. For 50 years, the only chance to purchase a Serrin print was
an
original from the artist.
Cost of nihilism
While Serrin is spoiled by the rich art world of Italy, he laments its
growing absence in the U.S. particularly in churches. He and his wife, Dorothy,
who
he married in 1963. have lived in Florence since 1964. They first lived in
Amsterdam.
"In our contemporary arts," he writes in an essay, "Nihilism – the
rejection of all values of the past – predominates. This is indicative of our
society, but you have probably heard of the few artists who create these
images, and in fact none produce the omnipresent and persuasive images that
define our needs." Most modern-day images that have any kind of staying power,
he continued are found in movies, television and advertising.
"How could Americans, 87 percent of who profess themselves Christians, find
themselves with art promoting the antithesis of the New Testament teaching,
and
which they support with billions of dollars every year?"
Most people, he has found, don’t have an interest in the great works from the
16th and 17th centuries, and Americans’ tendency to look
forward rather than backward
leads to an ignorance of art history.
"We don’t really look backward more than two weeks," he said.
As for art in churches and great cathedrals, very generally, the Protestant
Reformation of the 1500s contributed to this loss. One thing the Reformers were
reacting against in Catholicism, was what they viewed as excess and the
iconography. Similar thinking followed with the Puritans in this country. Though
Serrin is surrounded in Italy by Catholicism, but his not influenced by it
theologically. He call himself "a maverick Christian, simply a follower of
Jesus."
In his essay, Serrin writes: "One of the desperate problems that Christians
have
had to face is to adapt Jesus to a world He would not have sanctioned: a
lifestyle
of acquisition, wealth, little self-denial and instant gratification.
Ironically, this is
absolutely necessary for the economy. This is the Catch-22 of modern
Christianity. But just as this lifestyle is necessary, it is absolutely
devastating
for the earth and its beauty, and absolutely stifling for the mind which
works
hard and constantly wholly for the body."
A well-known Protestant theologian and preacher in this country the Rev. R.C.
Sproul of Ligonier Ministries in Florida, has been on the receiving end of
some
of Serrin’s work.
In 1986, Sproul received six paintings – each measuring 9’
x 9’ -
and later built a chapel around them. These painting are called the Passion
paintings, which Serrin began working on in 1974 and took him 3-1/2 years to
complete.
After nearly giving up on the series, Serrin said he had never tackled
anything that
large. "I had to make many changes. When you are working out of your
imagination, it takes more time to think rather than painting from an object."
The six paintings, which were originally four, depict the following scenes
from Jesus life: The Presentation, the Triumphal Entry, the Last Supper, the
Triumph of
Barabbas, the Crucifixion, and the Ascension and Judgment. Most all of
Serrin’s
art carries a Biblical theme.
Lasting links
The Serrin-Kerr friendship has survived all the miles, and most of the time.
Allen and his family, which includes his wife, Char, have visited Serrin and his
wife a
few times in Italy. And they try to see each other while the Serrins are in
the States. The Kerr clan, in fact, are the object of a Serrin painting, in
which he has them
milling about in a marketplace.
"Our paths did not cross again once we all graduated (from college) until
1958,"
Kerr writes in a retrospective, "I was out of the Navy and just starting my
business
career in the printing industry in Chicago. We discovered Richard was in town
and we invited him for dinner to our first home in Park Ridge, Ill. We had our
first
two children, Betsy and Chet, and Richard was still a bachelor.
At the end of the evening we promised to stay in touch for the rest of our
lives. Then mysteriously three weeks later he complexly vanished from the
Chicago landscape and I did not hear about him again until 1975. This was in the
form
of an indirect communication from another classmate, Chuck Roberts. …"
The rest was history, as Kerr began helping Serrin with promotions. Serrin’s
last
retrospective in the United States was in 2000 at the Newington-Cropsey
Foundation, Hasting-on-Hudson, New York. He’s also been a visiting professor
at Hillsdale College, Hillsdale, Michigan. Serrin’s work is represented in
many
public and private collections throughout the U.S. and Europe, most notably
in New York City, Chicago, Atlanta, Virginia Beach and also Columbus - at St.
Luke – and Minneapolis.
"He’s been very helpful to us, and we have agreed on everything." Serrin said
of Kerr. "It’s hard to know what keeps friendship together"
Links:
www.askpublishingcompany.com
or
www.richardserrinart.com
For more information contact
Allison Kennedy at 706-576-6237 or
akennedy@ledger-enquirer.com
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Art: The Mirror of How The Soul
Lives
Each civilization creates its own perception
of the universe in which it lives. Its art establishes the images of the
civilization’s most profound values, aspirations, desires, and security. Art
cannot lie as to how the soul lives. It is created precisely for the needs of
the soul in the universe the mind perceives.
The gallery arts of the 20th and 21st
centuries are nihilistic, rejecting all of the values of the past, but few of
its artists are household names. In truth, they play only a minimal role in
contemporary art, and none produce the omnipresent and persuasive images that
define our needs. These are to be found in films, on television, and on the
internet. All these media are supported by advertising, the most pernicious of
the arts of our time. Americans, 87% of whom profess Christianity, patronize
these arts that promote the antithesis of biblical teaching with billions of
dollars every year. How could this be? It was a long journey.
By the 18th century, the perception
of the Christian universe that had endured since Thomas Aquinas could no longer
be sustained. Discoveries by Copernicus, Brahe, Kepler, and finally Isaac Newton
rendered it definitely untenable. In the ensuing trauma Christian subject matter
virtually disappeared from art. Simultaneously, the rise of the authority and
practical applications of science led people to believe they could help
themselves without the aid of God. They were not mistaken. The promise of the
serpent had been fulfilled: we had become like God to judge good and evil. All
but forgotten in the process are the words of Isaiah: "The wisdom of the wise
shall perish, for shall the potter be regarded as the clay that the pot shall
say to the Maker, "He did not make me? He had no understanding?"
From the 19th century one of the
desperate problems facing Christians has been to adapt Jesus to a life-style he
would not have sanctioned - one of acquisition, wealth, no self-denial, and
instant gratification, ironically, absolutely essential for the economy. This is
the Catch-22 of modern Christianity. But just as this lifestyle is absolutely
essential for the economy, it is absolutely devastating for the earth and its
beauty and absolutely stifling for the mind which has become enslaved to the
wants of the body. Surely as Christians we must do better than this, yet we are
not. Why?
When we think of the universe beyond our
delight in a summer day, we cannot but be overwhelmed by its infinite space (so
ill-suited for heaven) and its incomprehensibility. Confronted with this we have
internalized Jesus, whose only reality is in our prayers. For in such a universe
where is the resurrected Jesus or God Himself to punish our disobedience?
However we must be aware of such biblical nihilism. The Son of Man still lived
and taught even in the universe science has presented us with. We throw out his
ethics at our peril. We cannot leave it to the advertising agencies, the movie
industry, the rock groups and the rappers to determine the values of our lives.
Although Martin Luther was convinced that
music was the only art necessary for the Christian of the Reformation, and
Puritans were iconoclasts who feared images to the idolatrous, we must remember
their revulsion was to a Catholic imagery primarily of the saints, whom they
rejected. Today we surely recognize that paintings of biblical teachings and the
earthly life of Jesus are not idolatrous. These are our best weapons with which
to confront the art of our day.
The ethics for a Christian art are clearly
enunciated in the New Testament, in the Torah and the Prophets, even in the
wisdom of the ancient Mediterranean world into which Jesus was born. Until we
believe in the merits of these, there can be no renaissance of a Christian art,
no renaissance of a moral art. For this to happen in the Christian world we must
approach Jesus from another perspective, as one who lived and died a peripatetic
rabbi, "the son of man who has nowhere to lay his head", who taught his
followers how to live.
Why do you call me Master, Master, and do not
what I say," was the exasperated exhortation of Jesus to his disciples. The
trouble is, what Jesus says to do is so odd that we cannot bring ourselves to
do it. It is much easier to feel saved and go
our own way. To be sure, our culture makes it impossible to follow wisdom
without appearing mad, but to do better is not impossible; for that you need
only be eccentric. We are lost only if we no longer fear God. This is the first
thing we must regain. All wisdom, all truth, all beauty, and all great art
depend on the fear of God.
Yet even if we agree upon the urgency to
establish an ethical Christian art, where are we to find the painters who can
compete with the 16th and 17th century masters? They can
be found if given the proper training, but it will take time, perhaps ten years.
They must learn the techniques and processes of the masters and acquire the
drawing and compositional skills requisite for the task. They must be educated
in the classics and literature to be aware of the great cultures that we have
inherited. They must be students of the history of art to give them a sense of
self-criticism, humility, and pride. This is a difficult mission, but not a
costly one, which the church would be negligent not to foster. The need is
great. Time is running out.
Richard Serrin
richardserrinart.com
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