“Was God Dead?” art exhibit paints a vivid picture of Biblical imagination, engages Concordia students

The Marxhausen Gallery, set up for viewing of “Was God Dead?: Biblical Imagination in German Expressionist Prints.”

Photo credit: Elizabeth Salo

By Elizabeth Salo

“Judas.” Photo: Elizabeth Salo.

An exhibit of Biblically-inspired artwork is on display in Concordia’s Marxhausen Gallery of Art, organized by art professor James Bockelman and students in the Luke Scholars Program.

The exhibition, entitled “Was God Dead?: Biblical Imagination in German Expressionist Prints” is a rental from the collection of Sandra Bowden, an influential Christian artist.

“This is a collection by Sandra Bowden; she probably has ten different collections…[of] fifty images or more, and she has been collecting for probably forty years,” said Bockelman. “She’s an artist, and she was instrumental in organizing Christians in Visual Arts, which was a national organization. For the last forty years, in addition to collecting these prints…she’s rented them to churches, universities, and libraries, and this particular rental exhibition is on German Expressionism.”

The show focuses on German Expressionist artwork with biblical inspiration from the early twentieth century.

“These works span from 1913, 1910, all the way up through the 1960s,” said Bockelman. “They represent images from the German Expressionist groups Die Brücke [The Bridge] and Der Blaue Reuter [The Blue Riders].”

“The Last Supper” and “Gethsemane.” Photo: Elizabeth Salo.

The show was organized in part by members of Bockelman’s Luke Scholars course, All This and Not Ordinary.

“I had been wanting to bring the exhibition to Concordia’s campus for probably four years, and I was slotted to teach Luke Scholars this semester, and I thought it would be a unique experience for that class to be able to work with primary sources such as this exhibition,” said Bockelman. “So, they uncrated the boxes, they unpacked all the artwork, they documented everything, and they decided the show, they decided where everything should be placed.”

Timothy Baker, a junior Luke Scholar who is also minoring in art, enjoyed organizing the art gallery.

“We got to curate all of the different artworks,” said Baker. “There were a couple of big crates of drawings and prints and stuff…We got to unpack the crates, which was fun, and we got to pick which prints we were going to include and which we weren’t, because there were a lot more than could fit, and we wanted to theme it… It’s certainly eye-opening to see how they process putting on a show like this.”

The gallery is divided into several sections based on the subject matter and other characteristics of the artworks.

“We have part of the gallery show themed on the life of Christ, and then others are grouped paintings together by theme, or by visual similarities or contrasts,” said Baker.

“African Mask” and “Durer.” Photo: Elizabeth Salo.

As part of their assignment, the students will also research and present on some of the artwork. The gallery presentations will be on Feb. 22 at 2 p.m., and the art show runs until March 5.

“Each of us students in the class picked one artwork and we are researching it, and so there’s a three-part research project that each of us does…and we present during the gallery show,” said Baker. “Each of us will have our own little station where we talk about our art piece.”

Sophomore Luke Scholar Acacia Carlson also enjoyed the project, highlighting its content variance from her other classes.

“We got to unbox all the art and put it up…and we got to pick a piece, and we are working with that piece throughout the semester,” said Carlson. “I’m a business student, so a lot of my other classes are math and papers and such, and this was definitely different, to look at an artist and be more subjective.”

Bockelman encouraged the Concordia community to come check out the gallery.

“Whether you’re a student, or a professor, or a staff member, the gallery’s free,” said Bockelman. “I think you could bring your lunch over, you could take a coffee break, come over here…and engage with some original works of art.”