Types and Shadows

I love Dr. Holzapfel’s class because it is not only based on lecture but we are able to to a lot of extracurricular activities. Last week, instead of class, we went to the BYU Museum of Art and attended “types and Shadows” exhibition. This exhibition specializes in religious artwork. As we entered the exhibition the first painting that caught my eye was a piece by Arnold Friberg. He is one of my favorite religious artists and I was so excited to see one of his originals up close. To my surprise, much of the artwork that we looked at wasn't the classic LDS art that we se in the Ensign and in the temples, such as Friberg’s work. At first I was skeptical of why such works, which didn’t even depict a religious scene should be included in a religious exhibit. However, lucky for my ignorance, the curator did a good job of explaining what different things could symbolize. The painting entitled “Daily Bread” by Lee Bennion gave me the most grief. The painting depicts a woman in simple clothing offering a piece of bread in her apron. Although I still don’t feel like this piece of art quite belongs in the gallery I now understand it. The bread could be representing the sacrament, or Christ (“I am the living bread” (John 6:51)). And the woman's arms could represent Heavenly Father’s “Arms of mercy [which] are extended” (Alma 5:33). Although I now understand this painting, and I am able to appreciate it, and I believe that I am allowed an opinion and an opportunity to say that I still am not the biggest fan.

My favorite picture in the gallery was entitled “Exchange No. 8” by Ron Richmond. The painting is of an upright chair with a white sheet draped over it, in front of it is a fallen chair with a read table cloth draped over it. There are many squares in the picture, and the whole painting is surrounded in a circle. I love the symbolism of chairs, of the “mercy seat” or of a throne. The standing chair had a pure white cloth that was the purist part of the picture. It was twisted perhaps giving the feeling of a robe. The red cloth on the fallen chair seemed to reflect imperfection and possibly sin. What touched me is when the curator said that “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow” (Isaiah 1:18). I felt like that scripture completely encompassed the artists purpose for the painting.