Images of Christ

"This is an idea that's still with us, and for many it's the basis of the authority of the image. ... If you have something that traces back to what is believed the direct origin, that lifts it out of what this or that person thought and gives it a sort of universal status," he said. "For many believers of different kinds, that's the kind of legitimacy they want and need."

Over the centuries, depictions of Christ have taken on the ethnicity of the cultures in which they were created, resulting in images that show him as Asian, black African and Spanish.

Vern Swanson, director of the Springville Museum of Art, said he's seen and even displayed a large variety of depictions of Jesus — including one by a Mongolian artist who cast him as Mongolian — and wouldn't have trouble displaying any kind of ethnic portrayal as long as it is "what we would call 'reverential.' If they're painting him as a black woman in drag, no way. But if it made sense culturally to the person."

Some images of Christ are expected to be a part of the museum's 21st annual "Religious and Spiritual Exhibition," which also opens next month. It runs Nov. 8 through Dec. 27

Many artists have chosen Christ's passion and crucifixion as the subject of their art, but Jay Heuman, a Jewish art historian and curator of education at the Salt Lake Art Center, said there are few depictions of Jesus' crucifixion by Jewish artists due to the simple fact that Jews don't believe he is divine or that his death has anything to do with eternal salvation.

LDS artists don't often portray the crucifixion either, he said, but for a completely different reason — that their faith focuses on the life of Christ and avoids any reverence for the crucifix as a symbol of their faith. "For both faiths, it's either considered taboo or not on the radar screen. For LDS artists, there are theological reasons. For Jewish artists, very few of whom have handled that theme, they see it as more a cultural taboo."

He'll present a lecture on the topic during the BYU symposium and noted that mainstream artists in the past 200 years have generally moved away from explicitly Christian themes to "unique personal means of expressing spiritual concerns. ... They're reaching inside, whether that's something spiritual along the traditional path or something more pantheistic, that sees a notion of the divine or the spirit in everything."

Culturally, Utahns tend to envision "the Nordic Jesus — we kind of see him as a mirror of ourselves," Swanson said, noting that Utahns Greg Olsen and Del Parson, along with part-time Utah resident Simon Dewey, are among the "top six portrayers of (Christ's image) in America" at present. "They sell to a Mormon and a non-Mormon audience and are very important nationally and even internationally. Their depictions are extremely idealistic," which appeals to many, he said.

Morgan said few people stop to think about why they imagine Christ the way they do, adding the BYU symposium will likely "challenge the immediacy of our imaginations. We can slow down and look at the mental visual process of imagining what Jesus looked like.

"If you show him as a Jewish guy, he may not be as refined" as many have imagined him. By examining "why we've always imagined he looked a certain way ... we can perhaps begin to pry some space between what we think is real and what is actually real."

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