SACRED MUSIC & THE ARTS Spring Art Exhibitions Present Works from Three Faith Traditions

Marc Chagall and the Bible

January 12–March 30

In partnership with Duke Initiatives in Theology and the Arts (DITA), the Chapel presented an exhibition of prints of works by the distinguished, modernist artist Marc Chagall

Curated by the art collector Sandra Bowden, the exhibition, Marc Chagall and the Bible, features etchings and lithographs with biblical themes. Chagall (1887–1985) is one of the foremost visual interpreters of the Bible in the twentieth century. His vision of the Bible combines his Jewish heritage and modern art, producing a rich display of symbols and imagination. The exhibition at the Chapel included thirty lithographs and etchings of Chagall’s graphic works as well as one signed original poster. Another ten etchings from a Bible series he worked on for twentyfive years bring together the artist’s spirituality and childhood fantasy through the sophisticated artistry of a master printmaker.

Artist Margaret Adams Parker’s Stations of the Cross, presented in fourteen panels, depicts Christ’s journey to the cross with contemporary figures rendered in muted browns. The gold paint of the background evokes the icon tradition, while the deep red of the outer panels calls to mind the rich colors of medieval images. Old Testament texts at the bottom of each panel are passages traditionally considered to “prefigure” the Passion.

The Chapel has purchased the paintings of Stations of the Cross so that they can be displayed in the Chapel around Lent and Holy Week and also loaned to other churches for exhibit.

Selected as this year’s C. Eric Lincoln Fellow, Shiraz Ahmed, G ’24, explores how and why local Muslim men wear beards in his exhibition The Beards of Muslim Men, which places photographic portraits on stylized backgrounds.

“Most Muslim men are viewed through this racialized lens of what people think a Muslim looks like,” Ahmed says. “[From] my experience of being Muslim and living in a very diverse Muslim area in Michigan, I wanted to show that there really is no way of ‘looking like a Muslim man.’”

The fellowship provides funding to a student to complete a sacred art project that reflects on the work and legacy of the late Duke professor C.Eric Lincoln, a poet, minister, and scholar who wrote about the Black American religious experience in both Christianity and Islam.