Fr. Hayen Cuarón wrote an article after visiting an exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Monterrey.

Newsroom (August 25, 2021, 10:10 PM, Gaudium Press) When art turns away from God, the phrase “uglier impossible” cannot be denied.

It was uttered by Fr. Hayen Cuarón, director of the weekly newspaper Presencia of the Diocese of Ciudad Juárez in Mexico, in an article entitled: “Malaise of contemporary art,” after a visit he made to Monterrey to see an exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art.

“After touring the rooms where the author exhibits his art through photographic images, videos, films, texts, audio installations, and plaques, I confess that the exhibition left me with no aesthetic emotion; on the contrary, I ended up with a sense of existential malaise and a feeling of emptiness,” the priest said.

Comparisons that show the evidence

Father Cuarón contrasted these impressions with those caused, for example, when contemplating a Renaissance work, “or when visiting Catholic temples that hold authentic artistic jewels. The spectator leaves these places full of admiration, with a feeling of joy and inner peace from the encounter with the beauty and harmony of forms.”

“Art, being an expressive reflection of the beauty of God and the greatness that man is called to be, naturally communicates spiritual enjoyment.” “On the other hand, when artistic work leaves a feeling of annoyance, absurdity, and sadness, it is because its inspiration does not originate in the Author of beauty, but only in man himself,” he said.

The priest lamented that today’s new ‘gods’, such as technology and machines, anarchy and nothingness, reduce man to a merely visible ‘thing’.

But when the artist-man abandons God, he does not remain only in the idols of matter: “If in other times artists modeled the world of God and the saints, today chaos – the demonic – emerges to settle in the world of man,” he continued.

Fr. Hayen Cuarón, however, assured that a day will come when man will emerge from this nightmare: “The day will come – we hope it will not be long – when human beings will recognize that our greatest title of glory is to be creatures dependent on God.” And that recognition will cause art to flourish.

With Aciprensa information

Compiled by Sarah Gangl