Sacred Art / Modern Art: The “Sacred Art” Debate in France in the 1950s (A Perspective from Bulgaria)

Authors:

Pages: 253-267
DOI: https://doi.org/10.54664/ZWDD8893

Abstract:

The interest from Bulgaria in the experience of the synthesis between architecture and modernist artistic integrations in the West, particularly in France after World War II, highlights significant differences between the cultural practices. One of them is that, in France, early postwar examples of synthesis include chapels and churches. The artistic achievements in church interiors of influential modernist artists, such as Henri Matisse, Marc Chagall, Fernand Léger, Jean Lurçat, and Georges Rouault, are impressive. Their creations can not only be found in newly built churches with a modernist architecture, but also in churches classified as monuments of culture. In the latter case, this is mostly stained glass, but other types of works are integrated as well. Particularly intriguing to the view from Bulgaria during the Cold War was the fact that, in France, among the influential figures in sacred spaces of art were most often those who were accepted, albeit selectively, east of the Iron Curtain. Yet, their achievements in this field were not mentioned in publications at that time in the East. Based on specific artistic examples and on a polemical article at the time, this concise text highlights the main issues of discussion and intersections between sacred art and modern art.

Keywords:

modern art; sacred art; 1950s; artists in France; art in Communist Bulgaria.

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