The Jesuits’ aversion to traditional values has found a new victim: iconography and Catholic art. This week, the National Catholic Reporter reported that Jesuit artist Nicholas Leeper’s exhibition, “Twilight of the Idols”, was cancelled by the Sheen Center just two weeks before it would have opened to the public. Mr Leeper claims that he was disappointed and shocked by this cancellation. Upon reviewing his artwork, however, it is hard to see how.
The exhibition is seemingly a critique of traditional forms of iconography, which Mr Leeper suggests border on idol worship. Images in the exhibition are supposed to represent Catholic saints and figures using “commercial advertising inside the structure of Byzantine icons”. The end result is unaesthetic imagery that waters down – if not denigrates – Catholic truths and figures. Instead of calling Catholics higher, showing them what they ought to aspire towards, Mr Leeper’s “icons” erroneously point viewers back towards earth.
