Recapicturation

Went to 'Breakfast with the Bible' again at the cathedral today. Wasn't sure if I was meant to, but got a nice green wave on the way there. Purely 'coincidentally', Canon Gomes began by saying he'd been in the Walker gallery yesterday and looked at the picture of Jesus with the children (the very one I mentioned yesterday). His point was about the Roman Soldier who's in the background - which had also struck me as odd. He's not mentioned in the Bible at that point, but must have been put there as a constant reminder of the oppression of the people and maybe as a portent of things to come for Jesus.

Also at the Walker, the current exhibition was some black and white photos of Liverpool life from the 1970s. I hate black and white photos. There's just no need. We have colour. We did in the '70s. (There was a brief time when you'd get superior resolution on monochrome, but still.) A black and white photo of a stolen car in Liverpool may be 'art', but it's in no way inspiring.

I really, really, like colour. It's a wonderful gift. The world is in colour: we have no need to make it artificially drab by straining the rainbows out of it.

One room I'm not keen on at the Walker is the statues room. (It's probably not called that.) There are lots of stone people, again in black or white. Except one, which is called 'The Tinted Venus', by John Gibson. He too got fed up with the whole monochrome thing and decided to colour in his statue. A bit. It's actually very subtly tinted - hardly coloured. People didn't like it, of course.

There are plenty of fully coloured statues in churches. The Greeks and other ancient cultures made them too. Have to be honest - I don't really like them either. Human statues are just a bit creepy. I think I'll claim Exodus 20:4 in support.

Meanwhile, must get to see this.

Oh, and I've started reading a book about art. Seems quite interesting so far. Got through the history of iconoclasm bit. It uses words I don't know, so it seems quite clever to me.