Michael O’Brien’s Theological Aesthetics

Rebekah Lamb

doi:10.3390/rel12060451

Abstract

This essay introduces and examines aspects of the theological aesthetics of contemporary Canadian artist, Michael D. O’Brien (1948–). It also considers how his philosophy of the arts informs understandings of the Catholic imagination. In so doing, it focuses on his view that prayer is the primary source of imaginative expression, allowing the artist to operate from a position of humble receptivity to the transcendent. O’Brien studies is a nascent field, owing much of its development in recent years to the pioneering work of Clemens Cavallin. Apart from Cavallin, few scholars have focused on O’Brien’s extensive collection of paintings (principally because the first catalogue of his art was only published in 2019). Instead, they have worked on his prodigious output of novels and essays. In prioritising O’Brien’s paintings, this study will assess the relationship between his theological reflections on the Catholic imagination and art practice. By focusing on the interface between theory and practice in O’Brien’s art, this article shows that conversations about the philosophy of the Catholic imagination benefit from attending to the inner standing points of contemporary artists who see in the arts a place where faith and praxis meet. In certain instances, I will include images of O’Brien’s devotional art to further illustrate his contemplative, Christ-centred approach to aesthetics. Overall, this study offers new directions in O’Brien studies and scholarship on the philosophy of the Catholic imagination.

Highlights

In prioritising O’Brien’s paintings, this study will assess the relationship between his theological reflections on the Catholic imagination and art practice
By focusing on the interface between theory and practice in O’Brien’s art, this article shows that conversations about the philosophy of the Catholic imagination benefit from attending to the inner standing points of contemporary artists who see in the arts a place where faith and praxis meet
O’Brien’s paintings, from his earliest work in the 1970s to the present, and accounts for the the Baptist in Prison (2001), The Prophet Elijah (2000) and Exodus (1982) we find him experimenting with a striking variety of styles, colours and expressions in order to communicate the mystical movements of the human soul, movements which transcend the very forms of expression which seek to talk about them in some way

Summary

The Rosary as a Guide for the Imagination

O’Brien’s paintings and novels are imbued with the sense that art is meant to express, and mysteriously participate in, the divine plan of salvation as revealed in scripture. O’Brien an imaginative, analogical trajectory in which the finite (human) and infinite (divine) meet in the midst of both the ordinary and dramatic dimensions of everyday life and living This Christian understanding of time is most fully expressed in liturgical theology and the liturgy, itself, as the memorial of, and participation in, Christ’s passion, death and resurrection. O’Brien: art is the fruit of contemplation, of what could be called a rosarian approach to time and daily life As with his cycle of rosary paintings as a whole, The Nativity serves, as an example of O’Brien’s visual theology—one which echoes aspects of Pope John. We will gain a better sense of the way in which he understands the imagination—and, by extension, the practice of the arts—to be inherently religious

Called to Contemplation

O’Brien and the Catholic Imagination

O’Brien’s Christological Aesthetics

Conclusions