Taylor Worley: Spirituality in Contemporary Art

Taylor is visiting associate professor of art history at Wheaton College and project director for “Thinking about Thinking: Conceptual Art and the Contemplative Tradition.” This research project seeks to make new connections between the conceptualist art-making strategy and the benefits of spiritual contemplation. Taylor is the author of "Memento Mori in Contemporary Art: Theologies of Lament and Hope." Additionally, he has edited "Theology, Aesthetics and Culture: Conversations with the Work of David Brown" with Rob MacSwain, "Dreams, Doubt, and Dread: The Spiritual in Film" with Zachary Settle, and "Contemporary Art and the Church: A Conversation between Two Worlds" with David Taylor. He has served on the board of directors for the organization Christians in the Visual Arts since 2015. In this episode, Taylor and I discuss the place of spirituality in contemporary art. I was interested to hear his ideas about how a theological interpretation of art adds meaning and depth to the variety of frameworks typically used in art criticism. We talked about how artists approach spirituality today and how the gap between contemporary art and Christian life might be bridged. We also focused on conceptual art, an approach to artmaking that, despite appearances, can often reflect Christian ethics.