ChicagoThrough the paintings in his most personal exhibition to date, gay artist Richard Gibbons has found not only healing, "but ultimately acceptance that the Church is often a poor reflection of the true message of Jesus," according to a press release.
"Confessions" opens at the Roy Boyd Gallery on July 19 with a cocktail reception and continues through August 31. The gallery is located at 739 N. Wells, Chicago.
One painting entitled "Conflixion" shows the lifeless Jesus Christ draped over the lap of the artist in the classic Pieta pose. Gibbons looks profoundly sad and weary, unsure of what to do or think about Christ within the context of the Catholic Church.
For Gibbons, conflicts with the Church began during his teenage years when he was told that his natural thoughts were forbidden and sinful. He feared that he was going to hell, not a fate proclaimed in the words of Christ, but by the teachings in his Catholic church and schools.
"Through the rather wrenching process of creating this series of paintings, I realized that I couldn't reject the true Christian message just because of its perversion by the Church," said Gibbons.
In a triptych (as an altarpiece with three painted panels side by side) entitled "Prey", Jesus on the cross is flanked by two children above, Mother Mary and Mary Magdalene on either side and six fugitive pedophile priests at his feet.
"While doing research for this painting on the registry of accused priests, I discovered that a number of the priests who taught me in Catholic high school and college had been sexually abusing boys and girls," he said. "The priest abuse scandal was well underway at that time but was yet unreported and uncurtailed."
Further reading on the "valiant" Crusades revealed that millions of people were slaughtered in the name of Christ, Christianity and Catholicism. Eternal salvation was the Church's promised reward for those who committed such atrocities. In the painting "Crusade", the crucifixion scene includes the Mother Mary holding a chalice of wine transformed into his blood, dripping down on a crusader's helmet, while Mary Magdalene, bereft with grief, leans against a monolith with the inscribed names of some of the most notorious crusades. A crusader's sword spears down into the symbolic bread (body) of Christ.
In the triptych entitled "Inquisition" the contrast between the message of Christ and the actions of the Catholic Church are highlighted. Two of these instruments of torture rest above the Mary and Mary Magdalene as they both kneel in anguish at his feet below the cross. Gibbons also learned that "Enlightenment" during the Inquisition led to the invention of brutal tools of torture-the head vise, stretch rack and the spiked wheelto cause excruciating pain and death in the name of Christ. "That's pretty difficult to reconcile with a man who preached love, acceptance and forgiveness," noted Gibbons.
"The Church has been so fixed on its ideas, so fearful of change and so intent on enforcing unbending rules at all costs, that it has been the last to adapt to new realities, whether it's the discovery that the earth revolves around the sun or that you can't torture people into enlightenment. Such reactionary doctrines continue to this day," Gibbons noted, "with the denial of a woman's right to control her own body, the prohibition against disease-preventing contraception and an active campaign against equal rights for gay people, all while the Church claims tax-free, non-political status."
About the artist
Richard Gibbons' artistic career spans over thirty years with exhibitions across the United States and Europe. In addition to painting, Gibbons has a very active architectural practice in Chicago and New York City, where he resides with his longtime partner, Robert Ollis.