Friedhelm Mennekes is a Jesuit priest and the parish priest of St Peter’s, one of the oldest churches in Cologne. Peter Paul Rubens was baptised there and in gratitude painted for the church his famous Crucifixion of St Peter. Artists as diverse as Francis Bacon, Anish Kapoor, Rosemarie Trockel, Arnulf Reiner, and Cindy Sherman have all created or exhibited triptychs for display behind the altar.
As an art historian Mennekes holds honorary professorships internationally and at the Australian Catholic University.
Speaking engagements and professorship duties have brought him again to Australia and Eureka Street was fortunate enough to sit down with him and hear his thoughts on the place of spirituality in contemporary art.
ES: What is your definition of spirituality in the context of contemporary art?
FM: I would say spirituality, in the most inner sense, is to question. To think or reflect conscience, knowledge, feelings and questions.
Which particular artists do you think can make the viewer question in this way?
I’ve been working significantly for 25 years now with the arts. I received a particular education by the artists—my biggest teacher was the sculptor James Lees Byars. His work is about questions and he really deeply, deeply let me know that art doesn’t have to be understanding parallel to religion, but the other way around—religion has to be understanding parallel to art. To him, all work he is doing, or what an artist is doing, is to put up the questions, not give the answers. The one who really educated me and brought me to art was Joseph Beuys. Another is Francis Bacon, or even the very consequential female American artist Barbara Kruger. Also Rosemarie Trockel, Cindy Sherman and Jenny Holzer have really spoken to me. I’ve had the opportunity to meet all of these artists. I have done many exhibitions with all of these artists, and many others. When I was a learner, wide-eyed and hungry for art, I was always doing exhibitions, sometimes ten a year. I had an exhibition on every corner.
Can a work of art that is not overtly religious, or that doesn’t even have a religious theme, still offer the viewer a sense of religion or faith?
I think religious people have to get trained in seeing new things with their inner eye. They have to learn how creativity can transfer into religion. This is what is really so important.
The times for Christian subjects are over. The time