Art Exhibit, Discussion Set for Friday in Alexandria

• PHOTO: The Sorcerer's Veil Descending - oil on panel - 8'x10' - 1999; image courtesy of Convergence Art Gallery

ALEXANDRIA, VA -- Convergence Arts Initiative invites you to an engaging discussion with Painter Edward Knippers and distinguished panel members Friday at 7 p.m. at The Gallery @ Convergence, 1801 N. Quaker Lane, Alexandria, VA, 22302.

The controversial work of Edward Knippers has been described as “too large for homes, too nude for churches, and too religious for public spaces...” Why does this passionate, violent work related to biblical themes elicit such strong response from such diverse audiences?

VIOLENT GRACE deals with the difficult problems of life and death, yet the viewer is not left in despair having encountered this art. As Gregory Wolfe states in the foreword to the newly released monograph, “…drawn into the wrestling match we come away wounded–and blessed–by a passionate, unreasonable, overwhelming beauty.

A controversial artist because of his use of the nude in a Biblical context, Knippers has been denounced as having made the Bible “into a nudist colony,” and has had exhibited paintings destroyed, and shows closed because of public outcry. “Yet these are not irreligious paintings.” (Monsignor Timothy Verdon, director, the Cathedral Foundation Museum, Florence)

Even in the face of these attacks, champions of his art have affirmed the importance of the paintings in statements such as: “A Victorian flight from the body was an error from which the Christian world has yet to recover. Pope John Paul II’s landmark Theology of the Body is a giant step towards that recovery. Edward Knippers’ paintings are a visual vehicle for it.” (David L. Hatton)

Having worked in the studios of S. W. Hayter and Zao Wou-ki, Knippers is well versed in the vocabulary of modernism, yet he is known to many as a neo-Baroque painter. This volume greatly expands such a narrow view and shows the artist to have used a wide range of tools to make clear his artistic objective, which is to grapple “with the perennial human questions embedded in the Bible…”

With roots in both German Expressionism and in 20th Century abstraction, as well as in the ancient vocabulary of the early icon, Knippers has accomplished a body of painting that is fresh in its power and grace. As John Walford (author of Jacob van Ruisdael and the Perception of Landscape, Yale University Press) has said, “…few will deny that the outcome of this large body of work, as seen within the context of twentieth and twenty-first century art, stands out as unprecedented in its nature, thematic import, artistry, power, visual impact, and overall significance.”

Panel discussion Friday evening

Join Margaret Adams Parker, Visual Artist and Adjunct Faculty at Virginia Theological Seminary; Glenn Howell, Photographer; Jerry Eisley, Director of the Washington Arts Group and Fox Hall Gallery; Meagan Clearwood, Director of Audience Engagement for WSC Avant Bard Theatre and others for a panel conversation with the artist about his work and what it evokes followed by questions from the audience.

The free event begins Friday at 6 p.m. with drinks and light appetizers in the Gallery. Knippers will discuss his work in a talk beginning at 7 p.m., followed by a panel conversation.

The evening will conclude with the opportunity to purchase an autographed copy of Knippers’ new monograph. A special collector’s edition of the monograph (50 copies) will also be available for pre-purchase. Each collector’s edition comes with an original 14” X 11” painting on panel by the artist, and will be housed in an Italian linen clamshell presentation box. The pre-paid, pre-publication price for The Collector’s Edition is $1,000. The post-publication price is $1,800.

The paintings for The Collector’s Edition will be narratives from the Old and New Testaments, collectively conceived of as a predella of the faith. A predella is the physical support on which an altarpiece rests, and is often painted with scenes which explicate the altar’s subject. The Collector’s Edition predella will be accounts from the Bible of God’s interactions with humankind which are the support on which the great altar of our faith rests. Benefactors who choose to buy a copy of The Collector’s Edition will own an original panel from this predella of our faith.

There will also be a Deluxe Edition of the book in a limited edition of 50. Each book will be accompanied by an original signed and numbered woodcut print, designed, cut, and printed by the artist and will be housed in an Italian linen slipcase. The pre-publication price of The Deluxe Edition is $250. The post-publication price is $400.

About the exhibit
VIOLENT GRACE: A Retrospective is a survey of five decades of paintings by Edward Knippers. The exhibit is being held in the Gallery at Convergence as a celebration of the release of Knippers’ new monograph, Violent Grace: Paintings from 1968 - Present. In addition to the retrospective, this exhibit features recently completed pieces by the artist never before exhibited.

About the artist

Edward Knippers received an MFA from the University of Tennessee; served as fellow at S. W. Hayter’s Atelier 17 in Paris; studied under Zao Wou-ki, painting and Otto Eglau, printmaking at the International Summer Academy of the Fine Arts in Salzburg, Austria; and figure study: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, and the Grande Chaumiere, Paris. Knippers has held over 200 awards and exhibitions through out North America and Europe. He has been featured in numerous publications including: LIFE, Christianity Today, The Critic, The Washington Post, Image Magazine, The Washington Times, and, New American Paintings.

“The human body is at the center of my artistic imagination because the body is an essential element in the Christian doctrines of Creation, Incarnation, and Resurrection.

Disembodiment is not an option for the Christian. Christ places His Body and His Blood at the heart of our faith in Him. Our faith comes to naught if the Incarnation was not accomplished in actual time and space – if God did not send His Son to us in a real body with real blood.

Heresy results when we try to minimize the presence or preeminence of the body and the blood. Yet even believers have become comfortable with our age as it tries to disembody reality. Physicality is messy; it is demanding and always a challenge to control. In the name of progress, our communication is increasingly becoming a disembodied voice on the line or we listen to a virtual image on a screen. We move human interaction, even consciousness, from the real into a virtual realm. When we must deal with the physicality of the real world, it is increasingly uncomfortable.”

See images of Ed Knippers work and purchase the monograph at www.edknippers.com