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Quiet Isn't Always Peace
February 03, 2021 to May 20, 2021
People everywhere were captivated as Amanda Gorman delivered her poem The Hill We Climb on the steps of the Capitol on Inauguration Day. Her cascading cadences of imagery alluded to orators of the past but unequivocally asserted her own voice in addressing the present moment. A short phrase from the opening lines of the poem serves as inspiration and title for this exhibition:
When day comes we ask ourselves,
where can we find light in this never-ending shade?
The loss we carry,
a sea we must wade.
We've braved the belly of the beast,
We've learned that quiet isn't always peace,
and the norms and notions
of what just is
isn't always justice.
A year into a global pandemic, we might agree that, while a measure of peace and quiet can be a wonderful thing, an enforced solitude wears on the soul. The pandemic has brought uneasy disconnects: sparse streets during rush hour, the lilt of birdsong in place of the white noise of traffic. Yet that calm belies the reality of people schooling or working from home (or, worse, out of work), of crowded hospitals and racking coughs and gasping breaths. Lack of social contact, especially with those we care most about, can be an unwelcome sort of quiet.
Quiet isn鈥檛 always peace, yet sometimes it is, and we hope that MOCRA is a place where you can pause, breathe, adjust your perspective, and delight in creative expression. Some of the works on display reflect anxiety, impatience, and loss, while others speak to the capacity for faith, solidarity, and resilience to help us carry on. Artists with work in Quiet Isn't Always Peace include:
Peter Ambrose | Craig Antrim | Salma Arastu | Lore Bert | Dawoud Bey | Gryphon Blackswan | Nick Boskovich | Frederick J. Brown | Junko Chodos | Michael David | Lesley Dill | Robert Farber | Luis Gonz谩lez Palma | Patrick Graham | Donald Grant | Laurie Gross | John Hilgert | DoDo Jin Ming | Andy Julo | Tobi Kahn | Adrian Kellard | Dean Kessmann | Robert Kostka | Horatio Hung-Yan Law | Bernard Maisner | Jeffrey Gerard Miller | Anne Minich | Jim Morphesis | Rebecca Niederlander | Daniel Ramirez | Georges Rouault | Christopher Schulte | Susan Schwalb | Thomas Skomski | Michael Tracy
Our challenges may persist, but we might find a bit of encouragement and inspiration. As Gorman鈥檚 poem concludes:
When day comes we step out of the shade,
aflame and unafraid,
the new dawn blooms as we free it.
For there is always light,
if only we鈥檙e brave enough to see it.
If only we鈥檙e brave enough to be it.
French artist Georges Rouault is a singular figure in twentieth-century art. His paintings and prints are marked by a highly distinctive style influenced by his strong affinity for the medieval period as well as his Catholic faith. MOCRA is fortunate to hold in its collection one of the few complete sets in the United States of Rouault鈥檚 鈥淢iserere.鈥 Comprising 58 prints executed in a range of intaglio printing techniques, 鈥淢iserere鈥 represents a landmark achievement in the graphic arts and in the religious art of the twentieth century.
We are pleased to present a selection of 15 prints from 鈥淢iserere鈥 as part of 鈥淨uiet Isn鈥檛 Always Peace.鈥 Some resonate with America鈥檚 collective experiences of the past year, so strongly marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, tensions around racial inequities and the call for social justice reform, and growing economic disparities. Others, with clear religious imagery, demonstrate Rouault鈥檚 penchant for addressing the suffering and wickedness of the world by linking them with the suffering of Christ.
above:
Installation view of 鈥淨uiet Isn鈥檛 Always Peace.鈥
Exhibition |
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Bernard Maisner: The Hourglass and the Spiral |
Georges Rouault: Miserere et Guerre |
Erika Diettes: Sudarios |
Regina DeLuise: Vast Bhutan 鈥 Images from the Phenomenal World |
Calligraphic Art of Salma Arastu |
Thresholds: MOCRA at 20 - Part Two, The Second Decade |
Rebecca Niederlander: Axis Mundi |
Jordan Eagles: BLOOD / SPIRIT |
Thresholds: MOCRA at 20 - Part One, The First Decade |
Archie Granot: The Papercut Haggadah |
A Tribute to Frederick J. Brown |
Patrick Graham: Thirty Years 鈥 The Silence Becomes the Painting |
Adrian Kellard: The Learned Art of Compassion |
Good Friday: The Suffering Christ in Contemporary Art |
James Rosen: The Artist and the Capable Observer |
MOCRA at Fifteen: Good Friday |
Michael Byron: Cosmic Tears |
Miao Xiaochun: The Last Judgment in Cyberspace |
MOCRA at Fifteen: Pursuit of the Spirit |
Oskar Fischinger: Movement and Spirit |
The Celluloid Bible: Marketing Films Inspired by Scripture |
Arshile Gorky: The Early Years 鈥 Drawings and Paintings, 1927鈥1937 |
Andy Warhol: Silver Clouds |
Junko Chodos: The Breath of Consciousness |
DoDo Jin Ming: Land and Sea |
Rito, Espejo y Ojo / Ritual, Mirror and Eye: Photography by Luis Gonz谩lez-Palma, Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, and Pablo Soria |
Radiant Forms in Contemporary Sacred Architecture: Richard Meier and Steven Holl |
Daniel Ramirez: Twenty Contemplations on the Infant Jesus, an Homage to Oliver Messiaen |
Avoda: Objects of the Spirit 鈥 Ceremonial Art by Tobi Kahn |
Tony Hooker: The Greater Good 鈥 An Artist's Contemporary View of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study |
Andy Warhol: Silver Clouds, an encore presentation |
Andy Warhol's Silver Clouds: A Fortieth Anniversary Celebration |
Lewis deSoto: Paranirvana |
Robert Farber: A Retrospective, 1985鈥1995 |
Bernard Maisner: Entrance to the Scriptorium |
Tobi Kahn: Metamorphoses |
MOCRA: The First Five Years |
Steven Heilmer: Pietre Sante | Holy Stones |
Utopia Body Paint Collection and Australian Aboriginal Art from St. Louis Collections |
Manfred Stumpf: Enter Jerusalem |
Frederick J. Brown: The Life of Christ Altarpiece |
Edward Boccia: Eye of the Painter |
Consecrations Revisited |
Keith Haring: Altarpiece 鈥 The Life of Christ |
Ian Friend: The Edge of Belief 鈥 paintings, sculpture, and works on paper, 1980鈥1994 |
Eleanor Dickinson: A Retrospective |
Post-Minimalism and the Spiritual: Four Chicago Artists |
Consecrations: The Spiritual in Art in the Time of AIDS |
Sanctuaries: Recovering the Holy in Contemporary Art, Part One |
Body and Soul: The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater |
Transformations: Highlights from the MOCRA Collection |
Georges Rouault: Miserere et Guerre |
Georges Rouault: Miserere et Guerre |
Georges Rouault: Miserere et Guerre |
Georges Rouault: Miserere et Guerre |
Visible Conservation |
Highlights from the MOCRA Collection |
Highlights from the MOCRA Collection |
Highlights from the MOCRA Collection: The Romero Cross |
Highlights from the MOCRA Collection |
Highlights from the MOCRA Collection |
Highlights from the MOCRA Collection |
Highlights from the MOCRA Collection |
Highlights from the MOCRA Collection |
Highlights from the MOCRA Collection |
Highlights from the MOCRA Collection |
Sanctuaries: Recovering the Holy in Contemporary Art, Part Two 鈥 Three Major Installations |
Beyond Words: Three Contemporary Artists and the Manuscript Tradition |
MOCRA: 25 |
Gary Logan: Elements |
Gratitude |
Surface to Source |
Quiet Isn't Always Peace |
Tom Kiefer: Pertenencias / Belongings |
Double Vision: Art from Jesuit University Collections |
Lesley Dill: Dream World of the Forest |
Jordan Eagles: VIRAL\VALUE |
This Road Is the Heart Opening: Selections from the MOCRA Collection |
Vicente Telles and Brandon Maldonado: Cuentos Nuevomexicanos |
Open Hands: Crafting the Spiritual |
Selections from the MOCRA Collection |