When Israel to heart fell into sin the Bible says that the reason for their failure was the seeking of idols instead of God. In fact God ,through His prophets, said that they would become spiritually deaf and dumb just like the objects they worshipped. We should take this warning to heart when we seek to fill our lives with everything this world has to offer. Art becomes an idol when used in perverse ways like pornogrphy, or in mystical ways as in the eastern religious practices of meditation of objects. I'm sure there are others  too. Just the fact that millions of dollars are spent on what is really just paint on canvas shows a blindness in our culture. When we seek the One Who opens blind eyes and ears we can have a spiritual awakening and see ourselves as we really are. Then, by the help of God, we can become more like Jesus, as we follow Him.

I just read a statement by Jackson Pollock in a book I was reading "Writing about Art". The statement was made in 1947 in a small magazine called "Possibilities". The author of the book was looking at what the artist had written to understand his art. Let me just quote what I found interesting ,  "When I am in my painting, I'm not aware of what I'm doing. It is only after a sort of get aquainted period that I see what I have been about." He is describing an unconscious working of the painting. It is this area where the spiritual world influences the physical world. In the case of Pollock, his alcoholism and other internal demons find expression in his paintings.  I haven't yet seen one of his works up close in a museum, but just seeing them in a book you can sometimes sense the demonic influence.

Abstract expressionism gives amplification to the inner spiritual man through painting much the same way rock and roll does through music.

 

There was a time when art spoke the truth of the bible. It's true that many people were illiterate at that time.Thus elevating the artist to the place of spiritual teacher in the church. Somewhere along the line the message of truth became corrupted by the glorification of the art and the artist. A problem we still deal with today. When we shift our focus away from creating
art for self glorification and submit the gift back to the Giver, giving the glory to God. Then we can take back what has been stolen and on a personal level use artwork as a means of worship, a voice of prophecy and revive the spiritual teaching tool in the body of Christ.