Passionate Art
The noun “salvation” is mentioned 40 times in the New Testament of the Bible. It gets four mentions in the Acts of the Apostles. The greatest Christian apologist of the current age, Professor John Lennox, writes in Determined to Believe: The Sovereignty of God, Freedom, Faith, and Human Responsibility (2018), “God has provided a salvation that is available to all, and whether a person is saved or not depends on two factors: on God’s part, on the provision of that salvation; and on our side, on our faith, not our merit – on whether or not we will avail ourselves of that salvation, with the capacity for exercising trust that God has given us.”
This declaration accords with Acts 4:12, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” That name? Jesus. Peter Howson’s exhibition at Flowers Gallery in London’s Mayfair is called Salvation. Cork Street is to artworks what Jermyn Street is to shirts or Hatton Garden is to diamonds or Brick Lane is to curries. This boulevard of brilliant art galleries is being rebuilt so the façade of Flowers Gallery is shrouded in scaffolding. The largest painting in the exhibition (91.5 cm by 71.5 cm), its namesake Salvation, is an oil on canvas crucifixion scene hanging in the window. One of the reflected scaffold poles pierces Jesus’ side.
The white rectangular plan interior of the gallery is hung with 16 oils on gessoed panel (most around 22 cm square) paired with accompanying pencil studies (most around 16 cm wide by 22 cm high). Stations of the cross and more. Eloi Eloi is Peter’s depiction of the Saviour’s face contorted in agony against a blood red background. An anguished howl in Aramaic can almost be heard ricocheting through the air “Eloi, eloi, lema sabachthani?” Mark 15:34, “And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ‘My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?’” But Peter recognises wherever there’s Jesus, there’s hope. You Will See Me Again is another painting named after a Biblical verse. John 16:16, “Jesus went on to say, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.’”
Peter explains, “The subject is my choice of the most important bits in the life of Jesus I suppose. It’s from a certain point, you know, and key moments like the visit by Nicodemus at night, and the joy of Jesus when He’s joyful. Then it comes to the darker areas, when He’s getting whipped and beaten up and when He’s standing before Pilate. It’s important to me: I believe in the resurrection of the body, even if you’ve been blown to smithereens in a war. These pieces are all to do with the technique, especially when you’re painting on wood, you know, it’s a very unforgiving surface. If you make a mistake it shows up much more than a canvas. I had to wear special glasses to paint them. It’s a thoroughly enjoyable experience doing these. I really feel good about them now actually yeah.”
The 68 year old Scottish artist (he studied at the Glasgow School of Art) knows all about smithereens: the Imperial War Museum commissioned him to record the conflict in the former Yugoslavia in 1992 and an appointment as the official British war artist for Bosnia would follow 12 months later. In 1999 he was an official war painter for The Times in Kosovo. In 2000 he entered rehab and became a Christian. His once chaotic images of contemporary life and death have been replaced by Christocentric art, the icon embodying millennia of anonymous victims of violence and the eternal hope of redemption. The intense expressionism of Peter’s figurative realism is well suited to his subject.
“The work I do on the Bible and on the teachings of Jesus or on the events in Jesus’ life – which have in fact fascinated artists for centuries,” he says, “I don’t know why it shouldn’t continue with me. For me to paint these things, it’s made a big difference to a lot of people’s lives. It helps people. It’s a therapy that takes them through a door into a different universe altogether. They discover they are not a person that’s just flesh and blood, an animal. It means that there’s a spiritual side they’ve missed out on. And that’s the most important thing they can ever understand or realise. For people to go through that door – that’s salvation.” Scripture is never far from Peter’s prose and practice. Revelation 3:20, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with Me.”
