Not all Religious Art is Made by Believers: David Mach

THE GUARDIAN
By Adrienne Dengerink Chaplin

The Question: Do we need faith to see religious art?

"Die Harder" by David Mach is made from 3,000 coat hangers

UNITED KINGDOM - The question whether or not a non-believer can appreciate religious art without sharing in its maker's religious purpose seems to assume that all religious art is made by believers. This is a false assumption. Anybody doubting whether a non-religious person can produce religious art should go and see David Mach's mammoth exhibition Precious Light currently on display at the City Art Centre in Edinburgh. Works like Mach's challenge the assumption that only artists of faith can produce religious art. Indeed, it can sometimes be the artist without faith who does the better job, unencumbered by expectations of conforming to the standard interpretations of either the church or the history of art. This should give us pause. If it is possible for artists without faith to produce religious art why would the viewer need faith to appreciate it? [link]