{"product_id":"art-artists-and-gauguin-9781909281806","title":"Art, Artists and Gauguin","description":"\u003cp\u003eWhy is the publication of these writings so important? What does\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRookmaaker's legacy have to offer us in the new millennium?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFirst, his books and essays stand as a monument to the importance of\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003erigorous Christian art-historical scholarship. For many years Professor of\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eArt History at the Free University of Amsterdam, Rookmaaker was a\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003efastidious scholar. Today, when a postmodern fascination with all things\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e'aesthetic' and 'spiritual' can easily engender scholarly carelessness and\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ean ignorance of specific artworks, Roomaaker reminds us that Christian\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ecommitment must never be used to avoid the kind of precise, \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eintellectual engagement which is so evident in his written words, a\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003epainstaking attentiveness to the details of particular pieces of art, and to\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ethe particularities of society and culture in which they are embedded.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSecond, we are reminded of the importance of breadth as well as depth.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRookmaaker's interests ranged far beyond the visual arts. He had a\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003efascinated interest, for instance, in music (especially the spirituals\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eand jazz), and in broader cultural concerns (youth culture, scientific\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ediscovery, and much more). In an age of increasing specialization and\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eblinkered vision, Rookmaaker shows us that it is quite possible to be a\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003especialist and to be alert to the links between these specialisms and\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003emuch wider issues. Third, Rookmaaker sets the arts in the midst of a rich\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eand full-blooded Christian world view. For him it was not good enough\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eto claim that the arts are important for the Christian, and then justify\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ethis with a few verses carelessly plucked from Scripture. We need to\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003edemonstrate carefully what place the arts have in the grand and sweeping\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003epurposes of God for history, and it was to Rookmaaker's immense\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ecredit that for thousands he made this breathtakingly clear. In a climate\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ewhen the contribution of a distinctively Christian perspective on the arts\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eis so often ruthlessly marginalized, often to the point of extinction, \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRookmaaker's voice is one we sorely need to hear. Fourth, nourished by\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ethe Dutch Neo-Calvinist philosophy of Dooyeweerd and his followers, \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRookmaaker provides a vision of the arts that does justice both to their\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eirreducible integrity and to their interrelatedness with other aspects of\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGod's world. Western post modernity relishes in the 'aestheticization' of\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eculture, sometimes to the point that the aesthetic threatens to swallow\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eup everything else in a wash of images. In his own day Rookmaaker\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003esaw that a proper refusal to isolate or downplay the arts must not be\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ecountered by a Neo-Romantic exaltation of the aesthetic. He knew there\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ewas another much more fruitful option, implicit in the Christian faith.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWe need to find it and celebrate it more than ever today.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt is a wonderful thought that this man's rare wisdom, which so\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eradically changed the lives of those who knew him, can now find its way\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eto a wider audience in the pages that follow. Rookmaaker's is a timely\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ewisdom, and it will inspire thousands for decades to come.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eHengelaar-Rookmaaker, Marleen:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - Marleen Hengelaar-Rookmaaker is editor-in-chief of ArtWay, www.artway.eu, an online service and resource in Dutch and English about the visual arts and faith for individuals and congregations. She did her studies in musicology at the University of Amsterdam, complemented with minors in art history and liturgical studies at the Free University in Amsterdam. For many years she has worked as a freelance editor, translator and writer. She edited the Complete Works of her father, art historian Hans Rookmaaker, contributed to books, and wrote articles about popular music, liturgy, and the visual arts. She was editor of a Dutch book of visual meditations for Lent (2012) and co-authored a Dutch handbook for art in the church (2015). In 2019 she co-curated the Art Stations of the cross in Amsterdam. She lives in Langbroek in the Netherlands.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Piquant Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50445232767250,"sku":"9781909281806","price":33.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_c042d4e9-5dd4-4d10-991e-e9260cc43fd1.jpg?v=1729698538","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/art-artists-and-gauguin-9781909281806","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}