My
father never struck me as a very religious man yet a significant
portion of his work, in fact his major body of work was occupied
with religious themes. In some way, it seems to me, he saw the
power, the drama and the human tragedy as well as the transcendencey
of the passion of Christ. His spirituality was involved, not as
a practitioner of any one religion, as much as it was engaged
in the struggle of the human soul with its own recognition of
the divine. Perhaps that is after all the lesson of Christ's life
that each of us must struggle with, as he did, to follow the path
that leads us to some higher realization, that drives us to create,
to exault and enoble the lifeforce that binds us all, no matter
what we choose to call it.
These works are filled with a sense
of awe and reverance as well as tenderness, passion and grief.
The great curcifixtion that he painted was lost during the war.
It was 17' feet high painted in over life size to created the
impression of actually being on the scene that terrible day on
Golgatha. All that remains of that composition are some of the
preliminary studies shown here, as well as some other scenes taken
the New Testament.
In the Ilustration
Gallery are the book covers he did for Fulton Oursler's best
selling books, but these were tame in comparison to the passion
and daring of his earlier work.