Imaging Imageless Prayer

Art history as a record of contemplation (with a free book and interview)

How ironic that the “imageless” tradition of the fourth-century mystic Evagrius of Pontus has left a remarkable visual record. Not only in the deserts of Egypt where this form of prayer was perfected, but in the very heart of the city where art history as we know it began.

It’s a rule that is abundantly illustrated in the book Hesychasm and Art by Anita Strezova, a book that is available (legally, so far as I can tell) for free. In this tradition called Christianity, the more you give up images, it seems, the more you get them back.

But why stop with the overtly Christian traditions of Africa, Italy, Greece and Russia? Jonathan Anderson’s new book (see my interview with him here), causes me to wonder if select moments in the vast field of contemporary art, especially its most deconstructive moments, can be marshaled to make similar points as well (as my colleague Taylor Worley argues). Surely that observation will annoy some people; but the era where such observations were aggressively policed is fading.

What a joy it has been to live through the shift.