Art for Advent: The Four Last Things course
This course will focus on the season of Advent through visual art that explores the heart of the traditional ‘Four Last Things’.
These theological topics have been part of the spirit of preparation and repentance that has characterised Advent for centuries: death, judgement, heaven and hell. These topics sit alongside the focus on the four Sundays of Advent, which take Christians deeper into the stories of the Matriarchs and Patriarchs, the Prophets, John the Baptist, and Mary the Mother of God.
Interweaving these key elements of the Advent journey, the sessions will concentrate on works of art by modern and contemporary women artists including Barbara Walker, Corita Kent, and Claudette Johnson.
About the course leader
The Revd Dr Ayla Lepine is an art historian, theologian and visiting scholar at Sarum College. She is the Associate Rector at St James’s, Piccadilly in London. Her PhD at the Courtauld Institute of Art focused on the Gothic Revival and medievalism in modern Britain. She has held Fellowships at Yale’s Institute of Sacred Music, the University of Essex, and the National Gallery. She publishes and lectures widely, particularly on the intersections of social justice and modern visual culture. Her recent projects include Fruits of the Spirit: Art from the Heart, a co-curated 2022 exhibition at the National Gallery:. Her research has been published in Architectural History, British Art Studies, Tate’s In Focus series, and the Journal of Theology and Sexuality, and her co-edited books include Architecture and Modern Religious Communities: Building the Kingdom and Revival: Memories, Identities, Utopias. Her book Women, Art, God will be published with SCM Press in 2025.
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