ArtWay

Beauty is not pasted over suffering but grows out of it—like the proverbial shoot from parched ground. Bruce Herman

Jan Krist & Gor Chahal

Gor Chahal: Protest Song 

and
 
Jan Krist: Hope
 
 
Gor Chahal: Protest Song, 1998 
 
 
 
Jan Krist: Hope
 
Let’s talk about fear
And the toll that it takes on us every day
And pain, grief and doubt
And the way that it pulls us inside out
If you believe nothing’s gonna change
Just leaves you prisoner to the pain
 
But what makes the abused refuse to back down?
What makes the broken stand their ground?
What makes the heart start to believe?
What is the gift that faith receives?
What is the soul of the mystery?
What breaks the hold of brutality?
 
Hope with its eyes wide open
Hope with its will unbroken
Hope
 
And let’s talk about what has become
Of the trust that we gave and the things we have done
And faith in something bigger than us
More true than people who vie for our trust
Trust is used, truth is betrayed
How’s anything gonna change?
 
But what makes the abused refuse to back down?
What makes the broken stand their ground?
What makes the heart start to believe?
What is the gift that faith receives?
What is the soul of the mystery?
What breaks the hold of brutality?
 
Hope with its eyes wide open
Hope with its will unbroken
Hope
 

***

About the Artwork: 
Protest Song
Gor Chahal
Color Photograph

About the Artist: 
Gor Chahal 
(b. 1961) is a Russian artist. His early life was less than artistic, and in fact the only artistic education he received was between the ages of 11 to 15 when he studied drawing in the studio of Tatiana Kiparisova. In the early 2000s after several decades of artistic work, Chahal turned his attention to modern Christian art and the dialog that can be born of interaction between contemporary secular and spiritual art. He sees himself as facilitating this dialog. He stresses that his most recent pieces are specifically Christian in nature. Protest Song is a fitting example, the retelling of the Old Testament story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego with a distinctly contemporary feel. Chahal’s most recent works have received a great deal of attention from both secular and religious communities within Russia and abroad.  His work is displayed in public and private collections in Russia, Austria, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Japan, the USA, and Egypt.  Both the Church of the Martyr Tatyana at Moscow State University and the secular Tretyakov Gallery have played host to Chahal’s works, so that Chahal’s vision of opening a dialog between the secular and spiritual worlds is beginning to happen.


More:

- January 2024: Wendell Berry and Carol Aust
- November 2023: Luci Shaw & Botticelli
- March 2023: Jill Baumgaertner & Liviu Mocan
- September 2022: The Uncompleted Man
- March 2022: Annukka Laine
- January 2022: Megan Fisher
- November 2021: Luci Shaw & Worku Goshu
- September 2021: Pádraig Ó Tuama & Leo G. Franchi
- May 2021: Malcolm Guite & Unknown
- January 2021: Emily Dickinson & Henri Matisse
- December 2020: Allan Boesak & Harm Visser
- June 2020: Luci Shaw & Sebastian Wien
- November 2019: Dennis O’Driscoll & David Robinson
- June 2019: C.S. Lewis & Wayne Adams
- May 2019: Malcolm Guite & Andrea Mantegna: Ascension
- May 2019: Denise Levertov & Ernst Barlach
- October 2018: Sándor Reményik & Ildikó Mecséri
- August 2018: Abigail Carroll & Caravaggio
- May 2018: Bohuslav Reynek: Poet and Visual Artist
- March 2018: George MacDonald & James Ensor
- January 2018: Wendell Berry & Annukka Laine
- November 2017: Mary Oliver & Pauline Baynes
- August 2017: Ellyn Maybe & Pablo Picasso
- April 2017: Lucy Shaw & Henry Ossawa Tanner
- April 2017: Denise Levertov & Diego Velazquez
- February 2017: David L. Hatton & David L. Hatton
- November 2016: Dennis ODriscoll & David Robinson
- June 2016: Luci Shaw & Marietha Smit
- April 2016: Robert Browning & Pauline Baynes
- March 2016: Wendell Berry & Carol Aust
- January 2016: Dante G. Rossetti & Dante G. Rossetti
- December 2015: Sufjan Stevens & Geertgen tot Sint Jans
- September 2015: Thomas Merton & Andre Racz
- June 2015: Frances Bellerby & Jeltje Hoogenkamp
- March 2015: Christine Perrin & Ted Prescott
- December 2014: Sufjan Stevens & Geertgen tot Sint Jans
- November 2014: David L. Hatton & David L. Hatton
- July 2014: Chris Lorensson & Dylan Clements
- June 2014: Jonathan Evens & Henry Shelton
- April 2014: Gerlind Krause & Worku Goshu
- April 2014: Christine Perrin & Michelangelo
- February 2014: David Hatton & Angelo da Fonseca
- January 2014: James Weldon Johnson & Aaron Douglas
- January 2014: Hannah Main-van der Kamp & Liviu Mocan
- December 2013: Christine Perrin & Fra Angelico
- December 2013: Luci Shaw & Botticelli
- November 2013: Christine Perrin & Luca Signorelli
- October 2013: Hannah Main-van der Kamp & Tanja Butler
- October 2013: James Weldon Johnson & Aaron Douglas
- October 2013: Marilyn Chandler McEntyre & Johannes Vermeer
- September 2013: The Renewal of Ekphrasis by John Skillen