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Nuestra
Señora de Guadalupe
Art of J. Michael Walker on display at Yale
October 10 - November 30
On display at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music
WEEKDAYS, 9am - 4pm.
Free and open to the public.
RECEPTION Thursday, October 27 / 4:30– 6 pm
View a slideshow of the artists work
The sacred art of J. Michael Walker will be on display in New Haven
at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, 409 Prospect Street, from
October 10 – November 30. The free exhibition, entitled Nuestra
Señora de Guadalupe: J. Michael Walker’s Life with
the Virgin and Saints, is open weekdays 9 – 4. Most of
the works will then travel to New York to the National Museum of
Catholic Art and History, where they will be on display from December
10, 2005 to August 30, 2006.
An Arkansas native, J. Michael Walker was culturally and spiritually
transformed by a lengthy stay in the Sierra Tarahumara of northern
Mexico. The sacred themes presented in this exhibition reflect the
artist’s immersion in the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe and
the legends of the saints.
Since 1995, J. Michael Walker has created a series of works depicting
Mexico’s most important icon and patron saint, The Virgin
of Guadalupe, as a real Mexican woman of Indian descent, engaged
in the myriad daily tasks by which women hold the world together.
His imagery flows from an apocryphal revelation in his studio, in
which he perceived Guadalupe and her attendant angel to “free”
themselves from their iconic positions, to come down from their
pedestals into the three-dimensional space of the artist’s
studio. This “vision” permitted him to place María
in a physical, three-dimensional space without disrespecting her
rich Mexican traditions.
More recently, the artist’s attention has focused on the
vast number of streets in Los Angeles named after saints - San Julian,
Santa Monica, and Santa Clara, to name a few. The works inspired
by these street names bear witness to the rich Mexican and Catholic
tradition present in Los Angeles since the eighteenth century.
There will be a reception for the artist on Thursday, October 27
from 4:30 – 6 in the Great Hall of the Institute. The exhibition
is presented by Yale Institute of Sacred Music with support from
Yale Divinity School.
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