Modern Sacred: The Saint John’s Bible and Selections from the Permanent Collection

The University of Dallas Beatrice M. Haggerty Gallery is proud to announce Modern Sacred: The Saint John’s Bible and Selections from the Permanent Collection, an exhibition showcasing permanent collection highlights alongside the Heritage Edition Volume “Gospels and Acts” from The Saint John’s Bible, the first handwritten and illuminated Bible commissioned by a Benedictine monastery since the invention of the printing press in the 15th century.

An opening reception for “Modern Sacred” is scheduled for Friday, Sept. 1, 2017, from 6-9 p.m. The exhibition is available for viewing Aug. 28 through Sept. 30.

All works in this exhibition are by artists who sought new forms, gestures, and materials to make manifest the Christian imagination. Modern Sacred offers a rare opportunity to examine how contemporary art explores, illuminates and represents the sacred.

There will be opportunities for viewers to turn each page of the Heritage Edition of the Bible witnessing firsthand the beauty of traditional and contemporary print and illumination in action. Framed prints from other volumes of the Heritage Edition will also extend viewer’s knowledge and experience of this intricate combination of scripture and art. The project of The Saint John's Bible has been called "one of the extraordinary undertakings of our time," by Smithsonian Magazine.

Select artists from the university’s permanent collection include several of the Art Department’s early founding faculty — Lyle Novinski, Heri Bert Bartscht and the Rev. Phillip Szeitz (all three professors emeritus) — as well as Cistercians Fr. Ignatius Peacher and Fr. Damian Szodenyi of Cistercian Abbey of Our Lady of Dallas, and well-known Californian artist, nun and educator Sister Mary Corita Kent.

Public Program includes:

Presentation: Diane von Arx, Letter Maker & Designer The Saint John's Bible
Wednesday, Sept. 20 | 7 p.m.

Exhibition Panel Discussion on Ideas of the Sacred in Art
Thursday, Sept. 21 | 6 p.m.

Film Screening The Illuminator and a Bible for the 21st Century
Thursday, Sept. 28 | 7 p.m.

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