I became aware of the art of Albert Herbert (1925-2008) through my work on the interpretation of Jonah over the last few weeks. The more I research him, the more I am intrigued by this remarkable and idiosyncratic painter.
Some interpreters associate his highly creative dream-like and poetic images with such famous figures like the mystical painter and author William Blake. He is perhaps best known for his rather unique and mystical paintings of Biblical subjects. His work on Christ’s derobing and his picture of Mother and child are truly stunning.
Through religion, Herbert maintained, one discovers an inner world of existence and the sense of being human. Herbert wanted to depict inner life and experience rather than objects or scenes in the “real” world because for him art had to do with feelings and emotions. He learned from Francis Bacon that feeling drives the creative act of painting. So he desired to paint things as he “felt” they looked like rather than they “really” were.
Because he wanted to communicate this intention of his art to a wide audience, and because he realized at a certain stage that he felt most at home within his Christian context, he resorted to painting Biblical and religious motifs, symbols and figures. This was his “figuration”, which contrasted with the highly popular tradition of abstract painting (in which he “officially” participated for some time). As a result of his own figurative approach which he developed later after he abandoned abstract painting, he was often ignored and even snubbed – being regarded as a painter of lesser importance out of touch with what really mattered.
He painted Biblical figures in a mystical manner. This meant that they had a polyvalent, enigmatic nature. They were presented in such a way that they could be interpreted in different ways. At a later stage of his life he became interested in children’s art. His paintings obtained a “childish” playfulness, though they communicated deep and profound feelings. He began to paint primitive figures, striking because of their colourful, but enigmatic, transcendental quality. One commentator remarks that he wanted to communicate through his art that one could still experience “exaltation.” Art, he once commented, is to reveal the marvelous.
To some extent one can find good “explanations” for his work. As a young eighteen year old boy, he traumatically experienced during the Normandy invasion in the second world war how more than seventy five percent of his group of soldiers were killed mercilessly in combat at the hand of German snipers. He returned from the war as a religious person. His involvement in religious painting continued for most of his life. He, for example, received on public commission to paint 14 stations of the cross. But the church found the end result too disturbing. It is now in a chapel in London. He died with the remark: “I am floating on a lake.”
In an article on the spiritual reading of the Old Testament, Barbara Green refers to Wendy Beckett’s reflections on Herbert’s painting of Jonah (from 1988). Beckett, together with Herbert, sees Jonah as representing humanity’s typical refusal to heed God’s call and humanity’s “no” to the divine beckoning. And God, in “desperate” love, makes Jonah taste the meaning of his no. Jonah is swallowed by the whale. The painting of Herbert in 1988 (he painted two others of Jonah in the whale) speaks of Jonah’s confrontation with his call to self-sacrifice and service. He has to give up the security of his safe haven. The picture of Jonah symbolizes a “poor, naked, frightened Jonah and the world of responsibility and maturity that awaits him.” He is considering his options: “ease and safety and self-love, as opposed to work and risk and self-giving.” It is a dilemma which is to be found in Jonah’s own mind. Yet – writes Green, “God’s love awaits him on every side.” (cf. Blackwell Companion to Spirituality, 49-50).
To some extent Herbert’s understanding of Jonah was autobiographical: he was tempted to succumb to modernist painting and its demands for an abstract approach, but finally he understood that figuration was his calling. In this sense Herbert, like Jonah, was challenged to accept a calling which demanded from him faithfulness to a deeper cause.
Reading all this and experiencing some of the impact of Herbert's art, I realise once again in more depth how spirituality is about the relationship of the divine and human. It is a relationship which transforms humanity to become more mature and to grow deeper into things that really matters. It is a process, determined by the awesome touch of a loving God. This touch, however, often comes to us through the hands of great artists....
Visiting London in May has suddenly become more exciting. I shall be visiting that chapel....
