the collections
Current Collections Available for Exhibition
Come! The Table is Ready
Was God Dead?
Fill the Earth With Music
Who is My Neighbor?
Georges Rouault: Seeing Christ in the Darkness
Georges Rouault: A Steadfast Vision
Drawing on the Bible
Alfred Manessier: Composer in Colours
Immanuel: God With Us
Sadao Watanabe: Witness to Faith
Marc Chagall and the Bible
Ecce Homo: Behold the Man
Rudolph Bostic: Cardboard Chronicles
Otto Dix: Matthaus Evangelium
The Rains Came Down: Noah and the Ark
Eden to Eternity: Molas of Panama
Come! THE TABLE IS READY
The table invites us to gather with family and friends, but also with those of common faith around the table of our Lord. It's one of the foremost places of human connection. It is a rich biblical metaphor, a place of gathering, a place of blessing, and a place where we share and serve.
“God is dead…And we have killed him.”
—Nietzsche, The Gay Science, 1882
In the first decades of the twentieth century, the writings of the atheistic philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche were a powerful inspiration for the artistic and literary avant-garde communities in Berlin, Dresden, and Munich. His exuberant affirmation of the “vital forces” of life, anti-authoritarian iconoclasm, and withering condemnation of Christianity inspired artists and writers in their search for a new future that would liberate humanity from the suffocating aesthetic, cultural, political, and religious conventions derived from the Judeo-Christian tradition.
Fill the Earth With Music
It is the hope of Bowden Collections that the art in this exhibition of twenty-five pieces from six centuries and many countries will help the observer appreciate how artists find inspiration in music, and that each viewer will be further inspired to celebrate and Fill the Earth with Music.
Who is my Neighbor? Visual Insights from the Good Samaritan offers the viewer numerous opportunities to see this story anew, through the eyes of twenty-two artists spread across the last four centuries.
Drawing on the Bible
Drawing on the Bible, with its thirty drawings and sketches, celebrates the inclination of the artist to grasp a pencil or pen as they interpret what they see or visualize ideas that they are exploring. Each piece illustrates with skill and imaginatively illuminates a story from the Bible. The works in this exhibition date from the mid 1600s to the 21st century and demonstrate the variety of drawing media artists have used.
This show includes eighteen pieces from the Miserere series, five from Fleurs du Mal I, several colored pieces from The Passion and Fleurs du Mal III, along with two signed works and several other prints. Seeing Christ in the Darkness is an excellent collection of the world-class prints of one of the most important printmakers of the 20th century.
Georges Rouault:
A Steadfast Vision
This show has been assembled to celebrate the 150th anniversary of his birth and to introduce this critically important artist of faith from the 20th century. Every Christian should be acquainted with his profound vision.
Alfred Manessier: Composer in Colors
Alfred Manessier is a non-figurative French painter and stained glass maker of sacred art from the last half of the twentieth century and was associated with the Lyrical Abstraction movement after the Second World War. He is also known for his vibrantly colored lithographs many of which are in this exhibition. It is hoped that this show will introduce Alfred Manessier as an important artist of faith whose art rings forth a witness. Manessier’s art stands as a model of hope in a world searching for meaning.
Composer in Colors has 20 lithographs and is available for rent. [more]
IMMANUEL/God With Us
Immanuel/God with Us: The Wonder of the Incarnation celebrates Jesus’ life on earth seen through the eyes and imagination of artists. The exhibition begins with the Annunciation and birth of the Savior, follows His ministry, and then moves through His Passion and Resurrection, culminating with his Ascension. Using a wide variety of media, twenty-three artists from ten countries picture Christ’s earthly life. These 26 artworks come together to offer the viewer a rich experience of seeing afresh Jesus’ birth, death and resurrection.
Watanabe's chief desire was to create art that could be enjoyed by common people and displayed in ordinary settings. Witness to Faith hopes to help fulfill his wishes by offering for view some of his original momigami (wrinkled paper) and washi (Japanese paper) prints, calendars that have been printed since the early 1970s, and stencil Christmas cards he made for friends. May these be a true Witness to Faith.
Marc Chagall (1877–1895) is perhaps the foremost visual interpreter of the Bible in the 20th Century. His art is filled with his own reoccurring symbols of visual memory and imagination. He said he did not see the Bible, but he dreamed it, even as a child. Chagall’s vision of the Old Testament combines his Jewish heritage and modern art giving us a rich display of symbol and imagination.
GO TO COLLECTION
This exhibition consists of 33 lithographs by the German Expressionist Otto Dix that tell the story of the Book of Matthew. The cycle commences with an interpretation of the Sacrifice of Isaac as it looks forward to the work of the Savior, but the life of Jesus begins with the Adoration of the Maji, then it moves through his ministry and focuses on the Passion. Interestingly Otto Dix ends the series with an image entitled, Go Therefore into the World, acknowledging that the work of Christ continues as we proclaim his redemption. Each print is framed to 20” x 16” and is ready for hanging.
This show brings together twenty-three paintings from one of America’s most amazing self-taught artists. His vibrant images, rendered in enamel and house paint with a shimmering glossy finish on cardboard and his flamboyant use of color put him in a category all his own.
Ecce Homo: Behold the Man
Bowden Collections is proud to offer the traveling exhibition, Ecce Homo/Behold the Man with images dating from the early 17th century to contemporary works. Among the artists included are Jacques Callot, Georges Rouault, Max Beckmann, Schmidt-Rotluff, Otto Dix, Odilon Redon, Bruce Herman, and Tyrus Clutter. This exhibition is organized to place the viewer at the scene where Jesus was condemned by the crowd as described in Matthew 27, “And the governor said, Why, what evil hath he done? But they cried out the more, saying, ‘Let him be crucified.’”
Imagined with a vast variety of living things parading into the ark two-by-two, the animals intrigue most youth who hear the story of Noah’s ark and the cargo it carried. The story of the flood has fascinated children and adults alike for centuries and has captured the imagination of the artist like no other biblical narrative. Medieval artists depicted the horrors of people clamoring for high ground but more recent interpretations view the event with humor and delight.
This exhibition includes works by internationally known printmakers such as Albrecht Dürer, Anders Zorn and Annibile Carracci, by contemporary artists of importance, as well as by totally unknown artisans, calligraphers and craftpersons.
This show has 40 stunning molas from the San Blas Islands off the coast of Panama that tell the story of the Bible, from the Garden of Eden to the Ascension of Jesus into Heaven. Molas are panels of reversed embroidery originally applied to the front and back of the Cuna women's blouses. Each mola is a beautifully designed interpretation of biblical stories with whimsical treatments and tender insights.
