A novice monk at the Benedictine monastery in Glenstal, outside
Limerick, has unveiled an exhibition in the abbey of his nude paintings
of Biblical figures.
Brother Emmaus O’Herlihy, who was a graphic designer and a
caricaturist for the Irish Times before joining the congregation, has
painted four nude figures – of Jesus, Adam, Saul and a disciple.
He
said the inspiration for the 1.2m by 1.8m paintings came from his
experience as a novice in Glenstal.
“The monastic experience has been very powerful for me,” he
remarked. “This is religious art, and about re-establishing the human
body and our understanding of God and of ourselves,” Brother O’Herlihy
explained.
“I am trying to use the same tools of depicting the human body that
isn’t exploiting it in a commercial sense. The four pieces are about
identity and realisation of our understanding of God as inseparable from
our own human or physical nature.”
Brother O’Herlihy, who is in his first year in Glenstal, said his
colleagues, especially Abbot Hederman have been very supportive of his
artistic endeavours.
“Brother Hederman said ‘you’ve got to do these
things, if the Holy Spirit is advising you to’.”
He said his work is not trying to be sensational but about “re-establishing the human body.”
“There is no interest from a prurient point of view and if you look
at it with prurient lens, it’s pointless. The humanists believed that
the human being was at the centre of the universe and I am adapting that
to show that it’s Christ who us in our centre.”
The exhibition is on view each afternoon in the old art class building in Glenstal.