Posted on Friday, February 11, 2005
Dr. Maureen Korp, a renowned expert in the history of art and religion, will speak on "The Soul's Journey: Constantin Brancusi's Great Vision." at ¾¨Ó㴫ý Thursday, Feb. 24, at 6:30 p.m. in the Sebastian Mueller Theater located in the McKelvey Campus Center.
"The Endless Column" by Constantin Brancusi (1876-1956) is perhaps the best-known feature of a war memorial complex that the sculptor designed in 1935-1938 for the town of Targu Jiu high in the Carpathian mountains of western Romania," said Dr. Bryan Rennie, associate professor of religion at ¾¨Ó㴫ý and coordinator of this event. "The column has recently been restored. It does not, however, stand alone. The Endless Column' is part of an extensive installation and the embodiment of a mythic tale--the story of the soul's journey after death to the sun to be reborn. It is thus a singularly appropriate topic for a consideration of the relation of art and religion."
Korp lectures on the history of art and the history of religions at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. She is also a faculty lecturer for Saint Paul's University, Ottawa, and has taught in Romania and the United States. She was a senior lecturer at the University of Bucharest, Romania.Â
Korp's most applauded book is "Sacred Art of the Earth."  She is also author of numerous articles and chapters in anthologies. Most recently Korp contributed a chapter, "Seeing What is Missing: Art, Artists, and September 11," which is to appear in The Underlying Terror, an American anthology edited by Rennie and Philip Tite regarding the events of September 11.
"Lines of Descent," an exhibition of contemporary work, which explored the theme of immigration and lost stories in the religious art of four Canadian and American artists, broke every attendance record at the Ottawa's Karsh-Masson Gallery.
This event, which is part of the Heinz Lecture Series: Religion and the Religions, is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Rennie at (724) 946-7151 or e-mail brennie@westminster.edu.
