Wednesday 5 March - Friday 18 April
This Lent, Norman Adams’ Behold the Man is on display at the High Altar of the Cathedral.
Behold the Man can be contrasted with Adams’s Christ’s Entry into Jerusalem. Following that jubilant occasion, we see a man in the hands of his enemies.
The face of Christ was a constant theme for Adams. He had two distinct ways of portraying him: as the cosmic Christ or, as here, the man of sorrows. We see Jesus preparing for immense suffering. Beneath the flame-coloured crown of thorns, his face is imprisoned behind bars, or perhaps the cross itself. Although the colours are bright, his eyes are dark, blinded by crosses. The painting’s diamond shape resembles an opened out envelope: something to convey a message perhaps?
The Passion was a common theme for Adams for fifty years. Early versions showed the whole Christ and were more formal. This painting is different. Here we look directly into the face of suffering - we behold the man.
The Very Rev'd Dr Mark Oakley, Dean of Southwark says of the painting,
‘The beauty of art is that sometimes, although we don’t feel we understand it, we nevertheless sense that it understands us. To spend time with Adams’ “Behold the Man” is to immerse ourselves in the suffering of Jesus, but it is also to see within ourselves something of the trials we undergo, and the prisons we are capable of putting others in, beholding, as it were, the shadows of humanity. I hope you’ll find yourself drawn in to this work over the coming weeks of Lent’.
Norman Edward Albert Adams (9 February 1927 – 9 March 2005) was a British artist, and professor of painting at the Royal Academy Schools. He was married to the English poet and artist Anna Adams (1926–2011).
Visitors are invited to write a short, written response in the visitors’ book.
Copies of Seeing the Spiritual, books of postcards and posters of the painting are on sale in the Cathedral Shop.
Behold the Man is on loan from the Methodist Modern Art Collection.
