Max Mara Art Prize for Women: Andrea Buttner

There is a great show on right now at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in London, UK, for a very short time (April 1-10). It is called The Poverty of Riches by Andrea Buttner. Buttner won the Max Mara Art Prize for Women culminating in an exhibition at the Whitechapel Art Gallery. The prize consists of funding and a 6 month residency in Italy. In Italy she spent her time visiting monastic communities exploring notions of devotion and poverty. She became interested in St. Francis of Assisi whose birth place she visited. Buttner says, "in The Poverty of Riches Kenneth Baxter Wolf discusses how voluntary poverty opens a path to spiritual regeneration, and how ultimately it is a route to salavation for wealthy Christians like St. Frances himself. The poor however cannot make this choice; therefore this path of a 'spiritual economy' is closed to them." It reminds me of my year in Florence, Italy, and my focus on the Benedictian monks at San Miniato. I also was completely taken in by Assisi when I visited and have always found myself drawn to the figure and life of St. Francis. My favourite movie is still Franco Zefferilli's film about the saint, Brother Sun Sister Moon. My 5 piece monk paintings which were the result of the year now hang in Carey Theological College's chapel on the campus of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. That was a shameless plug, wasn't it? There is something so different about this show. I am usually doing my best to avoid current art practices, art speak, and contemporary art theory. Suddenly this show pops up out of nowhere and takes me by surprise. The theme and simplicity of it really inspire me. I am hopeful for my own art. I am looking for truth in the art world and it feels like a rare thing to find.