On a better topic, I last night was able to announce the winner of the Art + Christianity Book Award, which is done, I think, triennially. We had a bumper crop of books because art historians, having previously somewhat ignored the theology of religious imagery and the implications of religious narrative are now suddenly fascinated by it, including two very senior figures in the field – T.J. Clark and Tom Crowe. We gave the prize to a beautiful, huge exhibition catalogue, produced by Yale University Press for the Bard Graduate Center in New York and edited by Ittai Weinryb, to accompany an exhibition, Agents of Faith, on votive objects. I was particularly pleased because it demonstrates how exhibition catalogues can themselves be major contributions to scholarship. So, now I have a small shelf of books on religious imagery to replace the half library I have lost.
| Charles | Saumarez | Smith | 
You’ll soon be competing with Neil MacG ! T.J. Clark is terrific – his THE SIGHT OF DEATH is masterly.
I saw this on the Art and Christianity instagram feed last night. If part of the reason to award prizes is to draw attention to a book and bring it to a wider audience this one has done its job. I hadn’t heard of it before and now it is at the top of my Christmas list. The Yale University Press website gives a good preview of its content via a short youtube video and it looks like a thing of beauty.
Beauty and interest, a good combination. But not cheap. Charles
As you can imagine, all of Bard Graduate Center–myself included–is humming with delight!
Yes, it’s very well deserved ! A wonderful, scholarly book. Charles