Lecture at the Catholic University of America, Washington DC
William Congdon. Action Painting and the Impossible Iconography of the Christian Mystery

Washington, DC – Thursday, April 30th, at the Catholic University of America, McGivney Hall Rodolfo Balzarotti, a director of the William G. Congdon Foundation spoke at a seminar organized by the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family for the students of the PhD program about “William Congdon. Action Painting and the Impossible Iconography of the Christian Mystery”.
The talk was introduced by professor David Schindler, who described his meeting with William Congdon in the artist’s studio in Gudo Gambaredo, near Milan, in the Benedictine Monastery where Congdon had chosen to live.
Professor Balzarotti introduced his presentation discussing in general terms the fact that in the same period (the 1960s)  three eminent proponents of Abstract Expressionism – Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman and William Congdon –  were working on painting cycles on a subject specifically Christian, which was a truly unique circumstance, even more so given that they reached this common end following paths and motives that were absolutely different, and in any case completely independent from each other.
Balzarotti then wondered if, above and beyond the individual reasons each of them had, there might not have been deeper reasons, connected with the cultural and spiritual climate of those years.
Professor Balzarotti described each artist’s “religious” (or, rather, “spiritual”) painting cycle in details: the Rothko Chapel in Houston, TX, by Mark Rothko; the Stations of the Cross by Barnett Newman; and William Congdon’s painting. Incidentally, Congdon was the only one who – starting at a certain moment in his life – adhered to a specific faith, Roman Catholic Christianity.
The comparison between these experiences brings to light some interesting paradoxes: while showing the profound religiosity of the three artists, it also stresses the radical differences among them and shows how difficult it is for contemporary art to produce a suitable iconography for the Christian mystery.
Balzarotti concluded his talk with a final synthesis. In his view, the anomaly of Congdon vis a vis the other two artists seems to have a great deal to do with the fact that he lived straddling post-war America and Europe, not only physically but also spiritually and that the tragedy of World War II had different, in a certain sense even opposite, effects on European and on American culture. Europe emerged from the war with a deeper wound in its soul: here the culture and aesthetic of the absurd prevailed, the culture of impediment, in other words of spiritual impotence.
America, on the other hand, produced a culture of the sublime: a tragic sublime, more metaphysical than religious, that still depended on the energy of an individual freedom – in some ways heroic – capable of bearing up under absurdity and chaos. William Congdon took part in this idealism of the American culture, but he accepted being contaminated by the decadence and corruption of Europe, while remaining  immune from the nihilistic cynicism of European culture.
The presentation lasted over an hour and at the end the students were given the opportunity to ask questions, which were quite challenging and stimulating.