In the Desert: Paintings by James Janknegt
In recent years, there has been a growing number of artists who
seem to be asking "How can I make art without compromising either my
Christian faith or my aesthetic standards?" James Janknegt is one who
has found an answer. He stands firmly in the tradition of biblical narrative
painters as well as in the stream of continual visual exploration that marks
post-modern art. Reading Scripture closely, he dresses the people in his
highly-detailed renditions of episodes in the life of the patriarchs, the
prophets, Jesus, and the disciples in the casual clothes of late 20th century
America, and places them in visionary versions of the urban and suburban
landscapes of his own time and place. 
Thus, Abraham
entertains his Three Visitors with a backyard barbeque while Sarah "
her face as unseen as it is in the frescos at Dura Europos " waters
the lawn; St. John the Evangelist sits in a lawn chair surrounded by computer,
television, and satellite dish, and listens
to his Walkman as he receives the Word from an angel whose pose
is a beatific as any painted in the early Renaissance; Jesus wears modest
bathing trunks as John the Baptizer pours water over his head exactly has
he always has in the most orthodox of icons of the Baptism of Christ; and
a black, bird-headed devil straight out of a medieval illumination tempts
Jesus with fast cars and lotto tickets.
Like the biblical stories that inspire his work, Janknegt doesn't 
pull any punches. While the Holy Family
relaxes in a palm-fringed motel during their 
Flight into Egypt, the Slaughter of the Innocents proceeds amid
graffiti pleading "kyrie eleison" (Lord have mercy), shady doings
in dark alleys, and billboards exhorting everyone to "just do it."
In The End of My World, the artist
himself identifies with Peter, crucified upside down for his witness to
the transforming message of Christ, as sewage turns the river into blood.
On a more hopeful note, in Birth, a
large bouquet of flowers stands on a table between a somewhat bemused Joseph
" traditionally signified by the house he holds " and Mary, with
heart in hand. They seem contemplate a complicated future as they gaze upward
at the Holy Infant floating above them, wrapped in a celestial blanket of
stars.
It takes a long time to puzzle out all the biblical and art-historical
references in these exuberantly-colored oils, but the investment is well
rewarded. 
Janknegt has written,
"My Christian faith has always informed my painting. . . It is about
incarnation, about making that which is invisible visible, making the spirit
flesh." In these paintings from the desert, Janknegt shares his own
struggles between the Light and Dark Angels, and invites us to participate
in the fireworks and celebration of Easter Morning.
Deborah Sokolove Curator, Dadian Gallery