Anita Breitenberg’s Mark This!

For the past four decades, Anita has illustrated verses of Scripture and seeks to broaden the appeal of contemporary Christian art to a wider and diversified audience and present it in a radically provocative manner. Her works have been exhibited in The Museum of Biblical Art in Manhattan, Yale University and the Washington National Cathedral, and are in the permanent collection of The Museum of Biblical Art in Dallas, Texas, Catholic University, and Convergence. Her art was reviewed in the New York Times and appeared on the cover of Commonweal Magazine.

She just published her book ‘Mark This!’, which provides an illustrated version of The Gospel of Mark as seen through an artist eyes, and gives a thumbnail guide through these passages. The book contains 83 works to contemporize Mark’s Gospel through symbolic storytelling, bringing a fresh interpretation to scriptures with this series of images. While serving with the UN in Bosnia in the mid-nineties, she developed a concern for individuals from different cultures, and sought to find an artistic style appropriate to convey her spiritual journey to an audience with limited exposure to contemporary Christian images. The form of a mandala, representing the universe, was chosen an appropriate structure for spiritual contemplation for a new audience. As a result, the works give an appearance of dream interpretations while stylistically incorporating kaleidoscopes and stained glass windows, respectively representing change and holiness. They are a composite of images old and new, broken and whole, destroyed and restored, and replace diminished and disdained with delighted and desired. Ms. Breitenberg seeks to broaden the appeal of contemporary Christian art to a wider and diversified audience and present it in a radical and provoking manner.

The Gospel of Mark centers on Jesus’ question, “Who do you say I am?” This question confronts each of us still today. The works in Mark This! are intended to be a visual guide through the verses and assist in interpretation and internalization. Ms. Breitenberg’s art is a composite of the old and new, the broken and whole, the destroyed and restored, the diminished and disdained with the delighted and desired. Look closer and observe to find a new vision for an ancient text, awaiting an imagination ready for adventure.

Visit her website www.markthisbook.com for more information.