Appreciating beauty: Divinity School art exhibit centers the Black experience

In a painting, a young Black boy somersaults on a patch of green grass against a bright blue sky. A police cruiser passes behind him, its taillights visible at the right edge of the composition. 

Titled “Joy and Pain,” the painting is by visual artist Mario Moore ’13 M.F.A. The child is his nephew. The scene captures the blend of joy and foreboding that can mark the childhoods of Black males in the United States.

“‘Joy and Pain’ deliberately is thinking about Black boys’ lives and Black people’s lives and how you can exist in one body having happiness and giddiness and being a child with hopes and goals, the beauty of life and aspirations, but at the same time in that same body, you have to deal with that trauma you are alerted to usually at a very young age and as a young boy,” Moore has said of the painting. 

Moore’s painting is currently on view at Yale Divinity School (YDS) as part of an exhibition of artworks by Yale-trained artists that, in a variety of media, represent themes of identity, power, and the Black experience. The works, on display in the Croll Family Entrance Hall, were shared by Jessica and Kelvin Beachum (a veteran offensive lineman for the National Football League’s Arizona Cardinals), who own an extensive art collection that attempts to illuminate American history and contemporary life.

YDS Dean Greg Sterling first met the Beachums in April 2023 when the couple attended a concert by the Clark Sisters gospel group organized by the Interdisciplinary Program in Music and the Black Church at Yale’s Institute of Sacred Music. Elijah Heyward III ’07 M.A.R., a member of the Divinity School Dean’s Advisory Council, made the introduction. While sharing a meal with the Beachums later, Sterling proposed a YDS exhibition featuring selections from the couple’s art collection, with an emphasis on pieces by Yale-trained artists. The Beachums accepted the offer.

The Divinity School hosted the couple at a reception last month to mark the exhibit’s opening. During the event, Kelvin Beachum, who has played 13 seasons in the NFL, thanked Sterling and the Divinity School community for spotlighting the artists and artwork on view.

“It is beautiful to just see the diversity of people, diversity of thought [gathered here],” he said, speaking during the reception. “…from the Beachum family to Yale, thank you so much for allowing us to be here. Thanks so much for allowing us to have the work that we’ve been tasked with stewarding to be here. And I just can’t say enough good things about all of it.”

Speaking at the opening reception, Sterling described the interplay between art and theology from the ancient world to modern times, starting with Plato, who wrestled with how to define art. “He never came to a firm conclusion to define it, but he did say it’s a form and it’s a form next to goodness, which for Plato is as close as you’re going to get to saying next to God,” Sterling said.

Sterling spoke of how medieval and modern theologians recognized the importance art and beauty to spiritual life, mentioning that 20th-century Protestant theologian Karl Barth enjoyed listening to Mozart while working and Roman Catholic theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar, who wrote seven volumes on beauty. 

“What they recognized was the importance of beauty and the arts to theology,” Sterling said.

The new exhibit, on view through March 19, features 21 pieces by 13 artists, all people of color and graduates of the Yale School of Art. Some works are figurative while others are abstract. Three of the artists — Moore, Felandus Thames ’10 M.F.A., and Kenny Rivero ’12 M.F.A. — attended the opening reception.

“The reception felt like a Yale homecoming of sorts,” said Moore, who has three works on view in the show. “I was able to see artists I admire and fellow classmates from my time at Yale. To see the amazing collection from the Beachums and their support means everything.”

One piece, “Overall Form #1 (Bird and Lava),” by Torkwase Dyson ’03 M.F.A. is composed of a long, arched shape that resembles a doorway set on white paper. It is a study for the artist’s “Bird and Lava” series of sculptures. That series responds to stories of enslaved people who hid or stowed away in architectural spaces to gain their freedom, including Anthony Burns, who hid in a compartment inside a small ship to escape enslavement in Virginia; Henry “Box” Brown, who was mailed in a wooden crate from Virginia to abolitionists in Pennsylvania; and Harriet Jacobs, who hid for years in a tiny crawl space in her grandmother’s house.  

“Thinking through the histories of Black liberation, these are the victories that fortify my being in the objects I make,” said Dyson. 

The work of Felandus Thames, another artist featured in the exhibit, often plays with changes in racial representation across history. “Charlie, Charlee, Charlae,” a mixed-media piece on display, appears to depict a minstrel in the sepia tones of a daguerreotype, an early photographic process widespread in the mid-19th century. The figure wears white gloves and a top hat. Its face is obscured by a white substance resembling salt. Only its wide smile is visible. 

The exhibit complements the Divinity School’s commitment to pursuing social and racial justice and speaks to the importance of appreciating art to pastoral care, Sterling said in an interview. 

“Finding beauty and meaning in what artists create builds on the theological skill of appreciating the beauty of God’s creation,” he said. “I think that the role of art at this divinity school is unique. Students study it in classes and contemplate the artwork displayed in the school’s hallways, chapels, and galleries. I’m grateful to the faculty and alumni who have helped us cultivate that atmosphere.”