SALT LAKE CITY— After joining The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1962, Argentine artist Jorge Cocco Santangelo felt drawn to painting religious scenes, but initially, he stayed close to fairly traditional art styles. Soon, though, he said he was caught "between two worlds" — between the more conventional, classical style typically used in LDS Church art and more contemporary styles.
He experimented with abstract and surrealist art, in addition to other artistic movements, before he landed on a style he calls "sacrocubism."
Closely related to Pablo Picasso's cubism, the term refers to painting religious art in a cubist style — "a language more (suited) to our times," Cocco said through a translator. While his subjects and stories are easy to identify, as in classical art, it is not hard to see cubism's geometric influence in the lines and plains of Cocco's artwork.
"It gave me more resources to express what’s behind all the events as far as the deepness of the gospel," Cocco said.
Three years ago Cocco entered his sacrocubist painting "The Call" ("El Llamado" in Spanish) in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' 10th International Art Competition. Laura Allred Hurtado, global acquisitions art curator for the Church History Museum, was struck by the painting.
“It didn’t feel like an obvious choice," Hurtado said in a previous Deseret News article. "It felt new and it felt fresh."
From that first painting, The Church History Museum commissioned a series of 21 works, comprising scenes from the life of Jesus Christ, from his baptism to his ascension to heaven. Each painting is accompanied by a scripture reference. The works are now on display at the museum as "Jorge Cocco Santangelo: Sacred Events from the Life of Christ," through Oct. 9.
Cocco called his style "a little more musical" than traditional cubism, stating that sacrocubist paintings "awaken a sensible fiber that is hidden inside of us." By viewing these paintings, "we draw closer to God, we get purified, we get healed, we get refined," Cocco said.
Cocco compared his paintings to parables in the sense that multiple viewings may lead to multiple interpretations.
"When we read the scriptures, two times, three times, four times, there’s always something new," Cocco said.
Given that Cocco views his paintings like parables, it makes sense, then, that he has also painted a series of his own interpretations of Christ's parables. In the future, he plans to paint humanity's premortal life, Christ's ministry in the Americas and prophecies from the scriptures.
Painting is a spiritual practice for the artist. He said he receives inspiration for his subject matter.
“I don’t choose them. They come to me," Cocco said. "I wake up with more ideas than I can paint.”
While visual art isn't as central to Mormon culture as the written or spoken word, Cocco believes, he feels that art can give viewers an alternative way of experiencing what they read in the scriptures.
“Through this art, people may be able to reach some spiritual experience that they wouldn’t be able to reach through reading something," Cocco said. "The most important is that the viewer may draw closer to the Savior.”
If you go …
What: "Jorge Cocco Santangelo: Sacred Events from the Life of Christ"
When: Through October 9. Monday-Friday 9 a.m. -9 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. -5 p.m.
Where: Church History Museum, 45 N. West Temple
How much: Free