Modernist abstraction in Afrikaans Protestant churches of the twentieth century

Abstract

From the 1940s to the 1980s an extraordinary amount of Afrikaans Protestant churches were built in South Africa. Most of these were in designed in a modernist style, often boldly so. The use of modernist abstraction in the symbolic art is another striking feature of these churches. This use of modernism in both architecture and fine art might seem contradictory when considering that the Afrikaans communities which built these churches were generally conservative in religious, political and cultural terms during this era. However, this article shows that some manifestations of modernism in fine art have certain affinities with Protestantism. Modernist abstraction reveals itself to be an ideal vehicle for the expression of a specifically Protestant conception of spirituality.