ABSTRACT
Encountering works of art can be occasion for revelations. We typically look to professional scholars and critics to help manage the thoughts and ideas, feelings and longings that come over us in such moments. The work of managing these events is always difficult, but it can be particularly difficult when the revelations concern thoughts and feelings related to transcendent and mysterious states of being. This chapter explores these difficulties by considering one particular case, the work of the contemporary painter Y.Z. Kami, whose exhibition “Endless Prayers” revealed longings for serenity and a state of grace that the critic Robert Storr managed eloquently only to disavow. What is going on when a critic or any viewer is so suspicious of pictures of prayer and serenity, grace and transcendence, that he cringes at writing rapturously of the effect they have on him? Can we imagine a critical or scholarly writing that learns from religion and religions to manage the appearance of such ideas in ways that let them linger, and us with them, as our revelations?
