Last Updated on March 18, 2024 by Kittredge Cherry
A new gay vision of Christ’s Passion makes its Q Spirit debut today.
Standing up for justice and love leads to pain, prison, death and ultimately resurrection for a contemporary urban Jesus in new gay Passion of Christ paintings by Doug Blanchard.
The New York artist expands and builds upon the success of his first version of “The Passion of Christ: A Gay Vision” with a new series of 20 larger paintings. They feature a dark-skinned Jesus, his surprisingly diverse friends, subtle homoeroticism and powerful new imagery. Jesus and his community live in a black-and-white world that bursts into vibrant color when he rises from the dead.
The complete series is available during Holy Week and Easter for the first time in March 2024. It is making its Q Spirit debut, and collectors can purchase the original 26-inch square canvas paintings. Click here to see all 20 paintings. For purchase info, contact us through Q Spirit or the Passion book site. Prints are not available at this time.
The blog series based on Blanchard’s gay Passion art runs from Palm Sunday through Easter (March 24-31) here on the Jesus in Love Blog at Q Spirit.
“I began with the idea of gay and minority people actually having the experience of being despised and rejected and having walked that Via Dolorosa all the way to its fatal end quite literally in a way that perhaps a lot of other people have not,” Blanchard said on a video introduction to the series. A second video shows Blanchard commenting on each individual painting as he walks through the gallery.
A modern Pieta from Blanchard’s new Passion series appears on the cover of “The Living Church” magazine.
The Large Passion series is already attracting attention. The “Lamentation” image appears with the headline “A Modern Pieta” on the cover of the Palm Sunday issue of “The Living Church” Episcopal magazine, dated March 24, 2024. The completed set of 20 paintings was exhibited for the first time in September 2023 at the Revelation Gallery at St. John’s in the Village in New York City. Churches are incorporating the Large Passion into their worship services. For example, St. Simon’s Anglican Church in Oakville, Ontario, Canada is making it the center of their 2024 Good Friday observance.
He started working on the new series in 2016 and spent seven years painting his epic vision. The Large Passion series was shaped by the disturbing trends of the Trump presidency and the COVID-19 pandemic. Blanchard used the series to grapple with his own faith struggles as a self-described “very agnostic believer” during the rise of authoritarian leaders, human rights violations, economic inequality and other global threats. Likewise disasters in the news influenced Blanchard’s Small Passion series, which he began shortly before the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center.
Initial reactions were enthusiastic when he began sharing his latest paintings on social media. Typical comments called them “breathtaking,” “absolutely stunning” and “honestly, some of the most moving religious artworks I’ve seen in a long, long time! Beautiful, mysterious, textured.
Announcement for 2023 Passion exhibit
“This is a unique opportunity for viewers to witness the entire Large Passion series during Holy Week,” Q Spirit founder Kittredge Cherry said. “Doug’s first gay Passion series was a huge hit at Q Spirit, so readers are eager to see his new paintings of a queer Christ’s journey. Many people wonder: What would happen if Jesus came today? These paintings have answers that will shake you to your soul.”
The first series is available as a book by Kittredge Cherry and high-quality prints and greeting cards. Five originals from first series are still for sale too. Christian conservatives attacked the original Passion paintings and Facebook made international headlines by banning the Passion book ads as too “shocking.”
Large Passion differs from previous Passion art
In the original 24 paintings, the contemporary Christ figure is jeered by fundamentalists, tortured by Marine look-alikes, and rises again to enjoy homoerotic moments with God. His diverse friends join him on a journey from suffering to freedom. Viewers call it “accessible but profound.”
One of the biggest differences in the new Passion series is that Jesus is a person of color. “The historic experiences of non-white people in the white-dominated USA inform this new Passion series,” Blanchard explained in an in-depth essay about the second gay Passion of Christ series on his blog in September 2020, including all of the paintings that were completed at that time. He posted an updated set of all the new Passion paintings in August 2023.
“Jesus Prays Alone (The Passion of Christ: A Gay Vision),” original (left) and new versions by Doug Blanchard
He added that the new series is also darker in a symbolic sense. “If the new series has a guiding theme, it is that of Emmanuel, God With Us; God in solidarity with us as we suffer misfortune and injustice in the struggles for power that make up mortal life…. This new series is darker — both literally and figuratively — than the first series. Light and dark play a much more central role in the drama. I made the violence and the malice of the story’s actors much more stark than I did in the first series,” Blanchard wrote.
The Large Passion omits some scenes from the first series and adds new elements such as the Judas kiss and the two thieves who were crucified beside Jesus. With the Small Passion, Blanchard painted a numbered frame onto each panel, similar to the traditional Stations of the Cross, but the Large Passion is not numbered or framed.
There are strong precedents for an artist painting the Passion more than once. One of Blanchard’s inspirations is German Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer, who painted the Passion five times. His sixth version was underway when Dürer died in 1528 at age 56. Nevertheless it is daring for Blanchard revamp a series that is beloved by thousands of devoted fans around the world.
“Jesus Enters the City (The Passion of Christ: A Gay Vision” by Doug Blanchard
Compared to the first series, the new paintings are larger and on canvas instead of wood panels. Therefore the first series is now known as the Small Passion of Christ, while the second series is called the Large Passion of Christ — following the example used to name Durer’s work. Blanchard’s Small Passion consists of 24 vertical images painted on 18-by-14-inch wooden panels. His Large Passion includes 20 paintings that are 26-inch squares on canvas.
Overall the series puts gives visual form to Blanchard’s faith as a progressive gay Christian. “I believe that if God does exist, and is as the Christian faith says — human and one of us — then He lives now and not exclusively in the pages of a Bronze Age book. That person who still lives is the Truth we confess, not a text. The narrative of His life and death rebukes all our measures of glory and success. In the face of that life, death, and resurrection, the whole grim of arithmetic of power and powerlessness forever loses its claim over us. Death is defeated as our final arbiter. As Christ lives, so shall we all live again, and all that is lost will be restored,” he wrote in his blog essay.
“Jesus Appears of Mary Magdalene” by Doug Blanchard
Blanchard teaches art and art history at the Bronx Community College of the City University of New York. He earned a BFA in painting from the Kansas City Art Institute, an MA in art history from Washington University in St. Louis, and an MFA cum laude from the New York Academy of Art. He was confirmed in the Episcopal Church in 1982 and remains an active member. His art is exhibited and collected worldwide.
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Top image credit:
“Jesus Before the People” and “Jesus Rises” by Doug Blanchard.
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This post is part of the Gay Passion of Christ series by Kittredge Cherry with art by Doug Blanchard. Traditional and alternative saints, people in the Bible, LGBT and queer martyrs, authors, theologians, religious leaders, artists, deities and other figures of special interest to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people and our allies are covered.
This article was originally published on Q Spirit on March 17, 2024, and most recently updated on March 18, 2024.
Copyright © Kittredge Cherry. All rights reserved.
Qspirit.net presents the Jesus in Love Blog on LGBTQ spirituality.
With Douglas Blanchard’s kind permission and assistance, the Large Passion will be at the centre of the Good Friday devotion at St. Simon’s Anglican Church (Anglican Church of Canada) in Oakville, Ontario.
Wonderful! I will add something to my article about how churches such as yours are already including the Large Passion in their worship services. Best wishes for your Good Friday service!