Memento Mori in Contemporary Art: Theologies of Lament and Hope

This book explores how four contemporary artists—Francis Bacon, Joseph Beuys, Robert Gober, and Damien Hirst—pursue the question of death through their fraught appropriations of Christian imagery. Each artist is shown to not only pose provocative theological questions, but also to question the abilities of theological speech to adequately address current attitudes to death.

When set within a broader theological context around the thought of death, Bacon’s works invite fresh readings of the ...