COVINGTON — Two Newport artists have created a show portraying the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption as it will never again exist.

Paul Keam (from left), Bruce Mondary and Gary Tenhundfeld reinstall the figure of Jesus on a cross on the altar of the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption. (Patrick Reddy photos) | ZOOM |

        The show, “Pilgrimage of the Renovation,” an exhibition of approximately 30 photographs and nine palette knife oil paintings, opens Saturday at the cathedral's gallery and will run through Jan. 28.

        Charles Brown and Doreen LaRue were the sole artists allowed to document the interior renovation of the Covington landmark.

        The cathedral at 12th and Madison closed to the public for the $4.7 million renovation in April, and cathedral gallery director Arlene Gibeau said the renovation was documented as a service to the congregation.

        “Because the cathedral belongs to the whole diocese, they would want to see how the renovation progressed and see things that they wouldn't see again,” Ms. Gibeau said.

        A basilica is a structure deemed sanctified enough for the pope to celebrate Mass within its walls.

Doreen LaRue (left) and Arlene Gibeau arrange Ms. LaRue's photographs on Wednesday in the gallery of the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption. | ZOOM |

        The Covington Cathedral, elevated to minor basilica status on Dec. 8, 1953, by Pope Pius XII, is one of 35 minor basilicas in the United States and the only one in the Tristate. There are four major basilicas in the world, all in Rome.

        To document the renovation of the cathedral, Ms. LaRue climbed up interior scaffolding and hung from the roof outside the cathedral by a harness to take black-and-white and color photographs of the structure. Nearly half of the photographs in the gallery's show are documentary for the cathedral's archives, while the other half are more artistic.

        The photographs fix on the mood in the closed structure: one depicts the church's brass organ pipes glowing in a soft light in an otherwise dark interior; another shows sunlight streaking through stained glass to cast colored patches into the empty building. Ms. LaRue also has several time-lapse series, including one of the crew ripping out the pews and breaking them down, a process that Ms. LaRue called “gut-wrenching.”

        Mr. Brown said he chose the palette knife method for the ease of working with one tool to catch the work in progress, but also because the textured effect of the knife captured the raw physical presence of the cathedral under reconstruction.

        While Ms. LaRue focused on the more ethereal, spiritual aspect of the renovation, Mr. Brown's heavy oils portray the cathedral's thick stone, wood and marble materials.

        “I feel very privileged to have that relationship with the cathedral stripped bare, and seeing it in a nondenominational yet very spiritual aspect,” Mr. Brown said.

        The two artists, who were not commissioned by the cathedral for the work, have pieces in collections throughout the world, including Japan, Australia and the Czech Republic, purchased from their studio Visionary Art In Action. The works that are not used for the cathedral's archives or sold during the show will go to the artists' Mount Adams studio for display and purchase.

        Opening receptions for the “Pilgrimage of the Renovation” will be 6-9 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday. The Covington Cathedral Gallery is open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.

        The cathedral will be open to the public Dec. 9 after it is rededicated on Dec. 8, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.
       

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