Chris Gollon
Stations of the Cross (IV): Jesus Meets His Mother, 2002
40" x 30" (101 x 76cm) acrylic on canvas 2003. Permanently installed in the Church of St John on Bethnal Green.
Copyright The Artist
This work forms part of Chris Gollon's highly-acclaimed Fourteen Stations of the Cross, painted between 2000 and 2008. In 2009, they were permanently installed in the Church of St John...
This work forms part of Chris Gollon's highly-acclaimed Fourteen Stations of the Cross, painted between 2000 and 2008. In 2009, they were permanently installed in the Church of St John on Bethnal Green, designed by Sir John Soane, and located next to the Young V&A in East London. They are very unusual. Unlike most Stations of the Cross, they vary in size and are site-specific, and Chris Gollon used his own son as the model for Jesus and his daughter as Mary.
This painting was also shown in St Paul's Cathedral in 2004, in the exhibition 'Images of Christ for the Third Millennium' , alongside works by Bill Viola, Maggi Hambling, Tracey Emin, Billy Childish and Craigie Aitchison.
Gollon’s Stations received wide critical acclaim: The Times, The Guardian, The Telegraph, BBC1 News and Radio 4 Today Programme; as well as all denominations of the Christian press including The Tablet and Church Times. In 2019, two years after Chris Gollon’s untimely death, two studies for the Stations and a large painting ‘Judas Iscariot & The Magdalene’ (partially inspired by Bob Dylan’s ‘With God On Our Side’ ) were donated by a collector, and permanently installed in the southern gallery.
Gollon's Stations of the Cross are featured in the documentary 'CHRIS GOLLON: Life in Paint' (85 mins) - world premiere at the Barbican, London in 2024.
The Stations are an active aid to worship in the 10am Good Friday service each year. For information on monthly open days, see 'Fourteen Stations of the Cross' in our Exhibitions.
A full colour fine art catalogue with all Fourteen Stations of the Cross and selected studies is available from our Publications page.
“Like [Stanley] Spencer, Gollon dramatises the everyday in contemporary images and, depicting our clumsy, ridiculous ordinariness, brings alive for a modern, cynical audience the ghastly dissonance of this story of good and evil, sacrifice and humanity, answering on its own terms a 21st-century culture that regards the heroic as absurd.”
Critic’s Choice, Jackie Wullschlager, Chief Visual Arts Critic, Financial Times
This painting was also shown in St Paul's Cathedral in 2004, in the exhibition 'Images of Christ for the Third Millennium' , alongside works by Bill Viola, Maggi Hambling, Tracey Emin, Billy Childish and Craigie Aitchison.
Gollon’s Stations received wide critical acclaim: The Times, The Guardian, The Telegraph, BBC1 News and Radio 4 Today Programme; as well as all denominations of the Christian press including The Tablet and Church Times. In 2019, two years after Chris Gollon’s untimely death, two studies for the Stations and a large painting ‘Judas Iscariot & The Magdalene’ (partially inspired by Bob Dylan’s ‘With God On Our Side’ ) were donated by a collector, and permanently installed in the southern gallery.
Gollon's Stations of the Cross are featured in the documentary 'CHRIS GOLLON: Life in Paint' (85 mins) - world premiere at the Barbican, London in 2024.
The Stations are an active aid to worship in the 10am Good Friday service each year. For information on monthly open days, see 'Fourteen Stations of the Cross' in our Exhibitions.
A full colour fine art catalogue with all Fourteen Stations of the Cross and selected studies is available from our Publications page.
“Like [Stanley] Spencer, Gollon dramatises the everyday in contemporary images and, depicting our clumsy, ridiculous ordinariness, brings alive for a modern, cynical audience the ghastly dissonance of this story of good and evil, sacrifice and humanity, answering on its own terms a 21st-century culture that regards the heroic as absurd.”
Critic’s Choice, Jackie Wullschlager, Chief Visual Arts Critic, Financial Times