Art: Holy Family in Modern Dress

English Painter Arthur Fretwell, 38, who makes a living as the art master of the church school at Hucknall, Nottinghamshire, received an interesting letter last January. It came from Nathaniel Montague. Lane, 68, the diocesan architect who designed the Anglican Church of Saint Mary the Virgin in the nearby coal-mining town of Mansfield. Architect Lane, with only limited funds, wanted to know if Fretwell would like to paint five pictures of incidents from the Virgin Mary’s life for the church’s gallery. There was only one condition: “The more controversial the panels are, the better.”

Fretwell accepted, then started to worry. What would be controversial, yet might appeal to the working-class parish? Fretwell decided against tricky techniques and went to work. He had less than five months to do the paintings, but he finished them in time. “By Jove!” Lane gasped when he saw them. “These are controversial all right.” Fretwell had portrayed the Holy Family in modern dress.

Fortnight ago, as the church was being consecrated, the thin, flat paintings caused a national flutter. Parishioners gaped up at Jesus as a boy in a red sweater, Mary in a black dress and black silk stockings carrying a shopping bag, Joseph in a Trilby hat and yellow zippered jerkin, John in rolled-up shirtsleeves and corduroy slacks, and Peter in a grey flannel suit.

The bishop of Southwell, Dr. F. R. Barry, who consecrated the church, refused to be moved by the screaming headline in the London Daily Express (MADONNA WITH AN ETON CROP) or by what he saw in the panels. Said he: “The New Testament is translated into modern English. Why not into modern art?” After all, other artists in recent years have placed scenes from the Christian drama in Bethlehem, Conn., Haiti, India and a Nazi concentration camp. And the same incidents were painted in modern dress by Byzantine, Romanesque and Renaissance artists.