Browsing the library last Friday, I picked up a couple of books to take home and skim through. One of those was God in the Gallery: A Christian Embrace of Modern Art by Daniel A. Siedell. I encourage art and worship fans to look it up. Siedell uses the theology of icons developed by the Second Council of Nicea as the framework for approaching modern art. In fact, he argues that the abstraction of modern art is particularly well suited for contemplation of and participation in the transcendent.
Here's a good summary paragraph:
An important part of the Nicene Christian faith is that it possesses the aesthetic and intellectual resources to make the most sense of aesthetic experiences . . . to articulate the experience of art as contemplation of and communion with artifacts that are a hypostatic union of form and content, artifacts that, although they are the product of artistic intention, achieve their own identity separate from the artist. Therefore, art is not merely an image that needs to be decoded, explained, and assigned a philosophical, theological, or historical meaning, although it invites philosophical, theological, or historical reflection.
There is a nice discussion of the Rothko Chapel in Houston (thanks, Laura, for taking me there). And a really good analysis of Jackson Pollock as exhibiting incarnation in his treatment of the canvas.
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