The Thrivent Financial Collection of Religious Art

By Donna Mulder

It may very well be one of the best-kept secrets of Thrivent Financial for Lutherans.

Tucked within the corporate offices in Minneapolis is a gallery featuring just an eighth of the religious prints and drawings the financial services organization has collected as part of the Thrivent Financial Collection of Religious Art.

“There are 824 pieces in this remarkable and significant art collection,” says Joanna Reiling Lindell, collection curator. The religious prints and drawings range from 13th century Illuminated Manuscripts to 16th century Old Master works to 20th century Modern Master works. The collection is primarily a print and drawing collection and contains only a handful of paintings, Lindell adds.

“The collection represents such a diversity of artists—from Albrecht Durer and Rembrandt van Rijn to Lucas Cranach, Hendrik Goltzius, Edouard Manet and Pablo Picasso,” says Lindell. “We also have the only known religious painting of American artist George Bellows—The Crucifixion.”

Retired Lutheran pastor The Rev. Richard Hillstrom, also an art collector, began collecting religious prints and drawings on behalf of the organization in 1982. He was the sole collector and curator until Lindell joined him in 2002. Hillstrom has retired from Thrivent Financial.

The Thrivent Financial collection is known throughout the art world, but especially represents an integral and significant part of the Minneapolis-St. Paul arts community. The unique nature of the collection—combining the historical and the theological—makes it educationally significant. “Art history scholars from all over the world use our pieces in their publications,” Lindell says. And the collection has been used nationally by museums in exhibitions.

The Thrivent Financial Gallery is open to the public daily from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. near the visitors’ entrance. The gallery contains about 100 pieces from the entire collection. Another 40 prints—The Inspired Line: Selected Prints of Albrecht Durer and Rembrandt van Rijn from the Thrivent Financial Collection of Religious Art—are currently on tour. The remaining pieces are stored in a secure, humidity-controlled storage area and are rotated into the gallery periodically.

Lindell plans to put together a catalog of the collection. “It will explore the collection history and the importance of individual works in the collection, and it will include images of many of the pieces,” Lindell says. “These are historical, religious pieces that represent centuries of history, artistic activity and cultural ideals of what’s beautiful and what’s educational.”