Strawinsky converted to Catholicism in 1940. As from 1948, he began taking on regular commissions for stained glass windows, mosaics and frescos, which provided him with a regular income. In particular, alongside other artists such as Rouault, Bonnard, Léger, Lurçat, Braque, Matisse and Chagall, he contributed to one of the leading works that marked the revival of religious art, namely, the decoration of the church of Notre-Dame-de-Toute-Grâce on the Assy plateau in the Haute-Savoie region. His principal works are to be found in Yverdon (Saint-Pierre), in Gennep, Holland (Saint-Martin) and, notably, in Fribourg at the Church of Christ-Roi, inaugurated in 1971. He worked directly with contractors and developed a particular mastery of the glass slab technique that uses pieces of coloured glass set in a matrix of concrete. From an aesthetic and catechetical point of view he was a defender of both decorative and figurative art, “the two true pillars of religious art” (Nova and Vetera, 1956).

Philippe Kaenel