In search of a formal teacher, I traveled to Moscow, to St. Unsurprisingly, then, there were no iconographers around to teach me the authentic way to make icons.Ī friend and I began to gather information bit by bit: from studying rare books, seeking advice from restorers in museums and research institutes, making our own paints, boiling varnishes, and the like.
Only several years before my baptism, one could be sent to jail for practicing what the state termed “illegal occupations” - including iconography. It was 1991, and the Church had only begun to recover after decades of Communist oppression. Nevertheless, after a long and rather painful process of reconsidering my life and goals, I was baptized into the Orthodox Church by the same priest who judged my first attempts at iconography. I did not want to make such a decision so hastily. The priest who critiqued my drafts was surprised that I had not been baptized, and suggested that it be done immediately. At the time, I had not been baptized, and did not even believe in God. I brought my first “attempts” to an Orthodox Church in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine, where I lived.
In the end, I turned from the empty pursuit of modern artists, who think the way to freedom and spiritual truth is through breaking the rules, and instead yoked myself to the liberating discipline of Holy Tradition - and in so doing, found true freedom, and true spirituality. The well-written icon appears more profound and more worthy than most contemporary art objects.
They are venerated not because of the name of the artist, but because of the Subject he depicts. From an artistic point of view, I saw enormous beauty shining forth from those old and damaged boards – colors that would make Matisse jealous, and lines laying out the path to artistic freedom and true wisdom. Inside Orthodox churches, you can find icons from different regions and different times, made in different styles - but all are equally venerated. What's more, in the contemporary world, artwork has become mere merchandise, rendering the artist not a creator, but a salesperson and PR specialist.īy way of contrast, Orthodox iconography is grounded not in the individual artist's ego, but in Tradition, and represents an image of God and His saints. This makes the progress of art a matter of constant warfare. In most cases, what makes new styles "unique" is that it opposes the style that preceded it. The most important feature of art today is "uniqueness," a vain pursuit that compels the artist to invent a new style or come up with a new concept instead of learning from nature. Today's artists see their vocation only as self-expression. Throughout this time, one question remained foremost in my mind: What is ultimate beauty? In search for the answer, I turned to iconographic images.įrom my experience in painting, I found that contemporary art has no interest in anything beyond itself. I began to paint during my freshman year, and for many years thereafter created "secular" canvases. I entered college to study mechanical engineering, and eventually earned a Master's degree in the field. I was born in 1965 in Ukraine, and brought up in a non-religious family.
0 kommentar(er)
