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Orthodox Arts Journal — Articles and news for the promotion of traditional Orthodox Christian liturgical arts

— Articles and news for the promotion of traditional Orthodox Christian liturgical arts —

Todor Mitrović

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Canon: Time for a Paradigm Shift…Part IV

By Todor Mitrović on July 13, 2020
Canon: Time for a Paradigm Shift...Part IV

  How to Conceive a Paradigm Shift? In the end, of course, we cannot naïvely expect that this change of paradigm can be imposed by some “official directive.” As the “chair and apple” example shows, such change happens neither easily nor suddenly. The need for change can be voiced, or even generated by an individual, […]

Posted in Theory | Tagged art history, conceptual metaphors, diachronic, expressive power, icon painting, idea, internalize, invention, paradigm shift, studio, synchronic, Tradition, utilitarian, visual language July 13, 2020

Canon: Time for a Paradigm Shift…Part III

By Todor Mitrovic on July 6, 2020
Canon: Time for a Paradigm Shift...Part III

    On the Need for the New Paradigm   First, the suggested shift in paradigm is not just playing with words, nor is it merely for amusement or for increasing our vocabulary. Neither are we following some fashionable intellectual trend. From the conventional meaning of the term paradigm, I would emphasize its ‘active’ semantic aspects. These suppose […]

Posted in Theory | Tagged artistic language, canon, church art, cognitive linguistics, conceptual metaphor, Icon, icon painting, paradigm, rules, Tradition July 6, 2020

Canon: Time for a Paradigm Shift…Part II

By Todor Mitrovic on June 29, 2020
Canon: Time for a Paradigm Shift...Part II

    Are There Rules and Where to Find Them?   However, how can we discuss the concept of a list of icon-painting rules if there is the slightest possibility that it might be imaginary? First, let us recall that imaginary entities can define our behavior just as much as physically existing ones. Let us […]

Posted in Theory | Tagged canon, Canonicity, Icons, juridical, language, oral, painters' manuals, painting, rules, scholia, technical, Tradition, unwritten, unwritten painters' tradition, visual, visual language July 1, 2020

Canon: Time for a Paradigm Shift

By Todor Mitrovic on June 23, 2020
Canon: Time for a Paradigm Shift

Editorial note: This post is the first of a series of four which touch on the topic of “canonicity” in icon painting. The series consists of an expanded version of an article previously published in Serbian and in Russian. * The author, Todor Mitrović, is one of the foremost representatives of the icon painting revival […]

Posted in Theory | Tagged canon, Canonicity, Icon, iconography, juridical, law, prescriptions, rule July 1, 2020

The Icon Painting of Fr. Stamatis Skliris: A Call for Authenticity

By Fr. Silouan Justiniano on April 21, 2020
The Icon Painting of Fr. Stamatis Skliris: A Call for Authenticity

It could be said that Fr. Stamatis Skliris ranks as one of the most important, albeit idiosyncratic and challenging, contemporary iconographers residing in Greece today: idiosyncratic, because his style stands out in a category of its own, in its personal, expressive potency and unique, at times odd, pictorial synthesis; challenging, because he often breaks all […]

Posted in Artist Features, Iconography | Tagged Authenticity, creativity, Expressionism, icon painting, Impressionism, modern art, Pointillism, Tradition, uniqueness, unrepeatability April 23, 2020

Review of “TREASURE IN A BOX: A Guide to the Icons of St Andrew” by Mary Kathryn Lowell

By Aidan Hart on March 19, 2020
Review of "TREASURE IN A BOX: A Guide to the Icons of St Andrew" by Mary Kathryn Lowell

In this newly published book, Mary Lowell describes the eighty-six icons and murals painted by Ksenia Pokrovsky (1942-2013) for St Andrew’s Orthodox church in Lexington, Kentucky. The icons and this book about them comprise a graphic account of the history of salvation, a visual catechism. The icons depict not just the major feasts of the […]

Posted in Iconography | Tagged catechism tool, commissions, frescoes, iconography, Icons, Life of Christ, murals, New Testament, Old Testament, Russia, teacher, Theology March 19, 2020

Introducing the Institute of Sacred Arts at St. Vladimir’s Seminary

By Fr. Silouan Justiniano on March 17, 2020
Introducing the Institute of Sacred Arts at St. Vladimir’s Seminary

  The Holy Liturgy in the Orthodox Church can be said to be the aspiration towards, if not the actualization of, a “complete work of art” – a synthesis of all the arts – whether it be music, painting, mosaic, embroidery, poetry, architecture, sculpture, choreography, rhetoric, etc., at the service of theology and divine worship. […]

Posted in News | Tagged aesthetics, art history, Holy Liturgy, iconography, Master of Arts program, Music, Sacred Arts, St. Vladimir's Seminary, study concentration, Theology March 19, 2020

Preparatory Drawings as Temporary Icons: An Alternative Solution

By Fr. Silouan Justiniano on October 23, 2019
Preparatory Drawings as Temporary Icons: An Alternative Solution

In preparation for our patronal feast, at the Monastery of St. Dionysios the Areopagite, we ran into the problem of our unfinished, blank iconostasis. What could be done for the occasion in order to make it more presentable? First, as is common, we thought of speedily acquiring temporary icon reproductions to fill in the empty […]

Posted in Theory October 23, 2019

‘The Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Painting’: A Chinese painting manual offers inspiration to iconographers

By Aidan Hart on July 2, 2019
‘The Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Painting’: A Chinese painting manual offers inspiration to iconographers

Truth is truth wherever it is found. In fact, it is all the more delicious when found in unexpected places. I was at the opening of an exhibition of The St John’s Bible, for which I had been one of the illuminators, and fell into conversation with one of the professors at Minnesota University. We […]

Posted in Iconography, Theory | Tagged Chinese painting, detail, dexterity, discipline, freedom, icon painting, methods, practice, technique, Tradition July 1, 2019

Brilliant Darkness: On St. Dionysios the Areopagite’s Blue Halo

By Fr. Silouan Justiniano on April 13, 2019
Brilliant Darkness: On St. Dionysios the Areopagite's Blue Halo

  …Timothy, my friend, my advice to you as you look for a sight of the mysterious things, is to leave behind you everything perceived and understood, everything perceptible and understandable, all that is not and all that is, and, with your understanding laid aside, to strive upward as much as you can towards union […]

Posted in Iconography, Theory | Tagged areopagite, Byzantine, dionysios, Icon, iconography, pseudo-dionysios, silouan justiniano, Symbolism, uncreated light April 15, 2019
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