Posts Tagged ‘Icons’
Review of “Festal Icons: History and Meaning” by Aidan Hart
In Aidan Hart’s new book, Festal Icons: History and Meaning, we find a major contribution to the current icon revival, one which will be hard to surpass for many years to come. It is an impressive volume, not only in its size and bulk — measuring 11 in. x 9 in., weighing 5.17 lbs.,…
Continue reading »Recent Fresco Iconography in Belgium
The rector, Fr. Dominique Verbeke, and his counsel, asked me to present a proposal on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Orthodox parish of the Holy Apostle Andrew in Ghent, Belgium. I was to decorate the ‘first church’, a big room in a house of the Old Beguinage (17th century)…
Continue reading »Interview with Iconographer Baker Galloway
Editor’s Note: Following upon Aidan Hart’s recent post about applications currently being accepted for the 3-year Icon Painting Programme taught by him, we present an interview with a 2019 graduate of that program, Baker Galloway, conducted by Seraphim O’Keefe on behalf of the OAJ. Introduction Baker Galloway is an American graduate of the 3-year Icon…
Continue reading »The Epiphany of the Eye
“The eye is, to be sure, a small organ in size, but it is more important than all the rest of the body. […] Actually, of course, everything in us is a proof of the wisdom of God, but the eye is so more than any other organ. In truth, it governs the entire…
Continue reading »Designing an Image of Everything
For many years now I have been studying the traditions of iconology, the sacred visual language which has developed in the Church. Long before becoming an icon carver, the pattern of my thinking had already been built through meditation on the images of both the Christian East and the medieval West. Although I am mostly…
Continue reading »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…
Continue reading »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…
Continue reading »An Interview with Iconographer Vladimir Grygorenko – His Recent Work and Developing Style
A. Gould: How did you first set out to be an iconographer? What led to this decision, and what was your initial artistic training? V. Grygorenko: I began painting icons long before my conversion to Christianity, which happened back in 1991. For nine years I studied traditional oil painting in the art studio at Dnipropetrovsk…
Continue reading »Wrestling with Angels: Icons from the Prosopon School
The Museum of Russian Icons in Clinton MA will premiere Wrestling with Angels, an exhibition of forty-six contemporary icons by sixteen iconographers from the Prosopon School of Iconology and Iconography, July 19-October 27, 2019. Exploring the recent renaissance of this ancient tradition, the exhibition will feature icons by the founder of the Prosopon School, Vladislav Andrejev, along with works…
Continue reading »Understanding the Icons of Holy Week
During Holy Week, the Orthodox faithful will see several icons in the center of the church being commemorated. Although we are used to interpret icons as stand alone objects, I have found that it is sometimes best to see the language of icons as an inter-connected web of elements which speak to each other across different icons types.
Continue reading »