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 […]
The following is an interview with Romanian master iconographer Ioan Popa. He’s one of the leading representatives of the contemporary icon revival in Romania, focusing in both panel and monumental fresco painting. Our conversation touches on his artistic development, aspects of the professional training of iconographers in Romania and the challenge of creative engagement with […]
This is part 2 of a series: Part 1 Because they are the works of God, who is Himself good, the senses and sensible objects are good; but they cannot in any way be compared with the intellect [nous] and with intelligible realities. -St. Thalassios, On Love, Self-control and Life in Accordance with the […]
Editor’s Note: This article is a revised and expanded version of the talk with the same title given at the symposium, Living Tradition: Painting Sacred Icons in the 21st Century, organized by the Orthodox Arts Journal and which took place on May 23, 2015, at Holy Ascension Orthodox Church, Mt. Pleasant, SC. This post is […]
Therefore every scribe instructed concerning the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old. ‒Matt. 13:52 It is the irrational impulses that yearn for innovation. […]
Contemporary Byzantine Painting: Street Art and the Icon in Convergence An Interview with Fikos By Fr. Silouan Justiniano Graffiti is one of those art forms that seems to have no relationship whatsoever with the liturgical art of the icon. Unlike the icon’s inextricable reliance on Tradition, graffiti appears to embody an anti-traditional and revolutionary […]
We often forget that our contemporary art, although the offspring of the 20th century revolutionary avant-garde, has its own set of artistic dogmas, its form of “orthodoxy”, so to speak. Ironically, although the avant-garde might have shattered the stifling shackles of the Academy, it has now itself become another form of restrictive academy, forming an […]
This is post 3 of 3 in the series “The Pictorial Metaphysics of the Icon” The Pictorial Metaphysics of the Icon Part III By Fr. Silouan Justiniano The traditional artist is not an archaist, but perfectly justified in his conviction that the forms he makes use of are “his own”; because he has made them […]
This is post 4 of 5 in the series “On the Gift of Art… But, What Art” …Each one of us has his own peculiar way of expression…The capable artist is by no means a mechanical copier, but a creator in the true sense of the term. Unfortunately, even among iconographers there are some who […]
This is post 3 of 5 in the series “On the Gift of Art… But, What Art” “Man is the measure of everything.” That, at its core (in nuce), is every humanism…Therefore, all humanisms, all hominisms are, in the final analysis, idolatrous and polytheistic in origin…all the European humanisms strive consciously or subconsciously, but they […]