Reflecting on the Apocalypse

The National Andrei Sheptytsky Museum in Lviv continues to host an exhibit of modern icons. They were all made during the 8th International Plein Air Icon-Painting Fest on September 4-18 at the Novytsia-based Sarepta Fraternity of Greek Catholic Young People.

This year, the plein air session’s theme was the book Revelations of St. John the Divine, or The Apocalypse. About 30 icon painters from Ukraine, Belarus, and Poland expressed their visions on this subject. The idea of the organizers of the international plein air icon-painting fest in Novytsia was to allow artists, who follow the tradition of Eastern sacral art, to seek an individual way of expression. Some of the displayed pictures were made under the influence of traditional and folk icons as well as of contemporary art, abstractionism, minimalism, etc.

“Offering the Lord’s Prayer, we say: may Thy Kingdom come. This entreaty sounds particularly strong in the times of crises, confusion, and uncertainty. So we suggested that the artists who were to visit Novytsia this year should reflect on the text of the Book of Revelation which is full of typical European cultural symbols (four horsemen of apocalypse, seven seals, seven trumpets, etc,) and, at the same time, is complicated and, hence, often forgotten,” the organizers say.