Eternal Symbols

Such is the name of the modern icon exhibition that opened in Kyiv on June 5. Hosted by the Center for Ukrainian Culture and Arts at 19V Khoryva St., it is displaying works by the Heaven on Earth, a Mykolaiv-based family-owned icon-painting workshop. The exhibition contains about 50 icons created using various painting techniques, including original interpretations of Ukrainian and foreign schools of icon painting’s techniques, the modern creative icon, and the icon on the stone.

The event’s organizers told The Day that, seeking new means of expression, the Heaven on Earth’s painters were at the same time striving to comply with the traditional technology, using only natural materials and making paints from natural minerals and pigments in-house. Icon of the Theotokos of the Fenced Garden is the centerpiece of the exhibition, showing the Heavenly Queen likened to the Garden of Paradise. The icon’s subject has no basis in liturgical hymns, but contains a wonderful allegoric poetic idea of the Eden, the object of desire. Eight stone-carved icons are a unique feature of the exhibition. These works bring together the church canons and creativity. For example, let us look at two icons of the Epiphany: the artist depicted only the figures, while the very structure of the stone makes for the background, the icon’s language, its Holy Light and Glory of God. This structure has become evident after the agate had been cut-up and its surface polished. Having discerned the fantastic Jordan Valley landscapes in the surface’s appearance, the masters went on to create unique artworks.

The exhibition’s curator Maria Pavelko says its objective is to help people better understand the true meaning of the icon. The project was made possible by the support of the Folklore and Ethnography Center at the Institute of Philology of the Shevchenko Kyiv National University.

The exhibition will run till June 25.