Museum of Russian Icons Summer 2019 Newsletter MoRI_SUMMER_2019_newsletter web

NEWS
from the
MUSEUM OF RUSSIAN ICONS
Summer 2019
T
Icons from the Prosopon School of
Iconology and Iconography
he Museum is pleased to
premiere Wrestling with
Angels, an exhibition of forty-
six luminous contemporary
icons by sixteen iconographers from
the Prosopon School of Iconology
and Iconography. On view from July
19-October 27, 2019, the exhibition
will feature icons by the founder of the
Prosopon School, Vladislav Andrejev,
along with works by master iconographers,
instructors, and apprentices.
A centerpiece of the exhibition is the
deisis (Greek for “supplication”), a
group of five large icons with Christ
in Glory at its center. The deisis in
this exhibition includes portrayals of
Saints Gregory Palamas and Gregory
the Theologian, whose mystical
theology is central to the Prosopon
School’s teaching.
Since its founding in 2000, the
Prosopon School, among the first
American schools of iconography,
Visitors will encounter the icons as
has introduced thousands of students
they would within an Orthodox church,
worldwide to this sacred art of the
beginning with depictions of events and
Christian East. The artistic discipline
Rev.
Dn.
Nikita
Andrejev
persons from Hebrew scripture that would
of iconography is the means through
Jacob Wrestling the Angel, 2015
be found in the narthex (or vestibule); and
which students are introduced to the
egg tempera on gessoed wood panel
continuing with icons that would surround
larger discipline of iconology: the
the congregation in the nave, including images of Jesus and his
exploration of what it means to have been created in
mother Mary (known in the Christian East as the Theotokos,
the image and likeness of God. The Prosopon School
Greek for “God-bearer”). The exhibition concludes with icons
accomplishes this by breaking the process into distinct
that would be found on or behind the iconostasis (the screen
technical steps and associating these with the theology
or wall that separates the nave from the altar), including icons
and teachings of the Orthodox Church, especially those
of the principal feasts of the Christian liturgical year as well
of the early Church Fathers.
as icons of mystical subjects that point to the second coming
The Museum offers a six-day intensive workshop
of Christ.
by the Prosopon School each August. There are a
Wrestling with Angels is a reference to the first icon on view, a
few spaces left in this year's class. Visit our website:
work depicting the mysterious wrestling match between the
museumofrussianicons.org/classes-workshops for
patriarch Jacob and an unidentified stranger as described in
information.
Genesis.
Misha Akopyan, Old Testament Trinity (detail)
egg tempera on gessoed wood panel