Word: icon
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Among the hottest items on Moscow's black market these days, along with long-playing records of Jesus Christ Superstar and bell-bottom blue jeans are, of all things, icons. "Words about God in paint," as they have been called, these centuries-old religious images painted on wooden panels are celebrated as one of the most sublime achievements of Russian culture. Even though the Soviet government still severely discourages popular support of the Orthodox faith, icons have lately regained some of their old luster and status in the U.S.S.R., and have inspired what Moscow's Literaturnaya Gazeta calls...
...Icon prices are still surprisingly low, at least by Western standards. An ordinary 19th century icon in good condition can be purchased for about $165 in local currency (compared with $300 or so in New York for icons bought through Novexport, the state trading agency). The wholesale price is even lower. Police recently picked up a dealer who had bought seven icons from a church caretaker for one liter of vodka, and had acquired six others for a foreign-made gas lighter. When he was arrested, he had a stock of 400 icons and had bought two autos from...
...there is no shortage of icons for sale. Many churches, closed during antireligious drives, were simply abandoned to the mercies of weather and thieves. Some icon dealers-one of them is known as "Sasha the Psycho" because his hands shake nervously when he calls on his customers late at night-simply pillage empty or unguarded churches. Others tour the countryside in search of icons, claiming to be museum officials or priests. Many Muscovites seem to feel that the icon racketeers unwittingly perform a service for Russia. Since the state has been negligent in preserving a heritage, the argument goes...
...hide and seek with a black robed, virgin-like bust appearing in whole and in cut sections against greyish-white rectangular backgrounds that overlap and revolve around the center. She takes a negative and pasts up a college of this repeated image. For her, this black shape becomes an icon, indestructible, despite efforts to cut it up and change its positions...
...exhibition includes only twelve icons, of which four are good, the rest mediocre. Two lovely 15th century icons of the Pskov school--"St. Boris and St. Gleb" and "Prophet Elijah and the Fiery Chariot"--are distinguished by their vibrant reds, simplicity of line, and native charm. Another early 15th century icon, "The Dormition of the Virgin," is redeemed by the beautifully drawn central figure of the Holy Spirit (the rest of the figures are stereotypic and pedestrian.) "Our Lady of Jerusalem" is the only example from the famous Novgorod school. And the greatest of Russian icon painters--Feofan the Greek...