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In ancient Egypt, people were buried in a sarco phagus on which were painted faces of the dead. Then the Romans continued the tradition of painting portraits of the dead, on wood. Eyes were the focal point, and these portraits were done with heated honey or wax, which was then spackled onto the wood. The technique the Romans used was the fresco method. The wood on which an icon was drawn was prepared by hand. It had to be thinly cut, and strung with a thin cloth. The evolving of iconography was at first restricted to portraying Jesus and the Blessed Virgin Mary only to their torsos. Jesus was drawn as the teacher, with one hand out, and Mary without child. Later on, Mary was depicted with child, touching His face, showing moth erly affection. Eventually, monks looked to create new figures in icons: 12 Apostles, excerpts from lives of Saints, etc. In general, more figures were incorporated, giving a sense of action, conveying a lesson. There are a few schools of traditional iconography. The icon from the Czarhorod school is adorned with much gold, while the Byzantine icon is much more sim plistic. The Byzantine icon incorporates Greek, pagan and Hellenic concepts. However, after the dogma of respect for the icon, they become more flat, and begin to shed their Hellenic elements. They take on a more religious tone. When Christianity spread to Ukraine, iconography evolved into a number of different styles. There was the Kyyiv school of iconography, almost exact to the Byzan- "Mother and Child Enthroned" — a mixed media (metal col lage, 1991. Artist, Christina Saj. tine school. The Halychyna icon was also fundamentally Byzantine, but had incorporated Baroque techniques. Perhaps the most Ukrainian icon was in the Karpaty style, which was constructed strictly for religious pur poses by ordinary people, not necessarily artists. During the beginning of the 15th century, there was a Renaissance in iconography, which brought lighter colors, symbolism and no addition of gold. Icons were to read from top to bottom, since they were images of God for people to live by. Icons have to be consecrated (blessed with oil) in order to be considered holy. Ms. Saj’s goal in presenting her “contemporary icons,” is to “reduce icons to their simplest shapes — to their absolute essence.” By this she means geometric forms, circles, squares, with changes in texture and color. “Produced in the 20th century,” says Ms. Saj, “they tend to be spiritual rather than religious.” In “Mary Magdalene,” (oil on wood, 1992) Ms. Saj portrays the image of Mary by a series of colorful spheres. The piece involves a number of other shapes: rectangles, squares, not necessarily of even proportions. Ms. Saj enjoys working on wood since "the canvass has more give because it’s stretched. Working on wood is like painting a wall.” Ms. Saj works in a mixed media of metals, tempera, oil and wood. She also (in some pieces) uses 12 inch discs from old computers, as in “Saint,” a mixed media collage, 1991, to form a basis of a central figure and a halo. “Christ” (egg tempera, 1987) is a piece which incorporates an aluminum grid and a copper slab com ing out of Christ’s halo, functioning as His face. “ It’s about combining the human form and abstract compo sitions,” says Ms. Saj. Ms. Saj’s intention as an arist is to “invite the viewer to ’look through them’ (her paintings) and imagine a state of mind and recreate parables.” “Jonah in the Belly of the Beast,” incorporates bits of human X-rays, grids and a great many shapes. “ Mother and Child Enthroned” is also another piece which portrays the image in most minimalist terms, and conveys a sense of the old traditional icons — in Mother Mary expressing affection towards her child. “Guardian Angels” is an especially pleasing piece, stylistically and emotionally. “Chalice,” and “Crucifixion” are perhaps Ms. Saj’s most evident expressions of “trying to get simple shapes to resinate in a more spiritual context.” These two pieces do not have the abundance of color as the rest of Ms. Saj's works. They atand alone, the bare essentials of the subject being portrayed. Ms. Saj has been inspired by many modernist pain ters and Ukrainian artists as well. This wide range of talent includes: Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Matisse, Archi penko, Cezanne, Hnizdowsky and, of course, Petro Cho- lodny, the Younger, with whom Ms. Saj says she had “a very special connection.” Cholodny, according to Ms. Saj, allowed her to work through a number of different 18 ’НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, КВІТЕНЬ 1994 Видання C оюзу Українок A мерики - перевидано в електронному форматі в 2012 році . A рхів C У A - Ню Йорк , Н . Й . C Ш A.
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