“A Vanishing Art? Icons and Icon Painters in the First Soviet Decade”
Wendy Salmond, Professor of Art and Art History at Chapman University

Organized and co-sponsored by CREEES, the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, and the Corcoran Department of History

Description: In the wake of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, thousands of icon painters faced an uncertain future. What place could be found for them in the new atheist state? In this talk, Wendy Salmond explores a range of responses, from the scientific restoration of old icons to the invention of the new lacquer box industry. She also considers the extent to which icon painting survived as a liturgical art under Communism.