Jake Spitzack
Staff Writer
Augustana Lutheran Church in West St. Paul is hosting ICONS in Transformation, an art exhibit by acclaimed abstract expressionist Ludmila Pawlowska, through March 31. The traveling exhibit has toured churches, cathedrals and museums in Europe and the United States and features more than 100 pieces of contemporary artwork. It’s dedicated to the people of Ukraine and all artist proceeds (60%) from sales will support the United Nations Relief Agency and CARE International.
Pawlowska grew up in Karaganda, Kazakhstan, where teachers identified her as an artistic child prodigy. She moved to Moscow at age 15 to attend a school there and eventually met Jan Lech, an early-music specialist and lute player working in the business side of the arts. Twenty years ago, they left Russia to open an art center in Sweden. In Russia, Pawlowska had been forced to limit her work to socialist realism, the party-enforced painting style. In Sweden, her work originally focused on realistic and abstract natural beauty, but when her mother passed away she began a spiritual journey that brought her to Russian monasteries. She fell in love with their iconographic artwork and has worked in that style ever since.
“The icons were like a window to God,” she said in a press release. “I knew my mother surrounded me and could hear me. She could read my letters to her. After every image was done, I felt a sense of relief. I was finding my own way to God. All the art over these last years has been a spiritual journey.”
Traditional iconography dates to about 1,500 years ago and uses realism loaded with abstraction to represent the divine. For example, eyes are often exaggerated to illustrate spiritual depth.
Pawlowska’s style is characterized by using many layers of paint to produce highly textured artworks. She uses a variety of paint types to create special lighting effects and also implants fossil-rich limestone that’s native to her hometown in her art. She even occasionally plunges a saw blade through her pieces to create spirals, crosses and other patterns that invite the viewer to look within it. Her exhibit will be on display alongside a collection of traditional icons, which were made at a monastery workshop in Russia in the years following Joseph Stalin’s death in 1953, when a measure of religious freedom had returned to the country.
Iconography is most popular in Orthodox churches and is used as a part of religious worship. The art is often kissed or has candles lit in front of it as a sign of respect, although it’s not about worshipping the artwork itself but what is seen through it. An ancient prayer practice involves keeping your eyes wide open toward the artwork and taking in what the image visually communicates.
This style of artwork saw a resurgence in the 20th century, due in part to the work of the French post-Impressionist artist Henri Matisse. Pawlowska’s inspiration for the exhibit comes from Matisse’s comments following his first visit to Moscow: “The artist’s soul emerges in these icons like a mystical flower. It is through them that we should learn to understand art. I have seen artwork from the churches of many different countries, but nowhere have I met such powerful expression, such a feeling of mystery… everywhere the same luminosity and devotion….”
Guided tours are available Sundays, noon-3 p.m., except March 17. Self-guided tours are available noon-3 p.m., Mon., Tues., and Thurs., and noon-6 p.m., Wed. Groups of 10 or more should contact info@augustana.com. Admission is free. Some artwork is available for purchase and a portion of proceeds will go to Augustana Lutheran. For more information, visit augustana.com.
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