Irma Kvlividze on Contemporary Icon Painting and Tradition
Irma Kvlividze is a contemporary icon painter who has created numerous icons and murals in churches across Greece, Italy, and Switzerland.
The editorial board of Russian Icon Collection talked to her about how tradition and modernity coexist in icon painting today and what significance historical examples, such as Oleg Kushnirskiy has combined in his collection of icons, have for artists.
Your artistic path began in Georgia. How did your upbringing and early impressions of life in Georgia influence your approach to painting?
Irma Kvlividze: No one in the family was involved in art, but they read a lot. My mother was a historian by education, had an exceptional memory, vivid imagination, and humanism, and had a talent for very interesting and artistic storytelling. My father was a director of production, and he worked hard. Things were going well for him, and he helped people a lot, including strangers. He was an idealist and a dreamer. He said that money is needed to help everyone you can to relieve suffering. I think that from both my parents, I got my idealistic perception of the world, and my vision of painting was rather formed long and gradually.
What attracted you to icon painting, and how did your years of study in Greece affect your artistic vision?
It happened that I entered the faculty of painting restoration, but that year, they added icon painting as well. It was the time of the collapse of the USSR—in 1991—and many people turned to religion. The Academy of Arts allowed icons to be painted, but the art was forgotten, and the teachers were also learning new things. I remember seeing a reproduction of the Vladimir icon of the Mother of God, and it struck me. I had not realized before that painting could be so transcendent. In detail, I had already studied iconography in Greece, working as an apprentice to famous icon painters.
Byzantine iconography is the richest and oldest tradition. How does it merge with contemporary elements in your icon painting?
Icon painting should be impersonal because it is the translation of theology into the language of art. Nevertheless, each artist brings something of himself, at least his own artistic manner. Today, icon painting is developing very interestingly, mainly in Russia and Eastern Europe, and in Greece, everything is more or less calm and even within the new tradition that has already formed. I think my style was formed under the influence of the Macedonian School, and my works reflect modern aesthetics and bright color combinations but no radical innovations.
Could you please share memories or stories about painting churches in Greece, Italy, and Switzerland? What was the most challenging and the most satisfying part of the work?
There is a saying among icon painters in Greece: “When we have no work, we will go to work in the circus.” What is meant is climbing scaffolding. When you are young and athletic, you quickly get used to it.
Once long ago, in Thessaloniki, I was working very high, under the dome itself, and I was called from below. Someone came to see me. I went down through the scaffolding, and down below, I saw a close friend of mine. She was very pale. Turns out she had come to surprise me, and she saw someone literally flying from pipe to pipe with the speed of a primate, and she got scared. But seriously, the main difficulties in painting churches are when you have to solve technical problems rather than purely artistic ones.
What materials, paints, and techniques do you use to create icons?
I paint icons traditionally, with tempera pigments, using egg yolk as a binder. Mural painting is done with acrylic paints or pigments, but in this case, vinyl glue is used as a binder. And, of course, a lot of gold leaf.
Traditionally, icon painting was not just an artistic endeavor. Icon painters fasted and prayed before they began to create an icon. Do these rules exist today? How does this relate to you?
Yes, there is indeed such a rule. However, it is not always feasible for contemporary icon painters because we live in a very different rhythm compared to the Middle Ages. With few exceptions, I paint icons or frescoes every day, so it is not possible to fast every day. I try to keep Lent every year. Not to do or think something bad every day. The main rule I have set for myself is not to do or say things to others that I would not want them to do or say to me.
Are there certain themes, historical figures, or moments in the past that inspire you and that you are currently exploring in your art?
I have always been inspired by the image of the Mother of God. God is love, and the Mother of God is the source of great virtue. She is the one who gave birth to God, who is love. She has the hardest fate: accepting this fate is the greatest challenge. As a woman icon painter, I feel not only reverence but also warmth and closeness to the image of the Mother of God.
How do you assess Oleg Kushnirskiy’s collection of Russian icons? What significance do such collections have for contemporary icon painters?
Oleg Kushnirskiy’s collection of icons is unique in the sense that it was collected entirely in the United States. These are rare examples of Russian Orthodox icon paintings of the 18th and 19th centuries, which represent a little-studied stratum of Russian culture of the New Age. Kushnirskiy has accomplished a huge and important work, uniting these icons into a single collection with great artistic and museum value. For icon painters, such collections are very important because, through them, we actually learn to paint icons. Just as an artist learns to paint by copying the physical world, an icon painter copies the icons created before him. This is a vital continuity. It is only by copying an icon that one learns the technique of icon painting and develops and comprehends the world it contains.
How do you see the future of icon painting?
Once, at a conference on church and mural painting, I heard a paper whose author suggested projecting icons using a projector and other modern technologies instead of painting churches. I think such a proposal also has the right to exist, although, for me, it is a bit comical. Icon painting definitely has a future, and it may be a brilliant one. Fine art, in general, has never been as diverse and accessible to everyone as it is today, and icon painting is no exception. A great many efforts are being made in this direction, and there are many talented icon painters, particularly in the countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.