Workshops

Master Iconographer Xenia Pokrovsky

Xenia Pokrovsky gave up her career as a biophysicist in the late 1960s to learn the ancient art of icon painting. These were not welcoming times for such a decision. Stalin had realized, two decades earlier, the political advantage of halting the destruction of Russia's religious art treasures produced by a 1000 years of Orthodox Christianity. But the official ban on "making new icons" remained aggressively in force. Icon painting workshops in monasteries and artisan centers were shut down. The practical knowledge and skill of icon painters, transferred orally from one generation to next, had all but disappeared.

Without benefit of teachers and under the threat of prosecution, Xenia Pokrovsky applied her scientific discipline to learning the forbidden art. Beginning as a restorer Pokrovsky discovered many of the techniques that had preserved ancient Russian art for centuries in spite of vandalism and neglect. Eventually, this courageous mother of five formed a network of accomplices throughout the vast Soviet Union and became a leader of a clandestine movement that revived icon painting in Russia during the 1970s and 1980s. When Perestroika loosened the atheistic yoke on Russian society, Pokrovsky and her associates were acknowledged for their heroic efforts.

In the last decade and a half, Pokrovsky's teaching has spread to North and South America, Australia and other parts of the world. Pokrovsky immigrated to the United States in 1991 and lives near Boston. Her 37 years of experience is helping to found an incipient American school of art inspired by the ancient Byzantine/Russian iconic form.