From Belgrade to Cambridge: Travelling icons visit University for Easter

The Balkan Icons Exhibition, which features 70 religious paintings by 20 artists from Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, will open at Great St Mary's Church and The Michaelhouse Centre in Cambridge this Easter weekend.

It is only the second time the travelling display, which has visited several major European cities, has stopped at a British venue - the previous occasion having been a one-off show in London. It will stay in Cambridge for two months and can be viewed by members of the public for free.

Although icons are no longer an important part of Western European culture, the form has remained vibrant in parts of Eastern Europe and has enjoyed a new lease of life since the collapse of Communism.

In recent years a bright new generation of highly-educated artists who combine modern styles with traditional medieval icon-painting has sprung up, particularly in and around the Serbian capital, Belgrade. It is works by these urban artists, together with traditional icons, that are represented in the exhibition.

Great St Mary's vicar, the Revd. Dr. John Binns, said: “Most icon painting tends to be linked to very traditional, old styles, but this is all about vibrancy and creativity. We hope that it will give visitors to Great St Mary's over Easter a better appreciation of the culture of south-eastern Europe and the Balkans.

“Most of what we hear of those regions is about how they are economically under-developed, but we tend to forget that they also have a hugely vibrant artistic and theological culture. These icons show how an art form that has all but disappeared from the west is still thriving in other Christian cultures.”

The Balkan Icons Exhibition is curated by Lazar Predrag Markovic, an art historian based in Belgrade. He first put the display together four years ago to provide an outlet for the work of the Balkan's burgeoning new group of icon-painters.

Although originally meant as a short-term exhibition at a conference of European churches in Norway, Mr Markovic has since been invited to take the display all around Scandinavia, and to several other European countries.

“All icon-painting has its roots in Byzantine culture, but many of these younger artists also appreciate modern, secular art and those influences also shine through,” he said.

“We live in a visual culture and icons communicate the Church's message to that culture. This collection does so by being modern and contemporary but nevertheless being based on tradition. I hope this exhibition also goes some way to answering the question: could the iconography of the present day achieve the aesthetic heights of the medieval past?”

The Balkan Icons Exhibition will be on display at Great St Mary's and the Michaelhouse Centre from Friday and will remain on shown throughout the rest of April and May.