TRADITION AND INNOVATION:Iconic Tradition and

Russian Avantgarde Art

Jaroslav Pelikan(1923-2006) - a scholar in the history of Christianity, Christian theology and medieval intellectualhistory.

The 1983 JeffersonLecture in theHumanities.

Winner of theHaskins Medal for1985, given by theMedieval Academy

of America

Definitions• An idol purports to be the embodiment of that

which it represents, but it directs us to itself rather than beyond itself; idolatry, therefore, is the failure to pay attention to the transcendent reality beyond the representation.

• A token points us beyond itself, but it is an altogether accidental representation that does not embody what it represents.

• An authentic image (icon) is what it represents; nevertheless, it bids us look at it, but through it and beyond it, to that living reality of which it is an embodiment.

Tradition• Tradition becomes an idol when it makes the

preservation and the repetition of the past an end in itself.

• Enlightenment defined tradition as a token, a purely arbitrary representation that does not embody what it represents.

• Tradition qualifies as an icon, when it does not present itself as coextensive with the truth it teaches, but does present itself as the way that we who are its heirs must follow if we are to go beyond it – through it, but beyond it – to a universal truth that is available only in a particular embodiment, as life itself is available to each of us only in a particular set of parents.

Innovation • If tradition is understood understood as a token,

innovation is seen as coming from outside of the tradition and is opposed to tradition interpreted as traditionalism.

• ‘It is traditionalism that gives tradition such a bad name. The reformers of every age, whether political or religious or literary, have protested against the tyranny of the dead, and in doing so have called for innovation and insight in place of tradition. In his first book, Nature, published in 1836, Ralph Waldo Emerson put their protest and their call into one question: “Why should not we have a poetry and philosophy of insight and not of tradition?” (J. Pelikan)

Innovation (continued)

• In the iconic understanding, innovation is not opposed to tradition, but is seen as a part of it. Because here tradition is a real way towards the truth, ‘the living faith of the dead’ in the words of Pelikan, inspired by the Holy Spirit innovation is what makes this way continue at different stages. Innovation is a way to reveal what needs to be revealed and what has not been revealed yet; it is that which does not destroy the past, but connects to it and to the future.

Andrey Roublev,The Trinity, 15th c.

KazimirMalevich

(1878-1935), the father of

the art of suprematism

Stt. Boris and Gleb. 1377, Novgorod.

Kazimir Malevich. A Female Reaper. 1912.

Malevich. Suprematism. The World as Non-Objectness, or Eternal Peace

Suprematism. 1915

Kazimir Malevich. Black Suprematic Square. 1914-1915.

0.15 exhibit. 1915.

Kazimir Malevich. Suprematistcomposition: White on White. 1918

Theofanes the Greek. Transfiguration.

Early 15th c.

Vladimir Sterligov(1905-1973), who discovered

‘chalice and cupola’ art in 1960s

The Birth of the Straihgt-Curve and the Chalice-Cupola from the SuprematicStraight

CC A Straight, dividing the world into two parts.It is difficult to imagine a greater fantasticality. 

UU The state of this conventional straight changes into the state of the curve. If 

R R  you imagine the straight vibrating and right away think of a conventio‐

VV nal point on it, then the ends onEE both sides of the 

point will try to   ⎝⎝⎝⎝ resemble a chalice,

S S T R A I G H TT R A I G H T‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐D I D I V I S I O NV I S I O Nreflecting ‐ ⎞⎞⎞⎞each other in UUa    reversed NN

reflection.     Mirror‐ IIreflection, “antiworld.” If        FF

you  imagine  the  opposite ends    IIof  the  straight  meeting in the process   CCof  vibration,  the form of cupola is born,       AAin  which  we  live. Therefore,  the straight is  TTmerely  a   conventional   term,   just  as the curve, IIand     we,  while   we    live,    now  fall under the    OOinfluence of the  straight, and  then  of the curve       NN

Sterligov. Composition. 1962

Vladimir Sterligov. Cupolas. 1962. Vladimir Sterligov. Cupolas. 1968.

Vladimir Sterligov. The Square in the Cupola. 1960s.

ICONICITY IN STERLIGOV‘S CHALICE

Sterligov. Composition.(Still‐life with Three Vases). 1962

Rublev. Trinity. 1411

Vladimir Mother of God. XII c. Constantinople, Byzantine Empire

Sterligov. Composition with Godmother. 1970

Vladimir Sterligov. Divine Service. 1960s

Vladimir Sterligov. The Gift of Home. 1960s.