Icons: Old Believers and Their World

Icons: Old Believers and Their World showcases over sixty masterpieces from the Oleg Kushnirskiy Russian Icon Collection, along with rarely seen treasures from the Icon Museum and Study Center. The exhibition provides a unique opportunity to experience the artistic ingenuity and spiritual depth of icons painted during the golden age of Old Believer painting in Imperial Russia. Co-curated by Dr. Justin Willson, Assistant Professor of Medieval Art at Yale University and former curator of the Icon Museum, and Elliot Mackin, Curator at the Icon Museum, the icons displayed in this exhibition represent major themes that preoccupied Old Believer workshops, such as the Resurrection and iconography of the calendar.

The Old Believers are a broad group of Russian Orthodox Christians who separated themselves from the official Russian Church over issues of reform in the late 17th century. Fleeing into rural areas on the margins of the Russian Empire, the Old Believers cultivated a distinct style of icon painting that was celebrated throughout Russia and the Orthodox world.

The icons in this exhibition are packed with numerous finely painted scenes adorned with intricate details that reveal each artist’s technical ability and imaginative energy. For the Old Believers, icons were crucial markers of identity. They created images that were simultaneously fashionable and timeless. Icons: Old Believers and Their World highlights the rich religious and artistic traditions of the Old Believers.

Visitors will encounter a powerful narrative of spiritual resilience, social perseverance, and artistic flourishing born out of religious upheaval, social persecution, and political discord.