FEST TO SHOW CATHEDRAL IN ALL ITS GLORY

[Matanna]

Chicago Tribune
November 12, 1999
FEST TO SHOW CATHEDRAL IN ALL ITS GLORY
THE WORK OF ARCHBISHOP ALYPY OF THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH ABROAD WILL BEON
DISPLAY THIS WEEKEND IN A CELEBRATION OF ICONOGRAPHY, FAITH AND RUSSIAN
CULTURE.
By Walter Gottesman
Special to the Tribune
November 12, 1999
The art of painting Byzantine-style icons, largely lost in
Russia during the Soviet years, was kept alive by
emigres such as Archbishop Alypy Nicholas
Gamanovich, head of the Chicago and Detroit Diocese
of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad.
Holy Virgin Protection Cathedral in Des Plaines,
headquarters of the diocese, is inviting the public this
weekend to see its new frescoes and icons. They were
hand-painted during the past nine years by Archbishop
Alypy, a monk for more than 50 years and an
internationally known iconographer.
The church, 1800 Lee St., is sponsoring Celebration
2000, an arts festival that will be held in the church hall
from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Russian art
and crafts will be displayed. The event will also feature
Russian food and sacred music.
Hourly guided tours will be conducted in the domed
cathedral to showcase Archbishop Alypy's
work--biblical scenes painted on the sanctuary walls
from the inside of the dome to the floor and images of
saints on wooden icons.
Archbishop Alypy, 72, was born in Ukraine. Invading
German troops captured him in 1942, and he was sent
to a work camp. After the war he met members of a
Russian Orthodox monastic brotherhood in Germany
and migrated with them to Holy Trinity Monastery in
upstate New York. He studied iconography there and
stayed for 29 years, according to Rev. Andrei Sommer,
priest at Holy Virgin Protection Cathedral.
"He took on the obedience there to make icons and
teach," Sommer said. "He is a humble man."
Archbishop Alypy spent up to 10 hours a day on
scaffolding while completing paintings in the cathedral,
which was built in 1991 to accommodate newly arrived
Russian immigrants and their families, Sommer said. The
church was previously located on Kedzie Avenue in
Chicago's Logan Square neighborhood before moving
to its larger site in Des Plaines.
Archbishop Alypy has painted icons and frescoes in
Cleveland and Denver as well as in Chicago. He has
also demonstrated the art of iconography at the Field
Museum of Natural History, the Art Institute of Chicago
and Loyola University Chicago.
Alla Jablockow, art director for the festival, conceived
of Celebration 2000 as a way to introduce the public to
Archbishop Alypy's work and to the diverse talents of
the Russian and Russian-speaking community.
Jablockow said the funds raised from the festival will go
toward building a Sunday school at the cathedral.
Artists who will exhibit at the two-day event include
Svetlana Beliakova of Elmwood Park, a fiber artist who
weaves floral patterns and nature scenes; Olga Kalinina
of Downers Grove, a former child development
instructor in Moscow who draws and sculpts fantasy
and forest creatures based on Russian folk art; and
Moscow-born Vasily Myazin, who paints and sculpts in
a variety of media and styles from abstract and cubism
with spiritual themes. Twelve artists and sculptors will
present their work at the art fair.
Jablockow said visitors to Celebration 2000 will be able
to purchase food from a Russian buffet that will include
pelmemi, "a hot dish comparable to ravioli"; piroshki;
blintzes; and shish kebab.
The traditional Russian wooden dolls-within-dolls, toys,
Russian candies and packaged foods will be available.
"Archbishop Alypy has given a soul and artistic beauty
to the icons that is unsurpassed," said Annette
Pawlukowsky, public relations director for the festival.
Pawlukowsky was the former longtime moderator of
"Volga Boatman," a Russian-language Sunday morning
radio program in Chicago.
"He has duplicated things ancient and put his soul into
them. His colors are absolutely beautiful, matched, soft,
full of life. The church is radiant from what he has done,"
Pawlukowsky said. "That is the focal point of the
festival. He is not only an artist but a deeply thinking,
intelligent and spiritual man."
Tickets to Celebration 2000, available at the door of the
church hall, are $2, with children under 12 admitted free.