This June the Institute of Sacred Arts (ISA) brought back world-renowned iconographer Dr George Kordis to St Vladimir’s Seminary.
His icon-painting school, Writing the Light, offered several days of workshops on campus, from June 16–20. Twenty-eight students participated in the workshops. Kordis’ stay at the seminary culminated in a public conversation with ISA Director Dr Peter Bouteneff on the role of the sacred arts in church and society. (Hear that discussion in its entirety through ISA’s Luminous Podcast.)
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“Tradition is creativity. In tradition you receive something, you enrich it with yourself, and you give it to another person. So it’s a dynamic process,” Kordis explained during the conversation. “In the meantime, it is you who enriches what you receive. If you don’t do that, then you don’t continue tradition: you interrupt it.”
Kordis also described the proper mindset of the sacred artist in this dynamic process.
“In Greek, the artist/creator is demiourgos. And this word means someone who is serving community. So, when we say ‘creativity’ we should think of the ability of someone to serve community better and better. To be more ecclesial. That’s real creativity! Not the invention of new individual things.”
In addition to participating in that fruitful conversation with Professor Bouteneff, during his stay on campus Kordis also completed a stunning icon of the three holy youths in the fiery furnace (Daniel 3), seen below.
“Our association with George Kordis adds immeasurably to the life of our Institute,” said Bouteneff. “His mastery of painting and his artistic sensibilities are matched by his uncanny ability to speak theologically about the arts.”
Kordis had previously visited the seminary as artist in residence and offered workshops in the spring of 2022.
ABOUT DR GEORGE KORDIS
Eminent iconographer George Kordis has the rare distinction for a practicing artist of a complete academic training in theology, with advanced theological degrees from Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Boston and the University of Athens, where he was assistant professor in iconography (theory and practice). His training as a painter preceded and motivated his move into theology: During the 1980s he worked with the Cypriot master iconographer, Fr. Symeon Symeou, and also studied painting at The School of Fine Arts at The Museum of Boston from 1987–89; and even while obtaining his doctorate (Athens) in 1991 he continued his studies in painting and engraving under Fotis Mastichiadis. Dr. Kordis has been a visiting professor teaching icon painting courses at Yale University, the University of South Carolina, the University of Bucharest/Department of Orthodox Theology, and Ukraine Pedagogical University, Odessa, while continuing to create major church programs of iconography—including several in the US (see Holy Trinity in Columbia, SC and, recently, Holy Trinity in Pittsburgh and panel icons, which have been seen in numerous prominent exhibitions at Yale University and elsewhere). Kordis is also a prolific author with wide-ranging interests: theory and practice of Orthodox iconography, Fayum mummy portraits, Theophan the Cretan, Andrei Rublev, Fotis Kontoglou, Greek folk art, and many other topics.
Read his full CV and explore his expansive work.
