Exhibition 'Icons of the Soviet Period'

About exhibition

The exhibition presents more than 100 objects created in the 1920s–1980s that were part of an unofficial popular religious tradition. It is held as part of a program dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War. The prototypes for these items were chromolithographed icons from the mid to late 19th century. They were printed on paper or tinplate and were popular among a wide range of believers because of their low cost. The icons were placed in kiots (icon cases) and decorated with inexpensive materials — foil, paper, wax, and dried flowers. Because of their decorative features, such items were called kiotki or folezhki. In Soviet times craftsmen reinterpreted the kiotki and began creating their own versions of these icon-bricolages. As devotional images they used pre-revolutionary saint icons, medallions from lost Royal Doors, cast crucifixes, Christmas angels, printed reproductions of religious images, and photographs.