Pray for the Peace of Ukraine: Suffering Mother Ukraine by Unknown Ukrainian Artist

February 24, 2022

Pray for the Peace of Ukraine: Suffering Mother Ukraine by Unknown Ukrainian Artist

As a longtime collector of contemporary religious artworks, I have been watching with great interest as a new school of iconography has emerged among Ukrainian Greek Catholic artists, fostered and promoted by the ICONART Contemporary Sacred Art Gallery in the city of Lviv in West Ukraine. This talented group of young men and women are at the forefront of an exciting Renaissance of Ukrainian Greek Catholic culture, long suppressed by the Communist regime, which has come about since Ukraine became an independent nation in 1991. News reports this week of Russian tanks rumbling into the region to impose another Kremlin-backed regime on the Ukrainian people fill me with shock, anger, horror, and grief. During the season of Lent, I want to express my strong support and solidarity with Ukraine's brave and innovative sacred art-makers by featuring their works on the Passion of Christ alongside readings from the Gospel narratives on my websites. My opening image is not an artwork in the Collection but a photo I took of a painting of Suffering Mother Ukraine during a visit to Lviv in 2017. She was one of many religious and patriotic subjects on an outdoor mural extending down the slope from the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Cathedral of St. George to the city center, contributed by over a hundred art-makers, aged under 18, who had taken part in a “monumental painting-praying” event. The theme: Art Wave of Peace. Pray for the peace of Ukraine! (John Kohan)