THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 19, 1995 TAG: 9502180309
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TERESA ANNAS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
ICON PAINTING goes back as far as the 6th century, and continues to find new fans and practitioners, according to Dr. Gary Vikan, director of Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore.
Vikan will lecture on ``Icon: Sacred Image, Sacred Power'' Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. at The Chrysler Museum in Norfolk, in a free talk sponsored by the Norfolk Society of Arts.
In the last decade, an interest in icons has grown along with the search for spiritual values, Vikan said in an interview last fall.
The standards by which icons are collected and admired are not the standards of the traditional fine arts, he noted. The faithful are not concerned about whether it's painted or reproduced, on wood or metal. The focus is on the representation.
``People are very careful to note you don't worship an icon. You worship what the icon represents.''
The idea is that Christ is both spirit and body, Vikan said. ``If the icon can capture the body, it becomes the vehicle for a spiritual engagement with Christ.''
The museum is at 245 W. Olney Road, Norfolk. Come at 10 a.m. and have coffee with Vikan before his talk. Call 664-6200. A MULTI-MEDIA EVENT
Next Sunday at 3 p.m. at The Chrysler Museum, Virginia Beach artist Arleen Cohen will make a multi-media presentation of her world view as seen in her art. It promises to be a sincerely celestial, primitivistic, New Age, shamanic trip into Cohen's fantastical psyche. Sponsored by Norfolk Society of Arts, it's free. ALL SHOOK UP
Exhibits of Shaker furniture are rare, especially in the South. Today, about 100 Shaker objects from America's first Shaker community go on view at The Chrysler Museum in Norfolk.
The tables, cupboards and personal items are from the extensive collection of Marilou and Ken Hakuta of Washington, D.C. (See story in today's Home & Garden section.)
Followers of avant-garde '60s art will have heard of Ken Hakuta's uncle - Nam June Paik, the father of video art. From age 14 to 18, Hakuta hung out with his uncle and other members of the Fluxus art movement, including now-famous figures like Christo (he wraps things, like islands) and John Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono. Fluxus strove to make ``non-art'' that celebrated the ephemeral and coerced public participation.
``I still have a few Fluxus souvenirs, and their artwork,'' Hakuta said. ``I love it.''
Paik and Hakuta have in common a buoyant sense of humor and eclectic taste.
In 1982, a show of Paik's video art at the Whitney Museum in New York featured television sets stacked in pyramids and tucked in landscapes. In one gallery, sets hung from the ceiling, and patrons were invited to lie down on mats and watch.
Hakuta can lay claim to some portion of Paik's output. ``I asked him two Forrest Gumplike questions: How many telephone booths are there in New York? And, Why is Coca-Cola brown?
``I had those stupid thoughts when I was 14. But he thought they were great, and he used those in his art.''
When Hakuta married in 1977, Paik's wedding present was a painting he did of two television sets making love. Stapled to the work is an ugly blue polyester necktie Paik had worn to visit the King of Sweden.
``So I'm not just tied to Americana,'' Hakuta said. ``It's good to have a mix. Real crazy avant-garde things I like also.'' by CNB