JUSTIN STEFANOVIC

Born in Cacak, Serbia, in 1955. He made his first wood-carved cross before going to the Monastery of Crna Reka in 1979, where he expressed his love of God and the sanctity through wood-carved crosses of various shapes and purposes. During the period of his theological training at the postgraduate studies in Greece between 1987 and 1990, he studied and drew inspiration from the great contemporary Greek master wood carvers. Upon returning to the monastery, he made the pontifical panagia which marks a new chapter of his artistic oeuvre.He became the Bishop of Timok in 1992. In March 2014, he received a master's degree in theology. In addition to all his responsibilities, he devoted his free time to wood carving.He participated in group exhibition Contemporary Orthodox Serbian Art at the Museum of Applied Arts in Belgrade in 1995, while his solo exhibition dubbed Power of the Holy Cross was held in the National Museum in Zajecar in 2012 and in the House of Culture Stevan Mokranjac in Negotin in 2013.

The art of woodworking is one of the most common forms of artistic expression. Due to the technological specifics, fine woodworking has always been considered a man's job. It is a result of their imagination and sensibility, and it carries specific symbolic messages. All parts of Serbia have always been familiar with wood shaping, cutting, and carving.Wood is used to build houses, make furniture, tableware, agricultural tools, a variety of personal objects, musical instruments, grave markers, figures of saints, stamps for ritual bread. The girls' chests, cradles, distaffs, flasks, stolovaca [three-legged chair with a full seat and back], gusle [a folk one-string fiddle], or masks are decorated with carved ornaments. Finely carved surfaces of objects are covered with a multitude of skillfully made ornaments brought to perfection. Geometric and floral designs are the most common motifs of traditional artists whose names remain unknown. Three-dimensional figures are found sporadically, on the necks of gusles or canes made from precious wood species, such as yew, pear, dogwood, and maple. Individual characters usually represent historical figures – heroes of local and general interest, scenes from the fairy tales and folk poetry.At the same time, art object making workshops operated within the Church. These art objects were used to decorate churches and monasteries, as well as for everyday use. Developing on the basis of Byzantine art, woodworking and iconography became artistic crafts and works of these largely unknown masters are part of cultural heritage.Since the very beginning of his monastic life, Mr. Justin Stefanovic, like a number of his predecessors, has devoted over three decades to making wood carved items. As any dedicated student, he first worked on miniatures. ''Making hand-carved crosses and panagias is an important part of the old artistic handicraft. The cross as a symbol of Christianity inspired Bishop Justin to make a number of reliquaries, pectoral crosses, as well as hand and altar crosses with the basic theme of the Crucifixion of Christ. All of these are made very carefully and meticulously, showing all the skills of a true cross-carver. Although he learned from modern Greek woodcarvers, he carries within him the rich tradition of his ancestors, relying primarily on Byzantium and its cultural circle.''1 The panagia carved in boxwood and studded with silver and semi-precious stones is a true work of art, and simplicity of a prior's staff made from wild pear wood speaks volumes of the woodcarver's craftsmanship.

1 Nina Pogarcic, Sila časnog krsta – duborez episkopa Justina, [Power of the Holy Cross – woodcarving by Bishop Justin], exhibition catalogue, Zajecar, 2012, p. 5.

Recognizing the characteristics of his wood carving materials (boxwood and pearwood), Kyr Justin makes crosses using equally successfully the techniques of shallow woodcarving, deep relief, linear trellis-work, and twisted ribbon. In his capable hands, rather small crosses are decorated with the compositions of the crucified Christ, Christograms, and figures of saints with the contours of the temples in the background complementing the scene of suffering that he wants to show.Wood plays a dominant role in the works of Kyr Justin. It is not only the unusual base of his crosses, but much more than that. Skillfully combining several types of wood (boxwood, yew, red willow, pear, poplar, and oak), he engages very adeptly in making larger pieces. Consciously or unconsciously, wood has become part of the Bishop's life. Were it not for wood, there would be none of his works, as it essentially defines his creative scope. He skillfully uses the structure of wood letting it lead him to the emergence of the image he wants to convey. While remaining within a recognizable and beloved secular milieu, he creates sculptures: Corner Stone, Asceticism, Vratna, Guardian Angel, or Adam and Eve. Compositions Crna Reka and Cradle – Jerusalem, where he shows incredible skills in carving wood, bring him back to the beginnings of his spiritual life.The extent to which nature and its gifts affect his oeuvre is clearly visible in sculptures and reliefs Silence, Rooster, or Harvest where as if a young woman, who symbolizes fertility, stopped to think about whether her character emerges from the medieval frescoes or one of Mucha's masterpieces.His bold approach to revival of characters that surround him is best reflected in the sculptures The Meek, The Blessed, and The Serb. These are the two pictures of the same people that is meek, humble, and dedicated - immortalized in the character of a nun or a mother, for everything originates from there. Opposite to them is a Serb with a visible attribute of his nationality - sajkaca cap, of his masculinity - the mustache, and a double set of eyes and mouth wide open. Is he scared, smiling or cynical, or is he all that? How much circumstances make us multilayered or perhaps decomposed remains for the observer to assess. But every work of art has most often as many meanings as the observers.How wood that has ceased to live, but, according to beliefs, still has a soul, begins a new life in the works of Bishop Justin is best illustrated by the works themselves. Realizing the secrets of the craft of woodcarving and drawing inspiration from a long tradition of religious and secular art, the artist is expected to bestow upon us many more visual pleasures in time to come.