Local Ukrainian artist’s forgotten design comes full circle

FARMINGTON HILLS — As a young man studying sculpture in Minsk more than 30 years ago, Sergei Mitrofanov was considering a design of the “Deposition of Christ,” also commonly known as the “Pieta.”

“That was the Soviet period of time in Russia,” explained Mitrofanov, who was born in Ukraine but today lives in Livonia. “The religious ideas (and other ideas) other than propaganda weren’t very popular at that time.”

Mitrofanov said his religious statue idea of Our Lady cradling her Son after his death on the cross, “wasn’t promoted by my supervisors and teachers,” but still, “I liked the composition.”

His teacher said the composition was “no good; we have to think of the workers, the Communist Party,” and the Deposition of Christ was put aside.

Over time, Mitrofanov became busy with painting, iconography, building restoration, interior design and other statue compositions. He moved to the United States in 1990 and continued his work.

While Mitrofanov did produce more than a dozen religious sculptures — such as the risen Christ at the Capuchins’ St. Bonaventure Monastery in Detroit, and a Solanus Casey statue in Appleton, Wis., — his Pieta idea was all but forgotten.

 



A forgotten composition

In 2011, a committee of staff members at Mercy High School was beginning a project to update the environment at the Farmington Hills school building.

The committee, calling itself “Refresh,” noticed the school’s sunny courtyard was largely underused, apart from a damaged marble statue of Our Lady. The members agreed there was great potential to utilize the area to promote the school’s values of mercy, service, justice, human dignity and the preferential option for the poor.

Susan Smith, chair of the art department and founding member of Refresh, thought of a local sculptor who had done work for her parish, the Church of the Transfiguration in Southfield.

Mercy High School contacted the sculptor, Mitrofanov, about designing two sculptures for the courtyard.

“I had the idea of arranging the landscaping in the form of a cross,” Smith said. “My concept was to have sculptures at three points of the cross.”

With the refurbished statue of Mary at the head of the cross, Smith suggested two other statues of Mary accompany it, since Our Lady is the patroness of the school.

After talking with Mercy’s president, Cheryl Kreger, and Smith, Mitrofanov agreed to do two compositions: the Annunciation of Mary and the Pieta.

“When I started work on that particular subject, the Deposition of Christ… it was like a spark, (and) I recalled that composition from long ago,” Mitrofanov said.

 



That 20 percent

Mitrofanov told The Michigan Catholic that when he receives a commission to design something, he begins by sketching.

“(At first) it’s impossible to get any details; just the shape, the silhouette,” he said. Then, when creating the face, he tries to “remember the personality of the person.”

He worked to enter into the image of Christ dying and rising, and what a crucifixion would have really been like.

“It’s like a conversation with a person you never knew personally,” said Mitrofanov of forming the image of the person in the sculpture. “It’s like being an actor, but with a sculpture specialty.”

Mitrofanov said he realized people do not want to just see the corpse in the design, but rather “the person revealed through the corpse. I started to compare Mary and Christ to people I know.”

Describing himself as “an artist of realism,” Mitrofanov said he tries to gather as much information as possible with each of his projects, via the Internet, library books, the Bible and monks and priests he knows.

“Most of the time you’re deliberating with yourself and you’re unsatisfied with your work, which is about 80 percent of the time,” he reflected. “Finally when everything comes together, you’re satisfied and you’re feeling really good. Most artists are like this, they work for that 20 percent; they agree to stand in misery for 80 (of the time) just for that 20 percent.”

 

Help from friends

Mitrofanov realized he needed adequate workshop space for his life-sized Deposition of Christ and Annunciation statues to be made.

He had worked with restoration entrepreneurs Chuck and Jim Forbes — known particularly for coordinating the Guinness World Record-winning move of Detroit’s Gem Theatre over five blocks on wheels — on several Detroit restoration projects over the years.

He discussed his situation with them, and they offered him a large, empty space on a floor of The Colony Club in Detroit, which the Forbes’ own and make available for weddings and other upscale events.

“It’s really nice of them; that’s a way they support the arts,” said Mitrofanov, who first met the father-son duo when working with his own crew on restorations for the Detroit Opera House, and has since worked with them on restorations for The Fillmore Detroit, also known as the State Theatre.

Major success

The Pieta statue was completed this past July, and installed at Mercy High School on Aug. 27. Mitrofanov is in the process of sculpting the accompanying Annunciation.

The material for the statue itself is not what it seems; the completed statue looks like marble, but in reality it is hollow and weighs only 60-70 pounds. Mitrofanov explained that he created the life-sized sculpture out of water-based clay, transferring the form to the lighter polyester resin material.

“At the start of Holy Week, Sergei sent me pictures of the full-scale clay model,” Smith said. “It was extremely moving to have the photos of the Pieta arrive at that time … I was impressed that he matched the look of our marble Mary sculpture in the new piece, which was a request we made.”

Kreger said she thinks Mitrofanov’s sculptures are “some of the most beautiful I have seen and are beautiful from a classical point of view. Their ability to bring stories of Mary alive cannot be underestimated.”

Kreger added that religious art “has always played that role.”

For his part, Mitrofanov is still amazed that his composition of the Pieta came full circle.

“Thirty-some years later, I had the opportunity to make this composition possible,” he said.

 

Sergei Mitrofanov

To learn more about the art of Sergei Mitrofanov, visit his website at smitrofanov.wix.com/art. To contact him, email [email protected] or call (734) 377-7942.