Hnizdovsky's 'extraordinary richness' exhibited at University of Manitoba (03/05/06)

Hnizdovsky's 'extraordinary richness' exhibited at University of Manitoba

WINNIPEG - The exhibition "An Extraordinary Richness: The Works of Jacques Hnizdovsky in Private Collections in Winnipeg" opened on February 5 in the Icelandic Collection of the Dr. Paul H. T. Thorlakson Gallery at the University of Manitoba's Elizabeth Dafoe Library. The exhibition was on display through March 5. Carolynne Presser, the director of libraries at the University of Manitoba, and Orysia Tracz, curator of the exhibition, spoke at the opening which was attended by over 100 guests.

Ms. Presser noted in her introductory comments that the University of Manitoba Libraries have had a long tradition and relationship with the Ukrainian community in Manitoba, and that 2006 marks the 57th anniversary of the establishment of the Slavic Collection at the Elizabeth Dafoe Library.

She explained that the original collection consisted of 2,000 volumes of books, journals and newspapers. Today, the number has grown to 60,000 books, journals, newspapers and microforms, comprising material in all 14 Slavic languages, with the majority in the Ukrainian, Polish and Russian languages.

Ms. Presser also mentioned the newly launched - in 2003 - Archives of the Ukrainian Canadian Experience, which preserve the collective memory of Ukrainian Canadians by gathering papers, documents, photographs, audio and visual recordings and other archives from individuals and institutions in the Ukrainian community, on Ukrainian life in Canada.

In her opening remarks Ms. Tracz, curator of "An Extraordinary Experience," paid tribute to Hnizdovsky: "Jacques - Yakiv - Hnizdovsky was a man of beauty, elegance, modesty, simplicity and sophistication, intelligence, refinement, wit and humor, a keen observer of nature and the human situation, a man of empathy and sympathy. ...He is so loved that I think an event like this could be held in practically every large city in North America - and I hope it is."

She detailed the Winnipeg connections to Hnizdovsky and spoke of her own encounters with the artist at the Ukrainian National Association estate Soyuzivka, in Winnipeg and in New Jersey.

She also thanked the collectors who lent the exhibition their works, including Oksana Rozumna and Dr. Jaroslav Rozumnyj, Vera Hrycenko, Dr. Jaroslav and Maria Barwinsky, and Natalia Radawetz.

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