NEW YORK – The year 2016 marks the 40th anniversary of The Ukrainian Museum, and an exhibition of the works of Jacques Hnizdovsky (1915-1985) is especially appropriate for the Museum’s yearlong celebration.
Hnizdovsky embodies the ethos of post-World War II Ukrainian artists of the diaspora. He ranks among that generation’s most distinguished and accomplished figures. And he designed the museum’s logo for its debut in 1976. “Jacques Hnizdovsky: Content and Style. Evolving Perspectives” comprises more than 100 works by the artist, including oils, woodcuts, linocuts, ceramics, sculptures, drawings, and more. The exhibition opens to the public on March 13; it will be on display though September 11.
In the essay accompanying the exhibit, guest curator Jaroslaw Leshko writes:
“Hnizdovsky’s prodigious oeuvre, dominated by paintings and prints, places him in a long, distinguished tradition of painters-printmakers from Albrecht Dürer, whose woodcuts were Hnizdovsky’s earliest inspiration, to the present.
“The singularity of Hnizdovsky’s vision of the world is at once direct, accessible and eloquent. It was forged by the Art Academies of Warsaw and Zagreb, the immigrant communities near Munich, the powerful force of modernism confronted in New York, moments of crisis, perseverance and ultimate triumph.
“Among the themes Hnizdovsky explores in his paintings are his experiences of the aftermath of World War II in DP camps and the beauty and drama of cities where he lived. In his landscapes he explores nature’s variability and beauty and his still lifes celebrate earth’s bounty. The artist’s religious works, powerful and expressive, probe issues of betrayal, suffering and redemption.
“Hnizdovsky’s most mature and accomplished works are his woodcuts on which he concentrated in earnest since 1960, and whose major subject is nature’s flora and fauna. Stylization, a word often used as shorthand to define Hnizdovsky’s unique visual language does not fully convey the artist’s transformative iteration of the natural world. His plants and creatures are taken from nature, but are not of it.
“The importance of Hnizdovsky’s achievements was recognized by Peter A. Wick, curator of the Department of Printing and Graphic Arts of the Houghton Library at Harvard University, when he wrote in 1976: ‘The woodcuts of Jacques Hnizdovsky represent some of the richest and most original printmaking in American Graphic Arts of the past thirty years.’ ”
Jacques Hnizdovsky: Content and Style. Evolving Perspectives” is drawn from the museum’s extensive collection of his works, a large portion of which was generously donated by Stephanie “Fanny” Hnizdovsky, the artist’s wife, and Mira Hnizdovsky, their daughter. Other gifts of major works by the artist are from private collections. The exhibition is further augmented by generous loans from members and friends of the museum, as well as the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art in Chicago.
Hnizdovsky was born in the village of Pylypche, Borshchiv region, Ukraine. He began his art studies in 1938, when he entered the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts to study painting. The outbreak of World War II interrupted his studies, and he later completed his studies at the Academy of Arts and Crafts in Zagreb, Croatia where he remained until 1944. That year, he began a major canvas, “The Art Academy,” which he completed in 1950.
After leaving Zagreb, Hnizdovsky reconnected with the Ukrainian diaspora community in displaced persons (DP) camps near Munich, where he stayed until his departure for America in 1949. Hnizdovsky’s masterpiece of the European phase of his career is the painting “Displaced Persons” (1948), which is on display in this exhibition.
Hnizdovsky arrived in America in 1949, first settling in St. Paul, Minn., where he entered and won second prize in two juried shows, one for his graphic work and the other for painting, which persuaded him to become a full-time artist and move to New York City. The cities that he chose to paint are mainly New York, where he settled in 1950, and Paris, where he resided temporarily in 1956-1958.
The guest curator of the exhibit is a professor emeritus of art at Smith College, in Northampton, Mass. Prof. Leshko taught the history of 19th and 20th century art at Smith College for 35 years. He has been a guest professor at Amherst and Mount Holyoke colleges. He has lectured widely, curated many exhibitions, and published numerous articles both in the U.S. and internationally. He is the author of many exhibition catalogues, including The Ukrainian Museum’s “Jacques Hnizdovsky: 1915-1985. Retrospective Exhibition” (1995) and “Alexander Archipenko: Vision and Continuity” (2005). Prof. J. Leshko served as president of the board of trustees of The Ukrainian Museum from 2008 to 2011.
The Ukrainian Museum is located at 222 E. Sixth St. (between Second Avenue and the Bowery); telephone, 212-228-0110; e-mail, [email protected]; website, www.ukrainianmuseum.org. Admission: $8 for adults, $6 for seniors and students, free for children age 12 and younger.