Jacques Hnizdovsky

Jacques Hnizdovsky (1915 – 1985, born Yakiv Yakovych Hnizdovsky) was a Ukrainian-born American painter, printmaker, graphic designer, illustrator and sculptor.

Biography

Jacques Hnizdovsky was born on January 27, 1915, in Ukraine in what is now Chortkiv Raion of Ternopil Oblast in a priestly family of noble origin bearing the Korab coat of arms. He was the youngest of seven children and the only member of his family that was able to emigrate to the west.

He began his fine arts studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. Germany's invasion of Poland and bombardment of Warsaw forced Jacques to flee Warsaw and continue his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. He was classically trained and had a great interest in portraiture, but Hnizdovsky was entirely self-taught in the art of printmaking.

Hnizdovsky created hundreds of paintings, pen and ink drawings and watercolors, as well as over 377 woodcuts, etchings and linocuts after his move to the United States in 1949. He was greatly inspired by woodblock printing in Japan as well as the woodcuts of Albrecht Dürer. Influences on his early works can be seen on his website.

Hnizdovsky printed all his woodcuts and linocuts himself at his home studio. Woodcuts and linocuts were printed on washi, which is erroneously translated as "rice paper"

Hnizdovsky's prints frequently depict flora and fauna, and there are several reasons for him largely shifting his focus from the human form. His first few years in the United States were marred by financial difficulties, language difficulties and a creative crisis. But what at first were merely substitutes for the human form. later became his most cherished subjects. He was well known in all the botanical and zoological gardens in New York, where he would find subjects willing to pose at no cost. At the Bronx Zoo, he found many models that were willing to pose "for peanuts". Andy, the orangutan, who opened the Ape House of the Bronx Zoo when he was just a baby, was one of Hnizdovsky's favorite models. When Andy died, the Bronx Zoo immediately purchased the Hnizdovsky woodcut in remembrance of Andy. Another favorite Bronx Zoo model was the sheep. Hnizdovsky's The Sheep would become his best known print, illustrating the poster for his very successful exhibition at the Lumley Cazalet Gallery in London. This poster, incidentally, can be seen in the kitchen scene of the film The Hours.

Hnizdovsky has exhibited widely and his works are in the permanent collections of many museums worldwide. The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston has a large collection of his prints, as does the University of Mount Olive in North Carolina, which presumably has the largest collection of Hnizdovsky prints worldwide.

Hnizdovsky designed numerous book covers and illustrated many books. He also designed several postage stamps and a souvenir sheet for the Ukrainian Plast postal service (issued in 1954 and 1961).

Jacques Hnizdovsky died on November 8, 1985, in Bronxville, New York, and is buried at the Lychakivskiy Cemetery in Lviv, Ukraine. His archives are housed at the Slavic and Baltic Division of the New York Public Library.

Books illustrating the work of Hnizdovsky Tahir, Abe M. Jr (1987). Jacques Hnizdovsky Woodcuts and Etchings. Pelican Publishing Co. . Shows all prints created during the artist's lifetime, a catalogue raisonné, profusely illustrated with images. Tahir, Abe M. Jr (1975). Hnizdovsky Woodcuts 1944-1975, a Catalogue Raissonné. Pelican Publishing Co.. ,. Shows prints created between 1944-1975, a catalogue raisonné, profusely illustrated with images. Hnizdovsky, Jacques (1986). Jacques Hnizdovsky Ex Libris. S. Hnizdovsky. ASIN B0007BYZ94 Shows 54 Ex Libris designs that the artist created for family, collectors, museums and libraries.

Publications

A partial list of books illustrated by Jacques Hnizdovsky. The Poems of John Keats, 1964 Ukrainian Folk Tales, 1964 The Auk, the Dodo, and the Oryx, 1967 The Poems of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1967 Tree Trails of Central Park, 1971 Flora Exotica, 1972 The Poems of Thomas Hardy, 1979 The Traveler's Tree, 1980 The Poetry of Robert Frost, 1981 Signum Et Verbum, 1981 A Green Place, 1982 The Violin of Monsieur Ingres, 1983 Jacques Hnizdovsky Ex Libris, 1986 Birds and Beasts, 1990 Behind the King's Kitchen, 1992 The Girl in Glass, 2002 The Adventurous Gardener, 2005

Public collections Among the public collections holding works by Jacques Hnizdovsky are: Name Location Addison Gallery of American ArtAndover, Massachusetts Borshchiv Regional Museum,Borshchiv, Ukraine Burnaby Art Gallery, Burnaby, British Columbia Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio Chrysler Museum Norfolk, Virginia Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio Davison Art Center at Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut Duke University Museum of Art, Durham, North Carolina Dulin Gallery of Art, Knoxville, TN Hunts Institute for Botanical Documentation Pittsburgh PA Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington Seattle WA Lauren Rogers Museum of Art Laurel MS Library of Congress Washington DC Louisiana Arts and Science Center Baton Rouge LA Louisiana State Museum New Orleans LA Minneapolis Institute of Arts Minneapolis MN Mississippi Museum of Art Jackson MS Museum of Fine Arts Boston MA National Collection of Fine Arts Washington DC National Museum of Lviv Lviv, Ukraine National Museum of Ukrainian Fine Arts Kyiv, Ukraine New Orleans Museum of Art New Orleans LA New York Public Library New York NY Philadelphia Museum of Art Philadelphia PA Temopil Regional Museum Ternopil, Ukraine Tweed Museum of Art University of Minnesota Duluth MN Ukrainian Canadian Art Foundation Toronto, ON Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art Chicago IL The Ukrainian Museum New York NY The Ukrainian Museum-Archives Cleveland, OH University of Delaware Newark DE University of Minnesota Minneapolis MN University of Mount Olive Mount Olive NC United States Information Agency Washington DC Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Richmond VA The White House Washington DC Winnipeg Art Gallery Winnipeg MB Yale University New Haven CT

Awards Associated American Artists, 1959, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1970, 1972, 1974, 1975, 1979, 1982, 1983 Ben and Beatrice Goldstein Foundation, 1973 Boston Museum of Fine Arts, 1961 Boston Printmakers, 1962 Davison Art Center, Wesleyan University, 1969 Henry Ward Ranger Award, National Academy of Design, 1963 International Graphic Arts Society, 1964, 1969, 1970 MacDowell Colony Fellowship, 1963, 1971, 1976 Minneapolis Institute of Art, 1950 Ossabaw Foundation, 1980 Salmagundi Club Award, Audubon Artists Annual, 1975, 1982 Tiffany Foundation Fellowship, 1961 Virginia Center for the Creative Arts Fellowship, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984 Yaddo Fellowship, 1978, 1979

In November 2022, as part of a derussification campaign, Kyiv's Magnitogorsk Street was renamed to Jacques Hnizdovsky Street.

One-Man Shows Source:

Associated American Artists, New York NY, 1971, 1979, 1986 Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx NY, 1971, 1981 Burnaby Art Gallery, Vancouver BC, 1985 Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown OH, 1962 Chapman Gallery, Canberra, Australia. 1982 Chrysler Museum at Norfolk VA, 1967, 1968 Creuze Gallery, Paris, 1957 Davison Art Center, Wesleyan University, Middletown CT 1970 Eggleston Gallery, New York NY 1954, 1958 Emilie Walter Galleries, Vancouver BC, 1973 Hermitage Museum and Gardens, Norfolk VA, 1981 International Institute of Minnesota, Saint Paul MN, 1972 Jane Haslem Gallery, Washington DC, 1982, 1984 La Maison Francaise, NYU, New York NY, 1960 Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach CA, 1977 Lumley Cazalet Gallery, London, England, 1969, 1972, 1982 Lviv Museum of Ukrainian Art, Lviv, Ukraine, 1990 National Museum of Ukrainian Fine Arts, Kyiv, Ukraine, 1990 Philadelphia Art Alliance, Philadelphia PA1961 Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY, 1970 Roberson Center for the Arts and Sciences, Binghamton, NY, 1974 Salpeter Gallery, New York NY, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1964 Sweet Briar College, Sweet Briar VA, 1984 Tahir Gallery, New Orleans, 1967, 1971, 1974, 1976 Ternopil Natural History Museum, Temopil, Ukraine, 1990 Troup Gallery, Dallas TX, 1966, 1971 Tryon Fine Art Center, Tryon NC, 1974 Ukrainian Canadian Art Foundation, Toronto, ON, 1983, 1985 Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, Chicago IL, 1978, 1985 University of Mount Olive, NC, 1972, 1984 University of Virginia, Charlottesville VA, 1978, 1980, 1982, 1986 Van Straaten Gallery, Chicago IL, 1971 (currently Denver CO) Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Sweet Briar VA, 1979, 1981 Westwood Gallery, Westwood, MA, 1973 Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg MB, 1973 Yale University, New Haven CT, 1977

Traveling One-Man Shows Burnaby Art Gallery, Burnaby BC, 1985-1986 Fendrick Gallery, Washington DC, 1987 United States Information Service, Kyiv, 1995-1996 Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond VA, 1987-1992 Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg MB, 1973

Group exhibitions Audubon Artists, 1975 Boston Printmakers, 1962 National Academy of Design, 1963, 1973, 1976, 1977, 1980 Pratt Graphic Center, 1975-1985 Society of American Graphic Artists, 1965-1985 Triennale Internazionale della Xilografia, 1972 Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan, 1983, 1985 US Information Agencies in Europe, Asia, South America and Africa, 1963, 1965, 1967, 1968