| Ian Hornak , American (1944-2002)
In 1971, the Tibor De Nagy Gallery on West 57th Street in New York gave Hornak one of his first solo exhibitions, which would establish his presence then unbroken for thirty years on one the world's most artistically prestigious streets. By the mid 1970's Hornak was commanding solo shows at prominent American galleries such as the Armstrong Gallery of New York, Fischbach Gallery of New York, Jacobs Ladder Gallery of Washington D.C., Gertrude Castle Gallery of Detroit, John Pence Gallery of San Francisco, and the Tower Gallery of South Hampton, New York. Hornak was frequently grouped with the photo realists, magic realists, and super realists. Throughout his career he explored a number of subject matters and styles including landscape paintings and drawings which were created in the Photo-Realist/Magic Realist style, still life and flower paintings in the style of the Dutch and Flemish Masters, and Photo-Realist style figurative paintings, of which the "Marcia Sewing" series was the most highly acclaimed. This series included large acrylic paintings on canvas, and pencil drawings on paper. Hornak started his career at the age of six by creating landscape paintings, and by the age of seven had completely memorized Gray's Book of Anatomy. The first figuaratives which appeared between the ages of seven and fourteen, and were created in the manner of the Renaissance Masters works which primarily circulated around biblical interpretations; subject matters such as "the offering by Abraham of Isaac" were the norm for Ian during his pre-adolescent and adolescent years. By 1967 Hornak was creating photo-realist monochromatic figuatives which commonly appeared in the foreground, with a colorful landscape in background, these being the paintings which appeared in the notorious Stable Gallery of New York, where Hornak was exhibiting along side of such contemporary masters as Joseph Cornell, Elaine De Kooning, Willem De Kooning, Robert Indiana, Alex Katz, Lee Krasner, Robert Motherwell, and Lowell Nesbitt among numerous others. As 1972 approached Ian had undergone yet another transitional period, and was creating the first photo-realist double exposure landscape paintings that the world had ever seen, this concept was heralded by critics as being absolutely revolutionary for the time. In 1984 Hornak was embarking on what was to be yet another monumental innovation for the art world, this being the "painted frame", the painted frame has been described by critics as a "picture within a picture", and a "painting within a painting", this new addition to the painting provided a complete work of art which included typically a five inch wide frame composed of wood, which was constructed, and hand painted so as to be incorporated into the painting itself, and then signed by the Artist. Hornak continued to employ the concept of the painted frame even after departing from the landscape painting series, and transitioning into baroque style still life and flower paintings created in the manner of those of the Dutch and Flemish Masters in the early nineties, which he would continue to create until his death in 2002. Ian Hornak, always made a graceful transition into whatever style it was that he was working within at any given time, he was able to produce one of his large landscape paintings in two weeks, one of his flower or still life paintings in four weeks, and one his figurative paintings in a remarkable six weeks time, thus establishing himself as a truly prolific artist. Hornak once remarked, while I know that the beautiful the spiritual and the sublime are today's suspect, I have begun to stop resisting the constant urge to deny that beauty has a valid right to exist in contemporary art. In addition, Mr. John Canaday, leading art historian, and critic of the New York Times stated that Mr. Hornak is right at the top of the list of romantically descriptive painters today. Hornak was also an accomplished draftsman, as was substantiated by prominent Art Historian, and critic of impressionist and post-impressionist art, Dr. Ernst Scheyer when he stated Ian Hornak is one of the greatest draftsmen of the twentieth century. Ian Hornak exhibited frequently in both the United States and Europe and is represented in many private, and public collections, including the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., the National Collection of the Fine Arts, The Smithsonian Institution of Washington D.C., The Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indiana; Ringling School of Art and Design, Sarasota, FL; Galleria Internazionale, Milan, Italy; The Nabisco Corporation; Xerox Corporation; AT&T; Chase Manhattan Bank; Owens Corning Glass Corporation; and RCA American Communications among a myriad of others. The largest collection in the world of work's by Ian Hornak can now be viewed in the Eric I. Spoutz Collection of Fine Art, Ian Hornak, was a graduate of Wayne State University where he earned a BFA and, an MFA, he also attended the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. In 1971, the Tibor De Nagy Gallery of West 57th Street in New York gave Hornak one of his first Solo Exhibitions, of which would establish his presence which has remained unbroken for in excess of Thirty Years on one the world's most artistically prestigious streets, 57th, located in New York. By the mid 1970's Hornak was commanding Solo Shows at prominent American galleries such as the Armstrong gallery of New York, Fischbach Gallery of New York, Jacobs Ladder Gallery of Washington D.C., Gertrude Castle Gallery of Detroit, John Pence Gallery of San Francisco, and the Tower Gallery of South Hampton, New York. Mr. Hornak was frequently grouped with the Photo Realists, Magic Realist's, and Super Realist's. Throughout his career he explored a number of subject matters and styles including Landscape paintings and drawings which were created in the Photo-Realist/Magic Realist style, Still Life and Flower Paintings in the style of the Dutch and Flemish Masters, and Photo-Realist style figurative paintings, of which the "Marcia Sewing" series was the most highly acclaimed of the figurative works, this series included nearly Seven large acrylic paintings on canvas, and Fourteen pencil drawings on paper. Hornak started his career at the age of six by creating landscape paintings, and by the age of seven had completely memorized Gray's Book of Anatomy. The first figuaratives which appeared between the ages of seven and fourteen, and were created in the manner of the Renaissance Masters works which primarily circulated around biblical interpretations; subject matters such as "the offering by Abraham of Isaac" were the norm for Ian during his pre-adolescent and adolescent years. By 1967 Hornak was creating photo-realist monochromatic figuatives which commonly appeared in the foreground, with a colorful landscape in background, these being the paintings which appeared in the notorious Stable Gallery of New York, where Hornak was exhibiting along side of such contemporary masters as Joseph Cornell, Elaine De Kooning, Willem De Kooning, Robert Indiana, Alex Katz, Lee Krasner, Robert Motherwell, and Lowell Nesbitt among numerous others. As 1972 approached Ian had undergone yet another transitional period, and was creating the first photo-realist double exposure landscape paintings that the world had ever seen, this concept was heralded by critics as being absolutely revolutionary for the time. In 1984 Hornak was embarking on what was to be yet another monumental innovation for the art world, this being the "painted frame", the painted frame has been described by critics as a "picture within a picture", and a "painting within a painting", this new addition to the painting provided a complete work of art which included typically a five inch wide frame composed of wood, which was constructed, and hand painted so as to be incorporated into the painting itself, and then signed by the Artist. Hornak continued to employ the concept of the painted frame even after departing from the landscape painting series, and transitioning into baroque style still life and flower paintings created in the manner of those of the Dutch and Flemish Masters in the early nineties, which he would continue to create until his death in 2002. Ian Hornak, always made a graceful transition into whatever style it was that he was working within at any given time, he was able to produce one of his large landscape paintings in two weeks, one of his flower or still life paintings in four weeks, and one his figurative paintings in a remarkable six weeks time, thus establishing himself as a truly prolific artist. Hornak once remarked, while I know that the beautiful the spiritual and the sublime are today's suspect, I have begun to stop resisting the constant urge to deny that beauty has a valid right to exist in contemporary art. In addition, Mr. John Canaday, leading art historian, and critic of the New York Times stated that Mr. Hornak is right at the top of the list of romantically descriptive painters today. Hornak was also an accomplished draftsman, as was substantiated by prominent Art Historian, and critic of impressionist and post-impressionist art, Dr. Ernst Scheyer when he stated Ian Hornak is one of the greatest draftsmen of the twentieth century. Ian Hornak exhibited frequently in both the United States and Europe and is represented in many private, and public collections, including the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., the National Collection of the Fine Arts, The Smithsonian Institution of Washington D.C., The Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indiana; Ringling School of Art and Design, Sarasota, FL; Galleria Internazionale, Milan, Italy; The Nabisco Corporation; Xerox Corporation; AT&T; Chase Manhattan Bank; Owens Corning Glass Corporation; and RCA American Communications among a myriad of others. The largest collection in the world of artwork's by Ian Hornak is now owned by the Eric I. Spoutz Collection of Fine Art, Detroit, Michigan. Solo Exhibitions:
|
