the last: April 2010

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Children of the Revolution, part 2

A quick post, as I'm leaving town for the weekend. Hopefully I'll be back in time, otherwise it's going to be Monday Safari!

Vladimir Lebedev for Usatyj-polosatyi (The moustached-striped) by Samuil Marshak, 1930

Yevgeny Charushin for Scur (The hawfinch), 1930

Nikolaj Kuprejanov for Zverinec (The menagerie), 1930

Valentin Kurdov for Cavalry, 1931

Yuri Vasnetsov for Boloto (The bog) by Vitaly Bianki, 1931

Vasily Kobelev for Forest Scout , 1931

A. Borovskoi for V Taige, 1933

Evgenij Rachev for Zviri pivnichnykh moriv (Animals of the Northern seas), 1933

P.N. Riabova for Pro olenei i detei, pro sobak i pro guse, 1934

Ivan Efimov for Gde raki zimuiut (Where lobsters spend winter), 1935

Love in black and white

Cat nap woodcut, 1979

Jacques Hnizdovsky (1915-1985) was a Ukrainian-American painter, printmaker, sculptor, and book illustrator.

After studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw and Zagreb, and struggling to find his path

as an artist in postwar Europe, he moved to the United States in 1949. At first he settled in Saint Paul,

Minnesota, where he found work as a designer. But a year later, when two of his artworks

received awards at a Minneapolis Institute of Art print exhibition and the Minnesota State Fair,

Hnizdovsky quit his job and headed to New York, decided to make a living as an independent artist.

Fish vase and Deer plate, 1950s

Pigeons linocut, 1952

The first years in New York were very difficult, both artistically and financially.

Hnizdovsky soon finished his small savings, and had to move into an unheated apartment in the East Bronx

where, having lost all self-confidence, he experimented with different media and styles

with no satisfactory result. Then, "after several years of hopeless work, I began to find my way.

I found it in my own room, in my corridor, on my sidewalk, and in the blade of grass growing

between two blocks of concrete in front of the house I lived in. Everywhere I went,

things became clearer and more visible to me. I had an insurmountable desire to paint it all.

No longer was I concerned how to paint. The question of how, which for years was so important

to me, suddenly became secondary."

Turtle woodcut, 1962

Caged eagle woodcut, 1964

The academically trained Hnizdovsky was very interested in the human figure,

but in New York his isolation and lack of funds for a human model led him to find

new subjects in the city's botanical gardens and at the Bronx Zoo. Gradually,

in the quiet atmosphere of these places, he discovered the beauty of plants and animals

and fell in love with them.

Andy from the Bronx Zoo woodcut, 1965

Andy, the orangutan living in the zoo's Ape House, was one of Hnizdovsky's

favorite models. When Andy died, the Bronx Zoo purchased this woodcut

in remembrance of him.

Ram etching, 1979

Herd of sheep woodcut, 1979

Resting sheep linocut, 1983

Sheep and rams were another favorite model from the Zoo, and became one of his most popular subjects.

Jacobin pigeon linocut, 1973

Llama woodcut, 1972

Jerome woodcut, 1978

Hnizdovsky's carefully patterned and beautifully stylized woodcuts drew inspiration

from the work of Albrecht Dürer, Ukrainian folk art, and Japanese woodblock artists.

He produced over 375 prints, mostly woodcuts and linocuts, as well as paintings, ceramics,

ex libris and illustrated books. His works have been exhibited internationally and are

in the permanent collections of numerous museums, including the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston

which owns a large collection of his prints. In 1987 the catalogue raisonné Jacques Hnizdovsky

Woodcuts and Etchings was published, including all of his woodcuts, linocuts and etchings.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Last night I was reading a book about Leo Lionni, a nice homage by his Italian publisher Babalibri in the form of a little book packed with photos, illustrations and testimonials of people who knew and loved him well. To my excitement, I discovered that he had created a series of five animations from his books in collaboration with Giulio Gianini. I know Gianini through his work with Emanuele (Lele) Luzzati, which I love and have previously shown here and here. So this morning I searched the internet hoping to be able to post the Lionni videos, but it seems the only way to see them is to buy the VHS or DVD from amazon (unfortunately, all reference to Gianini has been dropped from the DVD credits).

As a great consolation, and as a small personal homage to the great animator who died last spring at 82, here is the first part of the 1978 masterpiece The magic flute, yet another of his collaborations with Luzzati. You can also find a lovely memorial of Gianini at Michael Sporn's animation splog. Of course, I advise you to enjoy the other opera segments on YouTube, but watch out: the combination of music and visuals is so gorgeous ans sweet, the colors, textures and patterns so rich, you may just swoon like I did, overwhelmed by such heavenly beauty!