UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS
Jacques’ Menagerie: Hnizdovsky Prints from the Christina and George Gamota Collection
Presented in Partnership with Ballets Russes Arts Initiative
March 16 – July 7, 2019
Born in Ukraine, trained in Poland and Croatia, a refugee to the US who was embraced by American viewers and collectors, Jacques Hnizdovsky (1915-1985) traveled a difficult road through life. His art, however, expressed his capacity for joy, humor, and hope, most often in of animals from the Bronx Zoo, have been widely recognized and beloved for over half a century. This exhibition presents a single collection of Hnizdovsky prints (woodcuts, linocuts, and etchings), as well as one of his paintings, which are rarely seen.
The collection was assembled by a Ukrainian-American family who shared Hnizdovsky’s experience of displacement, hardship, and adaptation in the course and aftermath of World War II, passing through the same refugee camps and having a personal connection with the artist. The works, mostly images of animals and plants, as well as an occasional portrait or still-life, acquired very personal symbolism for different members of the family.
Curated by Anna Winestein, this show tells the story of both Hnizdovsky and the Gamotas in the intimate setting of the Museum’s Contemporary Exhibition Gallery.
