When the urn with Yakiv Hnizdovsky’s ashes finally reached the land of Ukraine, a number of people heaved a sigh of relief; they had fulfilled the last request of an artist whose creative legacy (unlike his soul, and now his ashes) mostly does not belong to Ukraine-and, unfortunately, most likely never will. US Ambassador to Ukraine John Herbst says that Hnizdovsky’s works are a valuable part of the collections of the finest American museums, particularly the National Museum of American Art, Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, and the White House collection. Every day Herbst passes six of his canvases that hang in his office, and they inspire him with a sense of universal harmony that each of us hopes for. In fact, Herbst was responsible for making the arrangements for the urn to be transferred from the columbarium of the Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City to Lychakiv Cemetery in Lviv. Diplomatic negotiations, correspondence, and red tape took 20 years. “Do you think it was easy?” This question was addressed to me by Roman Ferentsevych, who was a friend of the artist for 35 years and who also helped in the efforts to transfer his remains to Ukraine. But does Ukraine know Hnizdovsky?
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Yakiv Hnizdovsky was born on Jan. 27, 1915, in Pylypche, a village in Ternopil oblast. His talent for drawing was apparent when he was still in grade school; in those days he did small sketches of people, landscapes, and domestic animals. In 1933 Hnizdovsky moved to Lviv and began taking active part in the city’s artistic life, joining the youth wing of the Association of Independent Ukrainian Artists (ANUM). Edward Kozak, an excellent cartoonist, arranged for him to do illustrations for the Lviv newspaper Novy chas (New Time) and the magazine Komar (The Mosquito). The young graphic artist’s talent was appreciated by Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky, a philanthropist and keen expert on the arts. He gave Hnizdovsky a scholarship, so that he could continue to study art.
In 1949 Hnizdovsky moved to the United States, where his first step on the road to success was an award for a woodcut displayed at an exhibit of graphics at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Another award for a painting shown at a trade and industrial exhibit in Minnesota prompted him to move to New York and concentrate on art. He experimented for many years, searching for his own style. The life of an immigrant was not easy, nor the road to recognition. His quest for a leitmotif took a long time, until Hnizdovsky discovered the beauty of ordinary things. From then on flora and fauna were predominant in his creative work, in which portraits and landscapes figured very rarely.
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The last exhibit of Hnizdovsky works, currently on display at the National Museum in Lviv, includes works from the National Museum of Ukraine, National Museum of Lviv, and the Ternopil Local History and Art museums to which the artist’s family in the faraway Diaspora kindly contributed his works. Although a great many institutions helped to organize the exhibit, it is not large enough. Ukraine is only starting to learn about Hnizdovsky.
