Natalka Husar

Natalka Husar (born 1951) is an American-born Canadian painter.[1] She is known for work that draws on aspects of Ukrainian culture and history, the émigré experience, and her feminist concerns.[2]

Natalka Husar
Natalka Husar by Alexandra Petruck
Born
Natalka Husar

1951 (age 71–72)
New Jersey, United States
NationalityAmerican-born Canadian
EducationB.F.A., Rutgers University, New Jersey
Known forPainter

Early life and education

Natalka Husar’s Ukrainian-born parents, Daria Struk [3][4] and Wasyl Husar [5] and brother Danylo [5][6] emigrated from a post-WWII Displaced Persons camp in Germany to the United States. They Settled in New Jersey, where Natalka Husar was born.[3] She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Rutgers University in 1973, moving to Toronto Canada shortly after.

Work and themes

Husar’s earliest exhibited works were trompe l’oeile ceramics,[7] but after working as a flight attendant in the early 1980s,[8] she began painting, with subject matter drawn from travel-work experience, and the paradoxes and conflicts of the Ukrainian émigré experience. In 1986, critic Robert Enright [9] wrote “Husar uses her art as a bracing tonic; splashed in these big confrontational paintings is a conscience and a care that is almost excessive and certainly troubling.” [10] Cultural Historian George Melnyk [11] commented on Husar’s leitmotif of inserting herself into paintings as aging, young, different characters, clothed and nude: “she sees the role of the artist as one of disguising elements of the self, of addressing anxieties.” [12][13]

Husar taught painting at the Ontario College of Art University as an associate professor from 1990 to 2011 [14][15][16] and has been the recipient of numerous arts grants.[17]

Key solo exhibitions

2009-2012. Burden of Innocence

A collaboration and touring exhibition with the Macdonald Stewart Art Centre (now the Art Gallery of Guelph),[18] McMaster Museum of Art, Museum London,[19] Tom Thomson Art Gallery and the MacKenzie Art Gallery. It was also shown at the Douglas Udell galleries in Edmonton and Vancouver.[20]

Devised as a history play in three acts, Husar’s painting were interwoven social narratives between Ukrainian society and Soviet-style attitudes through fictional characters and her persona-characters. The concluding triptych painting includes a banquet of these characters in the form of a trial.[21][22] TheBurden of Innocence exhibition was accompanied by two publications, Husar Handbook [23] and a limited edition artist bookwork Burden of Innocence[24] and a double-book version.[25]

2002-2002. Blond with Dark Roots

Organized by the Art Gallery of Hamilton, and toured to the Winnipeg Art Gallery, Justina M. Barnicke Gallery (now part of the Art Museum at the University of Toronto)[26] and the Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery (now the Tom Thomson Art Gallery).[27] The catalogue texts examined Husar’s use of fictional female identities,[28] including poems by Janice Kulyk Keefer [29] written in the voices of the characters in the paintings.

1995-1996. Black Sea Blue

Organized by the Rosemont Art Gallery in Regina and toured to Garnet Press Gallery (Toronto), the Douglas Udell galleries in Vancouver and Edmonton, The Robert McLaughlin Gallery and the Mendel Art Gallery in Saskatoon (now Remai Modern).[30][31]

1991-1992. True Confessions

Organized by the Woltjen/Udell Gallery – shown in Vancouver and Edmonton – and toured to Garnet Press Gallery (Toronto), and Plug-In, Winnipeg. Catalogue essayists Robert Enright and Donna Lypchuk examining the “psycho-social awareness” and “feminism” in Husar’s paintings[32]

1988-1989. Milk and Blood

Organized by The Floating Curatorial Gallery at Women in Focus in Vancouver, which toured to Ukrainian Cultural and Educational Centre in Winnipeg, Garnet Press Gallery (Toronto), Forest City Gallery [33] the Laurentian University Museum and Arts Centre in Sudbury, Latitude 53, Edmonton [34] and The Station Gallery, Whitby.[35] Essayist Grace Thomson defined the themes in Husar's paintings “as the contradictions of ethnicity and gender expectations and describes how this work addresses patriarchal ethnic culture."[35]

Selected group exhibitions
  • 2015-2018. Living Building Thinking: art and expressionism, organized and circulated by the McMaster Museum of Art.[36][37][38]
  • 2015-2016. The Ukrainian Diaspora: Women Artists 1908–2015, The Ukrainian Museum New York.[39]
  • 2016. Reality Check, Contemporary art in Ukraine since its independence, Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, Chicago.[39]

Works in Canadian public collections
  • National Gallery of Canada [40]
  • Art Gallery of Ontario [41]
  • Art Gallery of Hamilton [42]
  • Art Gallery of Alberta [43]
  • Beaverbrook Art Gallery [44][45]
  • Canada Council Art Bank [46]
  • The Canadian Museum of History [47]
  • Glenbow Museum [48]
  • Mackenzie Art Gallery [49]
  • The Robert McLaughlin Gallery [50]
  • McMaster Museum of Art [51]
  • Nickle Galleries, University of Calgary [52]
  • Winnipeg Art Gallery [53]

Further reading
  • Kulyk-Keefer, Janice. Dark Ghost in the Corner: Imagining Ukrainian-Canadian Identity.[54] Saskatoon: Heritage Press, 2005. ISBN 0-88880-497-0
  • Melnyk, George. First Person Plural.[13] Frontenac House, 2018. ISBN 978-1927823422
  • Moray, Gerta (2010). Husar Handbook. Hamilton: McMaster Museum of Art / ABC Art Books Canada. ISBN 978-0920810873. Retrieved May 27, 2020.
  • Murray, Joan (1996). Confessions of a Curator: Adventures in Canadian Art. Toronto: Dundurn Press. ISBN 1-55002-238-5.
  • Artist page at the Canadian Art Database [55]
  • Documentary film: Natalka Husar, The Life of the Artist. Tickle and Scratch Productions, 2013 [56]

References
  1. Government of Canada, Canadian Heritage (October 17, 2012). "Artists in Canada". app.pch.gc.ca. Retrieved July 19, 2022.
  2. "Natalka Husar". art-history.concordia.ca. Retrieved July 19, 2022.
  3. "Natalka Husar".
  4. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on July 19, 2022. Retrieved July 18, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  5. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on July 19, 2022. Retrieved July 18, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  6. Husar Struk, Danylo; Ilnytzkyj, Oleh S.; Pylypiuk, Natalia; Senkus, Roman; Tarnawsky, Maxim (1999). "Danylo Husar Struk (1940–1999)". Canadian Slavonic Papers. 41 (3–4): 513–514. doi:10.1080/00085006.1999.11092232.
  7. Studio, Nancy Poole's (1980). "Natalka Husar: Faces, Facades, Porcelain, Plexiglass".
  8. George Melnyk, “Carrying the same baggage: Natalka Husar’s Alter Egos” in First Person Plural (Calgary: Frontenac House, 2015) endnote 2, not paginated
  9. "Robert Enright | College of Arts". Uoguelph.ca. Retrieved July 19, 2022.
  10. "Desperately Seeking Ukrainian: The Recent Painting of Natalka Husar". Ccca.concordia.ca. Retrieved July 19, 2022.
  11. "Department of Communication, Media and Film | University of Calgary". Commfilm.ucalgary.ca. Retrieved July 19, 2022.
  12. George Melnyk, “Carrying the same baggage: Natalka Husar’s Alter Egos” in First Person Plural (Calgary: Frontenac House, 2015) p. 19
  13. "First Person Plural". Frontenachouse.com. Retrieved July 19, 2022.
  14. "Natalka Husar: Not A One Night Stand". 2.ocadu.ca. September 26, 2016. Retrieved July 19, 2022.
  15. "$20,000 Kingston Prize Goes to Richard Davis". Canadianart.ca. Retrieved July 19, 2022.
  16. "2013 Summer : Sketch" (PDF). Ocadu.ca. Retrieved July 19, 2022.
  17. "Natalka Husar, Bio".
  18. "Our History". Artgalleryofguelph.ca. Retrieved July 19, 2022.
  19. "Exhibitions - Museum London". Museumlondon.ca. Retrieved July 19, 2022.
  20. Harris, Michael (April 27, 2012). "Natalka Husar: "Burden of Innocence Act 2 and Act 3" Douglas Udell Gallery, Vancouver March 31 – April 14, 2012". Galleries West. Retrieved July 19, 2022.
  21. "Natalka Husar: Burden of Innocence". MacKenzie Art Gallery. Retrieved July 19, 2022.
  22. Dr. Sally McKay, “Looking at Looking at Art” in Living Building Thinking (Hamilton: McMaster Museum of Art, 2016) pp170-175
  23. "Art Metropole / Husar Handbook". Artmetropole.com. Retrieved July 19, 2022.
  24. "Art Metropole / Burden of Innocence". Artmetropole.com. Retrieved July 19, 2022.
  25. "NATALKA HUSAR: Burden of Innocence. JANICE KULYK KEEFER: Foreign Relations".
  26. "About Us". Art Museum at the University of Toronto. Retrieved July 19, 2022.
  27. "Tom Thomson Art Gallery". Owensound.ca. May 13, 2022. Retrieved July 19, 2022.
  28. Madill, Shirley; Holubizky, Ihor; Keefer, Janice Kulyk (July 19, 2001). Natalka Husar : Blond with Dark Roots. ISBN 9780919153707. Retrieved July 19, 2022. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
  29. "Janice Keefer | College of Arts".
  30. Husar, Natalka; Podedworny, Carol; Holubizky, Ihor; Garnet, Carla (July 19, 1995). Natalka Husar: Black Sea Blue. ISBN 9781896432328. Retrieved July 19, 2022. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
  31. "Background". Remaimodern.org. Retrieved July 19, 2022.
  32. Enright, Robert; Lypchuk, Donna (July 19, 1991). Natalka Husar's True Confessions. ISBN 9780969558309. Retrieved July 19, 2022. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
  33. "ABOUT".
  34. "Home". latitude53.org.
  35. Thomson, Grace (July 19, 1988). Natalka Husar : Milk and Blood. ISBN 9780921823063. Retrieved July 19, 2022. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
  36. "Living Building Thinking: Art and Expressionism | Art Gallery of Alberta". Youraga.ca. Retrieved July 19, 2022.
  37. "Barbara Astman in Living, Building, Thinking: art and expressionism". 2.ocadu.ca. March 1, 2018. Retrieved July 19, 2022.
  38. "Living, Building, Thinking: art & expressionism". Kunstaspekte.de. Retrieved July 19, 2022.
  39. "Reality Check" (PDF). Chicagotribune.com. August 25, 2016. Retrieved May 27, 2020.
  41. "Art Pick: Torn Heart". Art Gallery of Ontario. Retrieved July 19, 2022.
  43. "Collection | Art Gallery of Alberta". Youraga.ca. Retrieved July 19, 2022.
  44. Wilkins, Brooklyn (March 27, 2022). "Beaverbrook Art Gallery reopens". Theaquinian.net. Retrieved July 19, 2022.
  45. "When we reopen on April 2nd, we... - Beaverbrook Art Gallery". Facebook.com. Retrieved July 19, 2022.
  46. "Home". Artbank.ca. Retrieved July 19, 2022.
  47. "Search the Collection | Canadian Museum of History". Historymuseum.ca. Retrieved July 19, 2022.
  48. "What's in the Collection?".
  49. "MacKenzie Art Gallery Annual report 2012/ 2013 by MacKenzie Art Gallery - Issuu". January 6, 2014.
  50. "Collections - The Robert McLaughlin Gallery". Rmg.on.ca. February 15, 2022. Retrieved July 19, 2022.
  51. "Works – HUSAR, Natalka – People – eMuseum". Emuseum.mcmaster.ca. Retrieved July 19, 2022.
  53. "Canadian Art | Winnipeg Art Gallery". 100masters.wag.ca. Retrieved July 19, 2022.
  54. "Dark Ghost in the Corner: Imagining Ukrainian-Canadian Identity – Prairie Centre for the Study of Ukrainian Heritage". Pcuh.stmcollege.ca. Retrieved July 19, 2022.
  55. "CCCA Artist Work Timeline".
  56. "Natalka Husar- the Life of the Artist- Tickle and Scratch Productions". YouTube.
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