Ian Hornak (1944-2002)

1944

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1945

Relocates with family to Brooklyn Heights, New York.

1946

Creates first drawings.

1949

Relocates with family to a farm in Mount Clemens, Michigan.

1953

Creates first series of paintings based on biblical themes.

1964

Receives B.F.A., Wayne State University.

1965

Creates his first sharp-focus realist paintings using photographs as studies.

1966

Receives M.F.A., Wayne State University.

1967

Receives letters of introduction from Detroit gallerist, Gertrude Kasle to Lowell Nesbitt and Willem de Kooning in New York.

1968

Moves to New York City where he sublets Lowell Nesbitt’s studio.

1968

Begins series of sharp-focus realist monochromatic figurative paintings and drawings using mythological and erotic themes.

1968–1969

Lowell Nesbitt introduces Hornak to Eleanor Ward, founder of the Stable Gallery where Hornak is included in his first group exhibitions in New York.

1970

Begins series of sharp focus realist multiple-exposure landscape paintings.

1970

Lee Krasner recommends Hornak for representation to Jackson Pollock’s nephew, Jason McCoy, assistant director of the Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York.

1971

First solo exhibition at Tibor de Nagy Gallery.

1974

Praised by John Canaday in The New York Times as being “right at the top of the list of romantically descriptive painters today.”

1977

Begins representation by Fischbach Gallery, New York.

1981

Retrospective exhibition at the Selby Museum of Botany and Art.

1984

Western Carolina University retrospective.

1985

On the advice of Jimmy Ernst, begins a series of expressionist, apocalyptic themed landscape paintings.

1986

Creates his first floral painting.

1988

Begins representation by Katharina Rich Perlow Gallery.

1990s

Increasing concentration on floral and still-life paintings.

2002

Dies in Southampton, New York.

2009

Galleries Maurice Sternberg retrospective.

2012

Forest Lawn Museum retrospective.

2012–2013

Federal Reserve retrospective.

2013

Washington County Museum of Fine Arts retrospective.

2014

Anton Art Center retrospective.