Marc Klionsky
Marc Klionsky | |
---|---|
USSR | |
Occupation | Painter |
Known for | Painting and printmaking |
Spouse | Irina Klionsky |
Children | Two daughters |
Relatives | Four grandchildren, including Elizabeth Pipko |
Website | https://www.marcklionsky.org |
Marc Klionsky (February 22, 1927 – September 17, 2017) was a
Early life and education
Marc Klionsky was born in
After the war, Klionsky attended first the Serov Art Institute before entering the Ilya Repin Leningrad Institute for Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (now known as the Russian Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg). Klionsky's diploma piece was reproduced in an edition of 50,000 copies and distributed throughout the
Life and career
Klionsky established himself in the Soviet Union initially by producing official Social Realist works that depicted political figures and daily life in the Soviet Union. Many decades later in New York City, John Russell would write that Klionsky had "a solid, indestructible professional formation of the kind that was customary in Russia before 1917 and can still sometimes be found there today."[6] However, in the privacy of his own studio, Klionsky began to explore the themes of Jewish life, anti-Semitism and the Holocaust. He soon discovered the creative and intellectual restrictions of working as a Jewish artist in the Soviet Union.
After Klionsky left the Soviet Union with his family in 1974, traveling first to Rome and then to New York, he expressed in his work the newborn freedom that he found in America. Shortly after his arrival, he was recognized in an ABC television production about his work, Canvases of Freedom. This was followed by a U.S. State Department documentary (produced by the U.S. Information Agency) shown in ninety-two countries about one of his exhibitions at Hammer Galleries.[7]
During this period, Klionsky also taught at the
While Klionsky took advantage of his creative freedom in the United States to explore a range of abstract styles and media, he ultimately gained prominence as a master of portrait painting and of American Realism.
Works and exhibitions
During his lifetime, Marc Klionsky's paintings and prints were exhibited throughout
After emigrating to New York in 1974, his first international exhibition was held in Paris at the Salon des Reprouves with Galleries Hardy in 1978. His first solo New York show took place a Nakhamkin Fine Arts Gallery on Madison Avenue in 1979, after which Klionsky was represented by Hammer Galleries for the remainder of his career.[11]
Klionsky had several solo shows in Europe between 1991 and 1992, showing at the Musée d’Art Contemporain in Lausanne, Switzerland, the Salon Internationale des Musées at the Grand Palais in Paris, France, and his "God Bless America" traveling retrospective that began at the St. Ingbert Museum in Germany. The last exhibition of Klionsky's work during his lifetime was at an event titled "Painting the Face of Russian Jewry: The Art and Journey of Marc Klionsky” at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts in 2010, with presentations made by Sir Antony Polonsky, Emeritus Professor of Holocaust Studies, and Professor Nancy Scott, former chair of the Fine Arts department at Brandeis University.[12][13]
Legacy
Let the art historians or critics speak about Marc's art, his talent as the portrait painter, and his gifts as an innovator. Let them explain how he strives to unite present and past, colors and memories. As one who loves stories, I love those which he shows to make us smile, weep, or dream.
- – Elie Wiesel (1928–2016)[14]
Marc Klionsky's works hang in the collections of the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity in New York,[15] the Musée d’Art Contemporain in Lausanne, Switzerland, the Yad Vashem Art Museum in Jerusalem, Israel, and the State Hermitage Museum and the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, among other private and public collections internationally.
A book on the life and art of Marc Klionsky by John Russell and Nicholas Fox Weber was published in 2004, with a foreword by Elie Wiesel.
The Marc Klionsky Estate has created an archive and collection of his works and materials in his SoHo studio in New York City.
Portraits
- Prince Bandar Bin Sultan
- Ruth Dayan
- Dr. Hans Deutsch
- Steve Forbes
- Abraham Foxman
- Dizzie Gillespie
- Armand Hammer
- Victor Hammer
- Vernon Jordan
- B. B. King
- Teddy Kollek
- Golda Meir
- Mstislav Rostropovich
- Harrison Salisbury
- Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz
- Elie Wiesel
- Sam Wyly
References
- ^ "MARC KLIONSKY". Legacy.com. Retrieved October 29, 2017.
- ^ a b Lipman, Steve (October 3, 2017). "Marc Klionsky, 90, Acclaimed Portrait Artist". The New York Jewish Week. Retrieved November 5, 2019.
- ^ Russell, John (1991). "Marc Klionsky." God Bless America. Pully, Switzerland: Deutsch Foundation at Musee d’Art Contemporain.
- ^ Russell, John (March 23, 1984). "Russian Émigré Paints America". The New York Times. Retrieved November 5, 2019.
- ^ a b Hopkins, Johns. "Marc Klionsky Johns Hopkins Portrait Collection". Portrait Collection. The Johns Hopkins University and The Johns Hopkins Health System.
- ^ Wiesel, Elie; Russell, John; Fox Weber, Nicholas (2004). Marc Klionsky. New York: Hudson Hills Press. p. 12.
- ^ a b "Marc Klionsky". Artnet.
- ^ "Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery". Smithsonian.
- ^ "Master Portrait Painter Marc Klionsky Dies at 90". The Time of Israel. The Time of Israel.
- ^ Wiesel, Elie; Russell, John; Fox Weber, Nicholas (2004). Marc Klionsky. New York: Hudson Hills Press. p. 24.
- ^ "The Life of an Artist". HIAS.
- ^ "Klionsky paints the Russian Jewish experience". The Brandeis Hoot.
- ^ Blady, Rebecca (April 20, 2010). "Clashing identities connect in Klionsky's Art". The Justice.
- ^ Wiesel, Elie; Russell, John; Fox Weber, Nicholas (2004). Marc Klionsky. New York: Hudson Hills Press. p. 9.
- ^ "Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery". Smithsonian.