Ian Hornak Art Commerce

Painter and draftsman Ian Hornak created vivid hyperrealist and Photorealist works, and was celebrated for his visionary incorporation of multiple-exposure photography into his landscape paintings.

The subject matter at the heart of the world’s finest Photorealist works flickers between crystal-clear reality and dreamy illusion, and Hornak’s representational art is just as compelling, enveloping the viewer with rich imagery and vibrant colors.

The painter was born John Francis Hornak in Philadelphia to Slovakian immigrants who moved to New York when he was still an infant. He became enamored of visual art at an early age — for his ninth birthday, Hornak received a set of oil paints and a book about Renaissance paintings. He reproduced many of the book’s photos of the works of Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and others so well that they looked like the photographs themselves.

Hornak studied art at the University of Michigan and Wayne State University. After earning his bachelor's and master's degrees in fine arts, he moved to New York City in 1968 and befriended Lowell Nesbitt. The realist artist introduced him to Willem de Kooning, Robert Motherwell, Robert Indiana and others. Hornak resisted the Abstract Expressionist and Pop styles of the era, instead creating work that was noted for its Surrealist and even Romantic elements.

In 1970, Hornak debuted his first paintings in his multiple-exposure style. A year later, the Tibor de Nagy Gallery hosted his first New York City solo exhibition, and his prominence in the art world grew. From 1986 until his death in 2002, Hornak produced botanical and still-life paintings inspired by Flemish and Dutch masters.

Hornak’s work can be found in the permanent collections of many institutions, such as the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Smithsonian National Museum of American History and the Library of Congress.

On 1stDibs, find authentic Ian Hornak paintings, drawings, prints and more.

A direct challenge to Abstract Expressionism’s subjectivity and gestural vigor, Photorealism was informed by the Pop predilection for representational imagery, popular iconography and tools, like projectors and airbrushes, borrowed from the worlds of commercial art and design.

Whether gritty or gleaming, the subject matter favored by Photorealists is instantly, if vaguely, familiar. It’s the stuff of yellowing snapshots and fugitive memories. The bland and the garish alike flicker between crystal-clear reality and dreamy illusion, inviting the viewer to contemplate a single moment rather than igniting a story.

The virtues of the “photo” in Photorealist art — infused as they are with dazzling qualities that are easily blurred in reproduction — are as elusive as they are allusive. “Much Photorealist painting has the vacuity of proportion and intent of an idiot-savant, long on look and short on personal timbre,” John Arthur wrote (rather admiringly) in the catalogue essay for Realism/Photorealism, a 1980 exhibition at the Philbrook Museum of Art, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. At its best, Photorealism is a perpetually paused tug-of-war between the sacred and the profane, the general and the specific, the record and the object.

“Robert Bechtle invented Photorealism, in 1963,” says veteran art dealer Louis Meisel. “He took a picture of himself in the mirror with the car outside and then painted it. That was the first one.”

The meaning of the term, which began for Meisel as “a superficial way of defining and promoting a group of painters,” evolved with time, and the core group of Photorealists slowly expanded to include younger artists who traded Rolleiflexes for 60-megapixel cameras, using advanced digital technology to create paintings that transcend the detail of conventional photographs.

On 1stDibs, the collection of Photorealist art includes work by Richard Estes, Ralph Goings, Chuck Close, Audrey Flack, Charles Bell and others.

Still-life paintings work as part of the decor in nearly every type of space.

Still-life art, which includes work produced in media such as painting, photography, video and more, is a popular genre in Western art. However, the depiction of still life in color goes back to Ancient Egypt, where paintings on the interior walls of tombs portrayed the objects — such as food — that a person would take into the afterlife. Ancient Greek and Roman mosaics and pottery also often depicted food. Indeed, still-life paintings frequently feature food, flowers or man-made objects. By definition, still-life art represents anything that is considered inanimate.

During the Middle Ages, the still life genre was adapted by artists who illustrated religious manuscripts. A common theme of these paintings is the reminder that life is fleeting. This is especially true of vanitas, a kind of still life with roots in the Netherlands during the 17th century, which was built on themes such as death and decay and featured skulls and objects such as rotten fruit. In northern Europe during the 1600s, painters consulted botanical texts to accurately depict the flowers and plants that were the subject of their work.

Leonardo da Vinci’s penchant for observing phenomena in nature and filling notebooks with drawings and notes helped him improve as an artist of still-life paintings. Vincent van Gogh, an artist who made a couple of the most expensive paintings ever sold, carried out rich experiments with color over the course of painting hundreds of still lifes, and we can argue that Campbell’s Soup Cans (1961–62) by Andy Warhol counts as still-life art.

While early examples were primarily figurative, you can find still lifes that belong to different schools and styles of painting, such as Cubism, Impressionism and contemporary art.

As part of the wall decor in your living room, dining room or elsewhere, a still-life painting can look sophisticated alongside your well-curated decorative objects and can help set the mood in a space.

When shopping for a still-life painting, think about how it makes you feel and how the artist chose to represent its subject. When buying any art for your home, choose pieces that you connect with. If you’re shopping online, read the description of the work to learn about the artist and check the price and shipping information. Make sure that the works you choose complement or relate to your overall theme and furniture style. Artwork can either fit into your room’s color scheme or serve as an accent piece. Introduce new textures to a space by choosing an oil still-life painting.

On 1stDibs, find a collection of still-life paintings in a wide range of styles and subject matter.