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.
| Average Sold Price |
| $38,735 |
| Styles |
| Materials |
| Related Artists |
Ian Hornak, Marcia’s Meadow, Vermont, Variation #2, 1984
By Ian Hornak
Located in Fairfield, CT
Artist: Ian Hornak (1944–2002) Title: Marcia’s Meadow, Vermont, Variation #2 Year: 1984 Medium: Acrylic on canvas Size: 50 x 72 inches (127 x 182.88 cm) Condition: Well preserved, c...
Canvas, Acrylic
$115,000
H 65.5 in W 52.5 in
Ian Hornak, Lilies and Mushrooms with my Parrot Kouka, 1986
By Ian Hornak
Located in Fairfield, CT
Artist: Ian Hornak (1944–2002) Title: Lilies and Mushrooms with my Parrot Kouka Year: 1986 Medium: Acrylic on panel, with artist painted frame Size: 65.5 x 52.5 inches (166.37 x 133....
Acrylic, Panel
$395,000
H 60 in W 120 in
Hannah’s Mirror: Rembrandt’s Three Trees Transformed into the Expulsion fr/Eden
By Ian Hornak
Located in Fairfield, CT
Artist: Ian Hornak (1944–2002) Title: Hannah’s Mirror, Rembrandt’s Three Trees Transformed into the Expulsion from Eden Year: 1981 Medium: Acrylic on canvas Size: 60 x 120 inches (15...
Canvas, Acrylic
$55,000
H 30 in W 40 in
Ian Hornak, Transparent Barricades: Sunrise and Moonrise, 1985
By Ian Hornak
Located in Fairfield, CT
Artist: Ian Hornak (1944–2002) Title: Transparent Barricades: Sunrise and Moonrise Year: 1985 Medium: Acrylic on canvas Size: 30 x 40 inches (76.2 x 101.6 cm) Condition: Well preserved, consistent with age and medium Inscription: Signed, dated, and titled by the artist, verso Provenance: Armstrong Gallery, New York, New York Notes: This exquisite acrylic painting by Ian Hornak (1944–2002), titled Transparent Barricades: Sunrise and Moonrise, was executed in 1985. The masterfully conceived composition exemplifies Hornak’s celebrated series of multiple-exposure landscape paintings, a body of work that transformed conventional landscape imagery into complex meditations on memory, perception, and the passage of time. Through the seamless fusion of distinct moments within a single visual field, Hornak creates a dreamlike yet convincing reality in which sunrise and moonrise coexist simultaneously, dissolving traditional boundaries between day and night, observation and recollection. The silhouetted tree forms, luminous celestial light, and brilliantly layered sky are rendered with extraordinary precision, producing an image that is at once visually breathtaking and intellectually engaging. By combining photographic realism with poetic invention, Hornak invites viewers to contemplate the fluid nature of time and experience, presenting multiple realities within a unified composition. Executed during a pivotal period in the artist’s career, the painting demonstrates Hornak’s remarkable ability to synthesize technical mastery, environmental observation, and metaphysical inquiry into a singular and unforgettable vision of the natural world. IAN HORNAK (1944–2002) was an American painter, draughtsman, printmaker, and pioneering force in Photorealism and Hyperrealism whose extraordinary technical mastery, visionary imagination, and innovative approach to realism established him as one of the most distinctive and original artists of the late twentieth century. Widely recognized as a founding member of both the Photorealist and Hyperrealist movements, Hornak helped redefine the possibilities of contemporary realism by combining photographic precision with symbolism, romanticism, mythology, environmental awareness, art historical references, and metaphysical inquiry, creating a body of work that stands apart within postwar American art for both its visual brilliance and intellectual ambition. Born in Philadelphia and raised in Michigan before establishing his career in New York and East Hampton, Hornak emerged during one of the most transformative periods in modern art and developed a highly individual visual language that transcended conventional artistic categories. While many of his contemporaries focused on strict photographic transcription, urban imagery, or detached observation, Hornak utilized realism as a foundation for exploring profound themes of memory, beauty, mortality, spirituality, environmental fragility, and humanity’s relationship with nature, producing works that operate simultaneously as visual spectacles and philosophical meditations. His artistic vision reflects an awareness of the revolutionary innovations introduced by Pablo Picasso, Alexander Calder, Alberto Giacometti, Salvador Dali, Joan Miro, Wassily Kandinsky, Marcel Duchamp, and Man Ray, while simultaneously drawing inspiration from the Hudson River School, particularly Frederic Edwin Church, Martin Johnson Heade, Thomas Cole, and Albert Bierstadt, as well as the spiritual landscapes of Caspar David Friedrich and the botanical precision of Dutch Golden Age masters. Through this extraordinary synthesis of influences, Hornak created a visual language that united scientific observation, photographic realism, romantic grandeur, allegorical symbolism, and philosophical reflection into a form entirely his own. His highest recorded sale was achieved in 2017, when Large Orchid Bouquet (1988) was sold in a private transaction conducted in association with the heir of the Ian Hornak estate to the Van Andel family, co-owners of Amway, for US$165,000 ($219,168.11 USD, calculated for inflation in 2025). Ian Hornak Transparent Barricades: Sunrise and Moonrise, Ian Hornak multiple exposure landscape, Ian Hornak acrylic on canvas, Ian Hornak 1985 painting, Ian Hornak sunrise landscape, Ian Hornak moonrise painting...
Canvas, Acrylic
$46,400Sale Price|20% Off
H 58.5 in W 47.5 in
Ian Hornak, Very Baroque Flowerpiece with Red Birds of Paradise, Shining Parrot
By Ian Hornak
Located in Fairfield, CT
IAN HORNAK (1944–2002) Title: Very Baroque Flowerpiece with Red Birds of Paradise and Shining Parrot Date: 1989 Medium: Acrylic on Panel, with Artist Painted Frame Dimensions...
Acrylic
Ian Hornak, Nocturne I: White Peacock, Black Cockatoo, 1990
By Ian Hornak
Located in Fairfield, CT
Artist: Ian Hornak (1944–2002) Title: Nocturne I: White Peacock, Black Cockatoo Year: 1990 Medium: Acrylic on panel, with artist painted frame Size: 58 x 48 inches (147.32 x 121.92 c...
Panel, Acrylic
$46,400Sale Price|20% Off
H 42 in W 60 in
Looking Toward Oyster Pond, Montauk, Ian Hornak
By Ian Hornak
Located in Fairfield, CT
Artist: Ian Hornak (1944-2002) Title: Looking Toward Oyster Pond, Montauk Year: 1983-2001 Medium: Acrylic on Canvas Size: 42 x 60 inches Condition: Excellent Inscription: Signed rect...
Canvas, Acrylic
Ian Hornak, Ghosts at Dawn, 1985
By Ian Hornak
Located in Fairfield, CT
Artist: Ian Hornak (1944–2002) Title: Ghosts at Dawn Year: 1985 Medium: Acrylic on panel with artist’s painted frame Size: 68 x 63 inches (172.72 x 160.02 cm) Condition: Well preserv...
Acrylic, Panel
| Sold Date | Sold Price | Category | Medium | Creation Year | ||||||
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| $38,735 |
Average sold price of items in the past 12 months |
| $2,470-$75,000 |
| Sold price range of items in the past 12 months |