{{short description|American-born Canadian painter (born 1951)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=May 2020}} {{Infobox artist | name = Natalka Husar | image = Natalka Husar by Alexandra Petruck.jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = Natalka Husar by Alexandra Petruck | birth_name = Natalka Husar | birth_date = {{birth year and age|1951}} | birth_place = New Jersey, United States | spouse = | field = Painter | training = B.F.A., Rutgers University, New Jersey | works = | patrons = | awards = | elected = }}
'''Natalka Husar''' (born 1951) is an American-born Canadian painter.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Government of Canada |first1=Canadian Heritage |title=Artists in Canada |url=https://app.pch.gc.ca/application/aac-aic/artiste_detailler_bas-artist_detail_bas.app?rID=24278&fID=2&lang=en&qlang=en&pID=1&an=Husar&ps=50&sort=AM_ASC |website=app.pch.gc.ca |access-date=19 July 2022 |language=en |date=17 October 2012}}</ref> She is known for work that draws on aspects of Ukrainian culture and history, the émigré experience, and her feminist concerns.<ref>{{cite web |title=Natalka Husar |url=http://art-history.concordia.ca/eea/artists/husar.html |website=art-history.concordia.ca |access-date=19 July 2022}}</ref>
==Early life and education== Natalka Husar’s Ukrainian-born parents, Daria Struk <ref name="auto1 " >{{cite web | url=http://art-history.concordia.ca/eea/artists/husar.html | title=Natalka Husar }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/search/person/75153120?s=Daria&t=222899&p=1 |title=Archived copy |access-date=July 18, 2022 |archive-date=July 19, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220719015337/https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/search/person/75153120?s=Daria&t=222899&p=1 |url-status=dead }}</ref> and Wasyl Husar <ref name="auto3 " >{{Cite web |url=https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/search/person/79197722?s=Husar-struk&t=222915&p=1 |title=Archived copy |access-date=July 18, 2022 |archive-date=July 19, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220719015332/https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/search/person/79197722?s=Husar-struk&t=222915&p=1 |url-status=dead }}</ref> and brother Danylo <ref name="auto3 " /><ref>{{cite journal | url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00085006.1999.11092232?journalCode=rcsp20 | doi=10.1080/00085006.1999.11092232 | title=Danylo Husar Struk (1940–1999) | year=1999 | last1=Husar Struk | first1=Danylo | last2=Ilnytzkyj | first2=Oleh S. | last3=Pylypiuk | first3=Natalia | last4=Senkus | first4=Roman | last5=Tarnawsky | first5=Maxim | journal=Canadian Slavonic Papers | volume=41 | issue=3–4 | pages=513–514 | url-access=subscription }}</ref> emigrated from a post-WWII Displaced Persons camp in Germany to the United States. They settled in New Jersey, where Natalka Husar was born.<ref name="auto1 " /> 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,<ref>{{cite web | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oPKfzgEACAAJ | title=Natalka Husar: Faces, Facades, Porcelain, Plexiglass | last1=Studio | first1=Nancy Poole's | year=1980 }}</ref> but after working as a flight attendant in the early 1980s,<ref>George Melnyk, “Carrying the same baggage: Natalka Husar’s Alter Egos” in ''First Person Plural'' (Calgary: Frontenac House, 2015) endnote 2, not paginated</ref> 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<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.uoguelph.ca/arts/sofam/people/robert-enright|title=Robert Enright | College of Arts|website=Uoguelph.ca|access-date=July 19, 2022}}</ref> 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".<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://ccca.concordia.ca/c/writing/e/enright/enr006t.html/|title=Desperately Seeking Ukrainian: The Recent Painting of Natalka Husar|website=Ccca.concordia.ca|access-date=July 19, 2022}}</ref> Cultural Historian George Melnyk <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://commfilm.ucalgary.ca/manageprofile/profiles/george-melnyk|title=Department of Communication, Media and Film | University of Calgary|website=Commfilm.ucalgary.ca|access-date=July 19, 2022}}</ref> 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."<ref>George Melnyk, “Carrying the same baggage: Natalka Husar’s Alter Egos” in ''First Person Plural'' (Calgary: Frontenac House, 2015) p. 19</ref><ref name="auto2 " >{{Cite web|url=https://www.frontenachouse.com/product/first-person-plural/|title=First Person Plural |website=Frontenachouse.com|access-date=July 19, 2022}}</ref>
Husar taught painting at the Ontario College of Art University (OCAD) as an associate professor from 1990 to 2011<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www2.ocadu.ca/event/natalka-husar-not-a-one-night-stand|title=Natalka Husar: Not A One Night Stand|date=September 26, 2016|website=2.ocadu.ca|access-date=July 19, 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://canadianart.ca/news/kingston-prize-2013/|title=$20,000 Kingston Prize Goes to Richard Davis|website=Canadianart.ca|access-date=July 19, 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ocadu.ca/Assets/documents/2013-summer-sketch-accessiblePDF.pdf|title=2013 Summer : Sketch|website=Ocadu.ca|access-date=July 19, 2022}}</ref> and has been the recipient of numerous arts grants.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://ccca.concordia.ca/bios/husar_bio.html | title=Natalka Husar, Bio }}</ref>
== 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),<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://artgalleryofguelph.ca/about_list/our-history/|title=Our History|website=Artgalleryofguelph.ca|access-date=July 19, 2022}}</ref> McMaster Museum of Art, Museum London,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://museumlondon.ca/exhibitions/natalka-husar-burden-of-innocence|title=Exhibitions - Museum London|website=Museumlondon.ca|access-date=July 19, 2022}}</ref> Tom Thomson Art Gallery and the MacKenzie Art Gallery. It was also shown at the Douglas Udell galleries in Edmonton and Vancouver.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.gallerieswest.ca/reviews/natalka-husar%3A-%22burden-of-innocence-act-2-and-act-3%22-douglas-udell-gallery%2C-vancouver-march-31-%E2%80%93-april-14%2C-2012/|title=Natalka Husar: "Burden of Innocence Act 2 and Act 3" Douglas Udell Gallery, Vancouver March 31 – April 14, 2012|first=Michael|last=Harris|date=April 27, 2012|website=Galleries West|access-date=July 19, 2022}}</ref>
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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://mackenzie.art/exhibition/natalka-husar-burden-of-innocence/|title=Natalka Husar: Burden of Innocence|website=MacKenzie Art Gallery|access-date=July 19, 2022}}</ref><ref>Dr. Sally McKay, “Looking at Looking at Art” in Living Building Thinking (Hamilton: McMaster Museum of Art, 2016) pp170-175</ref> The''Burden of Innocence'' exhibition was accompanied by two publications, ''Husar Handbook'' <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://artmetropole.com/shop/9202|title=Art Metropole / Husar Handbook|website=Artmetropole.com|access-date=July 19, 2022}}</ref> and a limited edition artist bookwork ''Burden of Innocence''<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://artmetropole.com/shop/8871|title=Art Metropole / Burden of Innocence|website=Artmetropole.com|access-date=July 19, 2022}}</ref> and a double-book version.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://rodovid.net/en/product/39/natalka-husar-burden-of-innocence-janice-kulyk-keefer-foreign-relations/ | title=NATALKA HUSAR: Burden of Innocence. JANICE KULYK KEEFER: Foreign Relations }}</ref>
=== 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)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://artmuseum.utoronto.ca/about-us/|title=About Us|website=Art Museum at the University of Toronto|access-date=July 19, 2022}}</ref> and the Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery (now the Tom Thomson Art Gallery).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.owensound.ca/en/tomthomson.aspx|title=Tom Thomson Art Gallery|date=May 13, 2022|website=Owensound.ca|access-date=July 19, 2022}}</ref> The catalogue texts examined Husar's use of fictional female identities,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Madill |first1=Shirley |last2=Holubizky|first2=Ihor|last3=Keefer|first3=Janice Kulyk|title=Blonde with Dark Roots |date=2001 |publisher=Art Gallery of Hamilton |location=Hamilton |isbn=9780919153707 |url=https://e-artexte.ca/id/eprint/14862 |access-date=18 November 2023}}</ref> including poems by Janice Kulyk Keefer <ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.uoguelph.ca/arts/sets/people/janice-keefer | title=Janice Keefer | College of Arts }}</ref> 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).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Husar |first1=Natalka |last2=Podedworny|first2=Carol|last3=Holubizky|first3=Ihor|last4=Garnet|first4=Carla|title=Natalka Husar: Black Sea Blue |date=1995 |publisher=Rosemont Art Gallery |isbn=9781896432328 |url=https://e-artexte.ca/id/eprint/8870 |access-date=18 November 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://remaimodern.org/about/background|title=Background|website=Remaimodern.org|access-date=July 19, 2022}}</ref>
=== 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<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://e-artexte.ca/id/eprint/4567/|title=Natalka Husar's True Confessions|first1=Robert|last1=Enright|first2=Donna|last2=Lypchuk|date=1991|publisher=Natalka Husar|access-date=July 19, 2022|isbn=9780969558309 }}</ref>
=== 1988–1989. ''Milk and Blood'' === Organized by The Floating Curatorial Gallery at Women in Focus in Vancouver, which toured to the Ukrainian Cultural and Educational Centre in Winnipeg, Garnet Press Gallery (Toronto), Forest City Gallery<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.forestcitygallery.com/about | title=ABOUT }}</ref> the Laurentian University Museum and Arts Centre in Sudbury, Latitude 53, Edmonton<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.latitude53.org|title=Home |website=latitude53.org}}</ref> and The Station Gallery, Whitby.<ref name="auto " >{{Cite book|url=https://e-artexte.ca/id/eprint/709/|title=Natalka Husar : Milk and Blood|first=Grace|last=Thomson|date=July 19, 1988|publisher=Women in Focus|access-date= 2023-11-18|isbn=9780921823063 }}</ref> 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."<ref name="auto " />
=== Selected group exhibitions === * 2015–2018. ''Living Building Thinking: art and expressionism'', organized and circulated by the McMaster Museum of Art.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.youraga.ca/exhibitions/living-building-thinking-art-and-expressionism|title=Living Building Thinking: Art and Expressionism | Art Gallery of Alberta|website=Youraga.ca|access-date=July 19, 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www2.ocadu.ca/event/barbara-astman-in-living-building-thinking-art-and-expressionism|title=Barbara Astman in Living, Building, Thinking: art and expressionism|date=March 1, 2018|website=2.ocadu.ca|access-date=July 19, 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://kunstaspekte.art/event/living-building-thinking-art-and-expressionism|title=Living, Building, Thinking: art & expressionism|website=Kunstaspekte.de|access-date=July 19, 2022}}</ref> * 2015–2016. ''The Ukrainian Diaspora: Women Artists 1908–2015'', The Ukrainian Museum New York.<ref name="Reality " >{{cite web |title=Reality Check|url=https://dk2l86f407zcv.cloudfront.net/pdf/news/9e35d6ebf2276ca7c477f1a865923045.pdf |website=Chicagotribune.com|date=August 25, 2016|access-date=2020-05-27}}</ref> * 2016. ''Reality Check, Contemporary art in Ukraine since its independence'', Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, Chicago.<ref name="Reality " />
== Works in Canadian public collections == * National Gallery of Canada<ref>{{cite web |title=Collection |url=https://www.gallery.ca/collection/artist/natalka-husar |website=www.gallery.ca |publisher=National Gallery of Canada |access-date=10 June 2025}}</ref> * Art Gallery of Ontario<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ago.ca/agoinsider/art-pick-torn-heart|title=Art Pick: Torn Heart|website=Art Gallery of Ontario|access-date=July 19, 2022}}</ref> * Art Gallery of Hamilton<ref>{{cite web |title=Collection |url=https://tms.artgalleryofhamilton.com/search/Husar |website=tms.artgalleryofhamilton.com |publisher=AGH |access-date=10 June 2025}}</ref> * Art Gallery of Alberta<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.youraga.ca/about-aga/collection|title=Collection | Art Gallery of Alberta|website=Youraga.ca|access-date=July 19, 2022}}</ref> * Beaverbrook Art Gallery<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://theaquinian.net/beaverbrook-art-gallery-reopens/|title=Beaverbrook Art Gallery reopens |website=Theaquinian.net|first=Brooklyn|last=Wilkins|date=March 27, 2022 |access-date=July 19, 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.facebook.com/BeaverbrookArtGallery/photos/a.167816151565/10158447922546566/?type=3|title=When we reopen on April 2nd, we... - Beaverbrook Art Gallery|website=Facebook.com|access-date=July 19, 2022}}</ref> * Canada Council Art Bank<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://artbank.ca/art-piece/,-w-,|title=Home|website=Artbank.ca|access-date=July 19, 2022}}</ref> * The Canadian Museum of History <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.historymuseum.ca/collections/|title=Search the Collection | Canadian Museum of History|website=Historymuseum.ca|access-date=July 19, 2022}}</ref> * Glenbow Museum<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.glenbow.org/art-artifacts/collection-overview/ | title=What's in the Collection? }}</ref> * MacKenzie Art Gallery<ref>{{cite web | url=https://issuu.com/mackenzieartgallery/docs/annual_report_2013_issuu/16 | title=MacKenzie Art Gallery Annual report 2012/ 2013 by MacKenzie Art Gallery - Issuu | date=January 6, 2014 }}</ref> * The Robert McLaughlin Gallery<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://rmg.on.ca/collections/,%20https://rmg.on.ca/collections/|title=Collections - The Robert McLaughlin Gallery|website=Rmg.on.ca|date=February 15, 2022|access-date=July 19, 2022}}</ref> * McMaster Museum of Art<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://emuseum.mcmaster.ca/emuseum/view/objects/aslist/People@1766?t:state:flow=129d6374-ca0b-4cec-9928-42c4db86f8af|title=Works – HUSAR, Natalka – People – eMuseum|website=Emuseum.mcmaster.ca|access-date=July 19, 2022}}</ref> * Nickle Galleries, University of Calgary<ref>{{cite web |title=Collection |url=https://emuseum.ucalgary.ca/view/objects/asitem/search@/0?t:state:flow=b5e70af2-7374-439a-8b45-7aa28a9ac7f5 |website=emuseum.ucalgary.ca |publisher=Nickle |access-date=10 June 2025}}</ref> * Winnipeg Art Gallery<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.100masters.wag.ca/art/collections/canadian-art/display,contemporary/55111|title=Canadian Art | Winnipeg Art Gallery|website=100masters.wag.ca|access-date=July 19, 2022}}</ref>
== Further reading == * Kulyk-Keefer, Janice. Dark Ghost in the Corner: Imagining Ukrainian-Canadian Identity.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://pcuh.stmcollege.ca/programs-and-projects/heritage-press/dark-ghost-in-the-corner-imagining-ukrainian-canadian-identity/|title=Dark Ghost in the Corner: Imagining Ukrainian-Canadian Identity – Prairie Centre for the Study of Ukrainian Heritage|website=Pcuh.stmcollege.ca|access-date=July 19, 2022}}</ref> Saskatoon: Heritage Press, 2005. {{ISBN|0-88880-497-0}} * Melnyk, George. First Person Plural.<ref name="auto2 " /> Frontenac House, 2018. {{ISBN|((978-1927823422))}} *{{cite book |last1=Moray |first1=Gerta |title=Husar Handbook |date=2010 |publisher=McMaster Museum of Art / ABC Art Books Canada |location=Hamilton |isbn=978-0920810873|url=https://search.library.utoronto.ca/search?N=0&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Nu=p_work_normalized&Np=1&Ntt=husar%20handbook&Ntk=Anywhere |access-date=2020-05-27}} *{{cite book |last1=Murray |first1=Joan |author-link=Joan Murray (art historian) |title=Confessions of a Curator: Adventures in Canadian Art |date=1996 |publisher=Dundurn Press |location=Toronto |isbn=1-55002-238-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OKYPxpJOthQC }}
== External links == * Artist page at the Canadian Art Database<ref>{{cite web | url=http://ccca.concordia.ca/artists/image_timeline.html?languagePref=en&link_id=1624&artist=Natalka+Husar | title=CCCA Artist Work Timeline }}</ref> * Documentary film: Natalka Husar, The Life of the Artist. Tickle and Scratch Productions, 2013 <ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbuZCSnRTGs | title=Natalka Husar- the Life of the Artist- Tickle and Scratch Productions | website=YouTube | date=February 8, 2013 }}</ref>
== References == {{reflist}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Husar, Natalka}} Category:1951 births Category:Living people Category:20th-century Canadian painters Category:20th-century Canadian women artists Category:21st-century Canadian painters Category:21st-century Canadian women artists Category:Painters from New Jersey Category:American emigrants to Canada Category:American people of Ukrainian descent Category:Canadian people of Ukrainian descent Category:Rutgers University alumni