Josef Tabachnyk (born 15 July 1947 in Zhytomyr) is an artist living in Nuremberg, who specialises in making bronze sculptures of people, animals and abstract forms. His most famous works include Knut the Dreamer, the Willy-Brandt memorial, a statue of Adolf Dassler as well as memorials for victims of war in Saint Petersburg, Zhytomyr, Novohrad-Volynskyi and Slovechne.
Tabachnyk was born in Ukraine. From 1970 to 1976 he studied Sculpture and Architecture at the University of Malerie in former Leningrad. [1] He moved with his family in 1997 to Germany and has lived ever since in Nuremberg. [2] [3]
Before his move to Germany, Tabachnyk already had created a series of monuments in Ukraine. In 1996, the Memorial for the Victims of the Tragedy in the Wild of Bogunija was installed, depicting the victims of a tragedy which took place during the Second World War, in which prisoners of war and citizens were shot. The memorial combines a 6.5-meter-high granite monument with a bronze figure. In 1995 the Memorial for the Victims of Fascism was opened at the site of a mass grave in Novohrad-Volynskyi where Jews were killed during the Second World War. Tabachnyk used granite for the material, as well as for the Memorial for the burned down villages in Slovechne which was unveiled in 1980. His sculpture "The Magic Horse" which recreates the myth of the same name, was created out of cement, and was installed in 1989 at the recreation park in Schytomyr.
In May 2006, Tabachnyk's life-size statue of Adidas founder Adolf Dassler was installed at the Adi Dassler stadium in Herzogenaurach. The life-size, bronze statue was reproduced in various sizes and now also stands at the new flagship Adidas store in New York City, which is the biggest Adidas store worldwide. [4] The opening of the sculpture in New York was on 1 December 2016. [5] [6] [7] Since January 2019 another original of the statue is placed at the entrance to the Adidas-Store at 22 Avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris. [8]
In 2008, Tabachnyk won a competition with his design of the Willy Brandt Memorial in Nuremberg. The bronze sculpture is situated at Willy-Brandt-Platz, and depicts the Federal Chancellor and Nobel Prize Winner sitting on a bench. On 9 November 2009, the sculpture was unveiled by Ulrich Maly, descendants of Willy Brandt including Hans-Jochen Vogel and Tabachnyk himself.
In the Aquapark of the Nuremberg Zoo, a bronze sculpture of group of polar bears can be seen since 11 May 2007. [9] The group contains a bear mother playing with her child.
A further bear sculpture which was unveiled in November 2010 in the entrance area of Nuremberg zoo, and carries the title "Brown little bear with a worm". The sculpture displays a small brown bear lying down on his back playing with a worm.
Since November 2012, the bronze sculpture "The Tree of Life" has been standing in the residential area of the Nuremberg zoo. Within the tree, different generations which play a role in the life cycle are depicted and their meanings are implied. [10]
At the end of 2011, Tabachnyk's winning sculpture of "Knut the Dreamer" was unveiled in the Berlin Zoological Garden. [11] It consists of a bronze-cast polar bear, which lies on two ice-sheets made from white granite. On 24 October 2012 Bernhard Blaszkiewitz and Josef Tabachnyk jointly unveiled the 1.40-meter-long and 1.15-meter-wide figure near the polar bear enclosure. [12]
Tabachnyk's Kicker Statue which depicts a football player performing a backwards overheard kick was unveiled on 22 May 2014 in front of the newly designed Kicker Sport Magazine building in Nuremberg's Badstraße.
Miscellaneous works Josef Tabachnyk created a sculpture series titled "Small memorials for great people", which includes depictions of Albert Einstein, Jakob Wasserman, Hermann Kesten and Sigmund Freud.
The Como Park Zoo and Marjorie McNeely Conservatory are located in Como Park at 1225 Estabrook Drive, Saint Paul, Minnesota. The park, zoo and conservatory are owned by the City of Saint Paul and are a division of Saint Paul Parks and Recreation. Its attractions include the zoo, the conservatory, an amusement park, a carousel, Lake Como, a golf course, a pool and more. The park receives more than 1.9 million visitors annually. Como Park is a free park and while no admission fee is charged for the zoo or conservatory, voluntary donations of $4 per adult and $2 child are suggested.
Adolf "Adi" Dassler was a German cobbler, inventor, and businessman who founded the German sportswear company Adidas. He was also the younger brother of Rudolf Dassler, founder of Puma. Dassler was an innovator in athletic shoe design and one of the early promoters who obtained endorsements from athletes to drive sales of his products. As a result of his concepts, Adi Dassler built the largest manufacturer of sportswear and equipment. At the time of his death, Adidas had 17 factories and annual sales of one billion marks.
Anna Vaughn Huntington was an American sculptor who was among New York City's most prominent sculptors in the early 20th century. At a time when very few women were successful artists, she had a thriving career. Hyatt Huntington exhibited often, traveled widely, received critical acclaim at home and abroad, and won multiple awards and commissions.
Nuremberg Zoo is a zoo located in the Nuremberg Reichswald, southeast of Nuremberg, Germany. With an area of 67 hectares, approximately 300 animal species are kept by the zoo.
Knut was an orphaned polar bear born in captivity at the Berlin Zoological Garden. Rejected by his mother at birth, he was raised by zookeepers. He was the first polar bear cub to survive past infancy at the Berlin Zoo in more than 30 years. At one time the subject of international controversy, he became a tourist attraction and commercial success. After the German tabloid newspaper Bild ran a quote from an animal rights activist that decried keeping the cub in captivity, fans worldwide rallied in support of his being hand-raised by humans. Children protested outside the zoo, and e-mails and letters expressing sympathy for the cub's life were sent from around the world.
The Mahatma Gandhi Memorial is a 2002 public sculpture by Gautam Pal located at the Milwaukee County Courthouse in downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States.
The 107th Infantry Memorial is an outdoor bronze sculpture and memorial located at the intersection of East 67th Street and Fifth Avenue in Central Park, in Manhattan, New York, United States, which honors members of the 107th Infantry who died during World War I. Created by the sculptor Karl Morningstar Illava (1896–1954), who "drew from his own experience serving as a sergeant with the 107th," according to the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, the sculpture cost an estimated $60,000 at the time of its construction, depicts the actions of seven World War I-era soldiers, and rests on a 25-foot-wide stepped granite base designed by architects Rogers & Haneman.
The London Troops War Memorial, located in front of the Royal Exchange in the City of London, commemorates the men of London who fought in World War I and World War II.
A 1965 memorial bust of John F. Kennedy by Jacques Lipchitz stands in the lobby of International Students House on Great Portland Street in London, England, and is visible from the outside through the glass doors. It was moved there in April 2019 from its original location on the Marylebone Road, to the west of Great Portland Street underground station, after it was vandalised in 2017.
A life-size bronze statue of Jan Smuts by the British artist Jacob Epstein stands on the north side of Parliament Square in London, United Kingdom, between a statue of Lord Palmerston and a statue of David Lloyd George.
The statue of George Canning in Parliament Square, Westminster, London, is an 1832 work by Sir Richard Westmacott.
The Harriet Tubman Memorial, also known as Swing Low, located in Manhattan in New York City, honors the life of abolitionist Harriet Tubman. The intersection at which it stands was previously a barren traffic island, and is now known as "Harriet Tubman Triangle". As part of its redevelopment, the traffic island was landscaped with plants native to New York and to Tubman's home state of Maryland, representing the land which she and her Underground Railroad passengers travelled across.
The Willy Brandt Memorial at the Willy Brandt Place in Nuremberg remembers the former Federal Chancellor and Nobel Peace Prize winner Willy Brandt. The bronze sculpture, which is sitting on a bench, was opened on 9 November 2009 in Anwesenheit by Ulrich Maly, Josef Tabachnyk and numerous contemporaries of Brandt, such as Hans-Jochen Vogel.
The Statue of Adolf Dassler is a life-size sculpture, which was erected in May 2006 at the Adi Dassler stadium in Herzogenaurach. The sculpture portrays the founder of the sporting goods company Adidas, and was created by sculptor Josef Tabachnyk. The statue sits like a spectator on a stand within the stadium, which is located next to the main entrance of the Adidas headquarters in Herzogenaurach. After the sculpture opening in 2006, the sculpture of its founder has often been used as a symbol for the company and its roots in producing sports shoes in the 1920s.
The Kicker Statue is a sculpture created by sculptor Josef Tabachnyk. It stands in front of the new building of the Kicker sport magazine at Badstraße in Nuremberg. It depicts a football player performing a bicycle kick, where the player performs a kick of the ball with his foot above his head. The statue was erected on 22 May 2014 and Toni Schnell, Josef Tabachnyk and numerous employees of the Kicker sport magazine were present.
The memorial for the victims of war stands at the mass grave for the Jews who were shot in Novohrad-Volynskyi in the Second World War that began in September 1939. The monument was created by the artist Josef Tabachnyk who makes monuments and sculptures.
The Memorial for the Victims of Fascism, also called Memorial for the Victims of the Concentration Camps or Memorial for the Victims of Fascism in Bogunskiy-Forrest, was erected in 1996 in the district of Boguniya in the city of Schytomyr in Ukraine. The sculpture's creators are the sculptor Josef Tabachnyk and the architect Peter Biryuk.
The Statue of Robert Baden-Powell is a granite carving of Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of Scouting, at Baden-Powell House in Queen's Gate, South Kensington, London, England. The statue was created by the English sculptor Don Potter in 1960 and was installed and unveiled in 1961. It now stands in Gilwell Park, the home of Scouting, following the sale of Baden-Powell House in 2021.
The Lafayette Memorial is a public memorial located in Brooklyn's Prospect Park in New York City. The memorial, designed by sculptor Daniel Chester French and architect Henry Bacon, was dedicated in 1917 and consists of a bas-relief of Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette alongside a groom and a horse.
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