Joseph Tomanek
American (1889-1974)
Joseph Tomanek was born in Czechoslovakia in 1889. He studied at the School of Design in Prague. Tomanek immigrated to the United States around the turn of the century and settled in Chicago. He attended the Art Institute of Chicago and studied with Antonin Sterba, Albert Krehbiel and Karl Albert Buehr. Tomanek was a member of the Bohemian Artist Club, the Association of Chicago Painters, and Sculptors, and the Chicago Gallery Association. His works were exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Bohemian Artist Club, the Chicago Gallery Association, where he won a prize, and at the Palette and Chisel Academy of Fine Arts, where he won the gold medal in 1939. His work is in the collection of the Vanderpoel Art Association, Chicago.
Best known for his paintings of nude figures against lush foliage or marine backgrounds, Tomanek also painted floral still lifes, as well as religious subjects of which many were painted for local Roman Catholic churches. One of his murals, 50 feet long, was installed at the altar of St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Forest Park.
