John C. Hardy
John C. Hardy, an artist and teacher who lived in SoHo and Springs, died of complications from a stroke at Beth Israel Hospital in New York City on Oct. 10 in the company of Joan Semmel, his companion for the past 21 years. He was 91.
Mr. Hardy, who received a Bachelor of Visual Arts degree from Georgia State College in 1969, began exhibiting his work shortly thereafter and maintained an active career for more than four decades, with exhibitions at galleries and museums in the United States and abroad. His work is represented in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum, the High Museum in Atlanta, the National Museum of American Art, the U.S. State Department, and many others, both public and private.
He taught drawing and painting from 1958 to 1981, first at the Atlanta College of Art, and subsequently at the College of Architecture at the Georgia Institute of Technology and at New York University.
A figurative painter known especially for his portraits, cityscapes, and sea?scapes, his work captured the depth and complexity of his subjects with empathy, humor, and, in some cases, astute social commentary. According to Gail Levin, an art historian, professor, and author specializing in the art of the 20th and 21st centuries, “Like those of [Edward] Hopper and [Reginald] Marsh, Hardy’s paintings often imply multi-layered meanings, enabling him to distill the essence of a cultural moment. . . . He selects and manipulates with an uncanny power, achieving ironic realism.”
Writing in The Star in 2006, Robert Long cited Mr. Hardy’s “masterful eye for the dynamics of Manhattan architecture and the city’s ambience . . . the swarming, dirty streets, the yellow honk of taxis, the stolid, grimy brownstones. You sense the grit and charged air.”
Mr. Hardy was born in Tours, France, on March 23, 1923, to Charles Crum Hardy and the former Jacqueline Gadois. He lived in Brooklyn from age 1 to 6, when his family relocated to suburban Long Island. His mother died when he was 8, after which he was sent to live with another family in Roanoke, Va., while his father remained in New York. As a teenager, he lived with an aunt in Guilford, N.C.
In 1942, he married Betty Blackman, with whom he lived for 26 years and raised four children. He served in the Army from 1940 to 1945, spending 16 months in Europe during World War II. At age 52, he moved to New York City with Page Ogden, to whom he was married for 12 years. He subsequently lived with Naomi Lionni, who died in 1992.
Mr. Hardy was an avid traveler and fisherman, according to Ms. Semmel, who is also an artist, and was “known for his charm, his soft-spoken manner, and his support of other artists. He truly followed his own path, living life passionately and continuing to paint even into his last years.”
In addition to Ms. Semmel, he is survived by five children, Jacqueline Gadois, Andre Hardy, Mike Hardy, Elizabeth Beahm, and Blanche Pedroza, and by four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Mr. Hardy’s ashes were scattered at Louse Point in Springs on Sunday. A memorial to celebrate his life will be held on Nov. 9 at 2:30 p.m. at the Rose Auditorium at Cooper Union in New York City.