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.
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. The opening of the sculpture in New York was on 1 December 2016. 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.
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. press release of the Nuremberg Zoo, 2007 (PDF; 24 kB) 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.article 'Lebensbaum blüht ständig', newspaper ' Nürnberger Nachrichten', 6 November 2012, page 25
At the end of 2011, Tabachnyk's winning sculpture of "Knut the Dreamer" was unveiled in the Berlin Zoological Garden. Monument for polar bear. 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.
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.
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