A new gallery in Atlanta, Sonny Hardman Fine Arts, brings a fresh perspective to local collectors and art lovers through a focus on Eastern European fine art paintings. This is the first time physician Sonny Hardman has opened a gallery, but it is by far not his first foray into the fine art world. His initial collection at the new gallery focuses on late 18th- to mid-20th-century artwork from Poland, Ukraine and Russia.

The gallery is a small, exclusive venue with private shopping by appointment only. People can get a taste of some of the artwork on display in the gallery by viewing the website, but the inventory is always changing and expanding. “I wanted to make the gallery special for visitors and not just a series of white-walled rooms, so I spread the paintings throughout the library and other sections of my own home so people can view them at leisure in a home setting,” Hardman says. His wife, Lilya, was born in Russia and stoked his interest in art from this part of Europe.

Hardman’s approach to stocking the gallery is thoughtful, as he takes the time to find the right artwork that falls into his area of Eastern European focus. The slow buildup is characteristic of how he has approached his involvement in art from a very young age. “I first became interested in original artwork at age 12. I would say fine art has always been a passion for me. I’m a visual person, which initially attracted me to art. When I got my driver’s license, I would drive from my home in Athens to Atlanta to look at original paintings in museums and galleries. Of course, at that age, most everything was out of my price range. Odd jobs during the summers earned me enough money to buy small pieces,” Hardman says.

Later, while attending medical school and throughout his subsequent career as a pathologist, Hardman and his wife continued to collect fine art and spent much time reading artists’ biographies and art history books to continue adding to their knowledge base about their passion. When Hardman retired from serving as a physician, he decided to devote himself full time to the art world, which until then had only been a hobby as a collector and novice painter. “After trying my hand at painting, I really began to appreciate even more the struggle of painting. It looks easy, but it definitely is not,” he says.

Before launching a gallery, Hardman decided to invest the time to learn more about the art industry and obtain an official degree about the business of running an art gallery. He applied and was accepted to Sotheby’s Institute of Art master’s degree program in New York City. World-renowned art experts teach at the school in a city that is one of the most connected places on the globe to study the arts. Its vibrant arts scene, with thousands of auction houses, galleries, museums and art foundations, is a wonderful backdrop for art instruction and for attracting influential professors. “I was fortunate enough to have an art finance professor from Harvard,” Hardman says. While there, he studied relevant subjects such as art history, law and finance, earning his degree earlier this year. He also participated in trips abroad, including to Venice, Milan and Madrid, to visit famous museums and learn more about European art.

“I made lots of curator, entrepreneur and gallery owner contacts just by being in New York City. There was also the chance to learn the inner workings and structure of art auctions,” says Hardman.

His master’s thesis dovetailed perfectly with his former profession of pathology. He researched and wrote a thesis about pathologist Santiago Ramón y Cajal, who won the Nobel Prize in 1906 for his neuroscience discoveries. The Nobel Prize laureate wanted to be an artist but was instead persuaded by his father to work in the medical field. “His prolific sketches drawn while looking through a microscope added human flair to the body of research on cells. He in turn influenced surreal artists such as Salvador Dalí, Leonora Carrington and René Magritte,” Hardman explains.

Hardman’s medical background also greatly influences his passion for original art and his new career as a gallery owner. “Both pathology and art curation have a visual aspect to them,” he explains. “Ninety-five percent of a pathologist’s job is visual, looking in the microscope to make patient diagnoses. In both fields, I often can see things that others struggle to see. That visual aspect and how each painting tells a story through movement and action is what attracted me at a young age to fine art.”

Collectors of Eastern European art will benefit from Hardman’s ability to procure special pieces through art auctions, estate sales and a connection he has fostered with a Russian community in Chattanooga, Tennessee. For now, the gallery will remain focused on art from the three countries of Poland, Ukraine and Russia from the late 1700s to the mid-1900s, but Hardman has plans to expand the focus in the future to contemporary and abstract art. He also is interested in pencil and charcoal preparatory drawings of famous paintings from the 1800s and 1900s. “I love to look at the thinking process encompassed in these drawings. The psychology of them is so interesting. Many of the early drawings don’t look like the final painting at all,” Hardman says. He already has acquired a few of these preparatory drawings for the gallery and its collectors.

Hardman points out a few pieces of artwork of note currently hanging in the gallery, including After the Storm, Winter Day and Winter in Lizyukova Street. He explains: “Lilya, being from that part of the world, says these scenes are very realistic, such as the color of the snow. She says the way the sun reflects off of the snow in the artwork makes her feel homesick. The gilded gold-leaf frames on some of these paintings are very beautiful and must be seen in person.”

Another favorite is At the Riding School, which depicts a military parade in Moscow’s Manege Square and a fortified Kremlin at a critical point in its history, after Moscow began to rebuild the Square after its burning in 1812 before Napoleon’s approach. “The church on the right side in the painting was dismantled and relocated to the Square. Later, during Soviet rule, it was destroyed in order to build railroad tracks,” Hardman explains.

Hardman’s interest in history, its portrayal through original paintings, and his meticulous concentration on specific Eastern European artwork are a welcome addition to the Atlanta art scene. *

Dana W. Todd is a professional writer specializing in interior design, real estate, luxury homebuilding, landscape design, architecture and art.