From sacred art to modern art
For a long time, pictorial art in Slovakia has been a domain reserved for the sacred, like the famous altar of the Church of St. James made by Master Paul of Levoča (1480-1546), a jewel of Gothic painting. Until the 19th century, sacred art and portraits were thus the most common expressions.
Slovak painting developed formally in the course of the 19th century. One of the most important figures of this period is Ladislav Mednansky (1852-1919), representative of Slovak Impressionism. Two other painters of this period, trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, express the birth of Slovak nationalism in the arts: Peter Michal Bohuň (1822-1879) and Jozef Božetech Klemens (1817-1883).
In the 20th century, there was no predominant artistic movement in Slovakia as such. The works of Slovak artists bear the hallmarks of the major Western currents. Examples include Šimerová-Martinčeková (1905-2005), inspired by the French cubist movement, and the surrealist Imro Weiner-Kráľ (1901-1978). Others are influenced by local folk iconography, reinterpreted in the light of modernism, such as Ľudovít Fulla (1902-1980), whose work can be admired at Ľudovít Fulla Gallery in Ružomberok, and Martin Benka (1888-1971). The latter, nicknamed "the alchemist of Slovak beauty" by his contemporaries, was a major influence on the artists of his time as well as on future generations. Benka studied with the Czech artist Alois Kalvoda, and inherited his attachment to the Art Nouveau style and Impressionism. The artist explores local landscapes, depicted with soft colours and highlighting peasant work, or traditional interiors with a warm atmosphere. In addition to his paintings and drawings, he devotes himself to music, illustration, stamps, sgraffiti, etc., leaving an important mark in the culture of his country. Another figure of modern Slovak painting is Koloman Sokol (1902-2003), who only gained international recognition in the 1980s with his style inspired by the German expressionists.
Under the communist regime, the creation of the SNG, the Slovak National Gallery, made it possible to disseminate and acquire contemporary creations and to contribute to the support of creation, although this was limited to works validated by the government. Today, it remains one of the most important places for art enthusiasts passing through Bratislava, and the works of most of the aforementioned artists can be admired there. Another of the key places to discover local modern art is the Nedbalka Gallery, which offers a unique panorama of Slovak painting and sculpture in a magnificent architectural setting (it is often compared to the Guggenheim Museum in New York).The fall of the Soviet bloc, a new breath for Slovak contemporary art
With the weakening of Soviet influence in the 1980s and the collapse of the Eastern bloc, the arts were liberalized and the 1990s saw an explosion of new forms of expression. New mediums such as performance, installation and video art became popular at the same time as political discourse was loosened. Although the Slovak art scene is not as attractive as that of its Austrian, Polish or Romanian neighbors, the country is slowly asserting itself, carried by a dynamic youth connected to Western cultural centers. Artistic activity is concentrated in Bratislava, where galleries, museums and art centers play an important role in the promotion and recognition of these artists. We recommend the Kunsthalle Bratislava, the Zahorian & Van Espen Gallery and the Danubiana Meulensteen Art Museum, in the south of the city. Outside the capital, the Kunsthalle/Hala Umenia
in Košice offers a very good program. Many contemporary Slovak artists have passed through the Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava, as is the case of Blažej Baláž, who has since become a professor there. Born in 1958, this internationally renowned artist is considered one of the fathers of Slovak contemporary art and explores various mediums: painting, performance, drawing, printed image, mail art, etc. His work, often described as "neo-classical", is often seen as a work of art. His work, often described as "neo-conceptual", has a strong political dimension and explores social and environmental issues. He is particularly known for his singular use of text as a medium. Several of his works are in the collection of the Slovak National Gallery.Slovak and Czech photography, a dialogue in constant renewal
Slovakian photography has a close relationship with Czech photography, with many Czech photographers having taught in Slovakia and, conversely, many Slovakian photographers living in Prague. However, Slovak photography has not developed in the shadow of Czech photography; it has its own unique characteristics.
For a long time under the influence of the aesthetic dictates imposed by the Soviet regime, Slovakian photography did not really flourish until after the Velvet Revolution of 1989. But as we shall see, during the course of the 20th century there were several artists or groups of artists whose work was characterized by great creativity in the face of the political constraints they faced. Thus, alongside official propaganda photography, a social documentary photography escaping from ideological prejudices developed, seeking to highlight a sublimated Slovak reality. The photography bears witness to the changes that have taken place in Slovak society, which was mainly rural in the 1920s and then mainly industrial in the late 1990s, and the impact this has had on the daily lives of its inhabitants.
One of the first great Slovak art photographers was Milos Dohnany (1904-1944). Influenced by classical modernism, his images with dynamic angles and sharp contrasts compose still lifes from industrial objects and materials,
cardboard packages, moulded glass, corrugated cardboard, giving them an almost abstract appearance.Under political restrictions, the 1950s and 1960s were marked by a return to the emphasis on everyday poetry, with images depicting the streets of Bratislava or its inhabitants, with portraits of passers-by, lovers or children. The photographs of Jan Cifra (1929-1959), astonishingly tender and simple, are representative of this period. They show musicians struggling against snowstorms or looking through a fogged-up coffee window, old women chatting, children in a merry-go-round, etc. Martin Martincek, for his part, endeavours to illustrate the Slovak rurality and the great misery in which these people live. Cemeteries, fields, misty villages, characters worn out by work, dying traditions are all subjects on which the artist looks to sublimate them in spite of the surrounding misfortune.
The late 1970s and 1980s were an explosive period for apolitical and experimental Slovak photography. The situation is reversed with regard to Czech photography, as Slovak artists move closer to the trends of the international avant-garde and rub shoulders with conceptualism, while Czechs remain more classical, focused on social themes. Some now speak of a "Slovak New Wave", represented by photographers such as Jano Pavlík, Rudo Prekop, Vasil Stanko, Tono Stano, Martin Štrba, Miro Švolík, Kamil Varga and Peter Župník who studied at the renowned Prague Film Academy (FAMU), which also has a section dedicated to photography. Their style is not documentary, as it is mostly the case in this school, but is generally staged. As their work cannot be directly political, they turn to personal worlds, but nevertheless show a great desire for freedom. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, photography was radically liberalised, with works such as those by Jana Zelibska, for example, who took erotic photographs that she cut out, retouched or completed by inserting light bulbs into the models' private parts. The decadent images of this period are charged with a mysticism, a whimsical and exaggerated theatricality that illustrates the end of an era.
